Archives For literature quotes

sempiternal – adj. Enduring forever; eternal. From Latin sempiternus, from semper always + aeternuseternal

roborative – adj. Who Strengthens; fortifying. From Latin roborare to consolidate

recriminatory – adj. To counter one accusation with another. From re- + Latin crīmināre, to accuse

obligingly – adv. Ready to do favors for others; accommodating; in accommodation

interminable – adj. Being or seeming to be without an end; endless. From Late Latin interminābilis

quittances – n. Release from debt or other obligation; a receipt or other document certifying this. From Old French quiter to free

commodious – adj. Spacious; roomy; Archaic Suitable; handy. From Latin commodus convenient

gimcrack – n. A cheap and showy object of little or no use; a gewgaw. adj. Cheap and tasteless; gaudy. From Middle English gibecrake, small ornament

epaulette – n. A shoulder ornament, especially a fringed strap worn on military uniforms. From Latin spatula shoulder blade

neume – n. any of various symbols representing from one to four notes, used in the notation of Gregorian chant. From Greek pneuma breath

 

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

Niccolò Machiavelli

 

Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas.

Patrick O’Brian, The Hundred Days

I have had such a sickening of men in masses, and of causes, that I would not cross this room to reform parliament or prevent the union or to bring about the millennium. I speak only for myself, mind – it is my own truth alone – but man as part of a movement or a crowd is indifferent to me. He is inhuman. And I have nothing to do with nations, or nationalism. The only feelings I have – for what they are – are for men as individuals; my loyalties, such as they may be, are to private persons alone.

Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves