A garland of quotations XL
Culled from the finest ignorami in literary history, and re-woven every Wednesday
Kiss me, sweet, for who knoweth
What thing cometh after death!
•William Morris, “Love and Death” (1870).
“If thou didst but know as much as I know, thou wouldst fly in to me through the window,” said the Princess to the dove.
•Andrew Lang, ed., The Red Fairy Book (1890).
If you had been where I’d been
You’d have seen the fairy queen;
If you’d been where I’d been
You’d have been out.
•children’s rhyme, quoted in Iona & Peter Opie, Children’s Games in Street and Playground (1969).
“Everything,” my husband said obscurely, “is either true or false or one of your mother’s delusions.”
•Shirley Jackson, Just an Ordinary Day (1997).
There was no doubt that Sally’s mind worked in unusual ways. Once, as children, she and Joanne played a game to Twenty Questions. Joanne became more and more irritated—she hated mysteries—and finally announced she was quitting. “I can’t get the answer, it’s impossible,” she said. ¶ Sally grinned triumphantly. “That’s because I change it with every question,” she crowed.
•Judy Oppenheimer, Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson (1988).
The light dove, cleaving the air in her free flight, and feeling its resistance, might imagine that its flight would be easier in empty space.
•Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781).
The torch of chaos and doubt—this is what the sage steers by.
•Zhuang Zhou (C4 BC).
It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.
•Salvador Dalí, Dalí (1968).
Knowledge of the spirit world is to be obtained by divination; information in natural science may be sought by inductive reasoning; the laws of the universe can be verified by mathematical calculation; but the disposition of an enemy are ascertainable through spies and spies alone.
•Mei Yaochen, Commentary on The Art of War (C11).
If you tell somebody what to do, they will do it. All you have to do is know what to do. Because nobody else knows.
•Walker Percy, Lancelot (1977).
References: Morris: A Book of Verses (Clarkson N. Potter, 1981); Zhuang: op. cit.; Mei: quoted in L. Giles, ed., Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (B&N 2003); some of this material is copyrighted, and I plead only fair use.