Juvenal, on poetry
“Where talent is lacking, anger writes poetry.”
Juvenal, on poetry
“Where talent is lacking, anger writes poetry.”
Virgil, from the Georgics (29 BC)
“Look with favor upon a bold beginning.”
Horace, from the Odes (23-13 B.C.)
“In adversity, remember to keep an even mind.”
Jack Churchill, in a letter to his brother Winston S. Churchill, from Gallipoli (9 May 1915)
“In this war the wounded are very prominent. As you land you have step over stretchers on the little improvised jetty, and there seem to be blood and bandages all over the beach.”
Sgt. D Moriarty, 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, British Expeditionary Force (25 April 1915)
“Landed on Turkish soil under a terrific fire from enemy entrenchments. Battalion lost about 17 killed and 200 wounded. I lay in the open from 7am till 5pm and did not get a scratch. Dug ourselves in that night; snipers going all night but we did not return their fire. Food for 24hrs: two biscuits and some water.”
Winston S. Churchill, on the Gallipoli campaign (26 April 1915)
“A valiant & successful attack like this may go well for a time; but there must be stuffing behind & inside it … Remember every minute of this is history: and every attack requires backing.”
William Shakespeare, from “The Taming of the Shrew”
“Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.”
Igor Stravinsky, on inspiration
“Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.”
G.M. Trevelyan, on curiosity (from English Social History, 1942)
“Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life-blood of real civilisation.”
Joseph Addison, on happiness (from The Spectator)
“True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise.”