A garland of quotations LIX

Culled from the finest babblers in literary history, and re-woven every Wednesday

So clamorous was their applause—
“His mind” (said they) “is free of flaws:
The Veil of God is thin as gauze!”—

That almost they had dulled or drowned
The laughter (in its belly bound)
Of that dread Beast he had not found.
•Aleister Crowley, The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight and of his Following of the Questing Beast (1912).

While some discuss if near the other graves ⁠
    Be room enough for this, and when a day ⁠
    Suits best for carrying the corpse away, 
With care about the banners, scarves and staves,— 
And still the man hears all, and only craves ⁠
    He may not shame such tender love and stay. 
•Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’” (1855).

His word was still “Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.”
•Shakespeare, Lear (1606).

The company of new-comers are informed that they will now sing the Siamese National Anthem, and are carefully rehearsed with the words, which are “Oh wha ta na Siam” (or “O ye Siam anas” or “Owha tagoo Siam”). They are then instructed to sing the phrase over and over to the tune of “God Save the Queen.”
•Iona & Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959).

                …This is my feeble translation, 
time bound, of what was a single limitless Word.
•Borges, “Matthew, 25:30” (1964).

I seek the word from the Word.
•Aldhelm, Carmen de virginitate (c. 700).

They had marked themselves with the symbol in order to seek the reality of the symbol.
•C11; quoted in Harold Lamb, Iron Men and Saints (1930).

The sun which is visible to our eyes is the likeness of the intelligible and invisible sun, and again the moon which is visible to our eyes and every one of the stars are likenesses of the intelligible.
•Julian, Against the Galilaeans (363 AD).

Small lasting fame signes
A vaine name with fewest lettars.
•Elizabeth I, “Who so with hedlong mynd glory” (C16).

“Do you not care what you do? I’le make thee an example for all rogues under the sun; dost thou not see how many heads hang upon yonder tree that have offended my law! But thy head shall hang higher then all the rest for an example.” But Tom made him answer, “A turd in your teeth for your news, for you shall not find me like one of them.”
•The Pleasant History of Thomas Hic-Ka-Thrift (ca. 1690).

Sources: Borges: Selected Poems (Penguin, 2000); Aldhelm: trans. Michael Lapidge & James Rosier, Aldhelm: The Poetic Works (Brewer, 1985); Julian: trans. Wilmer Cave Wright, Julian vol. III (Loeb) (Harvard UP, 1998); Elizabeth: in Sally Purcell, ed., Monarchs and the Muse: Poems by Monarchs and Princes of England, Scotland, and Wales (Carcanet Press, 1972); Hick-Ka-Thrift: in George Laurence Gomme, ed. The History of Thomas Hickathrift (Villon Society, 1885); some of this material is copyrighted, and I plead only fair use.