Quotes by Dramatists - Page 4

Things are seldom what they seem Skim milk masquerades as cream.
W.S. Gilbert
It is not death we fear but the thought of it.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
The good things that belong to prosperity are to be wished but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Fire is the test of gold adversity of strong men.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Brave men rejoice in adversity just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Did nothing in particular And did it very well.
W.S. Gilbert
What must be shall be and that which is a necessity to him that struggles is little more than choice to him that is willing.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
The great soul surrenders itself to fate.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Thomas Haynes Bayly
What! because we are poor Shall we be vicious?
John Webster
I was most happy when pen and paper were taken from me and I was forbidden from doing anything. I had no anxiety about doing nothing by my own fault, my conscience was clear, and I was happy. This was when I was in prison.
Daniil Kharms
A lonely impulse of delight
W.B. Yeats
Lovers die inward that their flames conceal.
John Webster
Integrity of life is fame's best friend,Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.
John Webster
Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.
W.B. Yeats
Twas easier to disarm the god of strengthThan this Hippolytus, for HerculesYielded so often to the eyes of beauty,As to make triumph cheap.― Jean Racine, Phèdre
Jean Racine
Surely some revelation is at hand.
W.B. Yeats
In the great cities we see so little of the world, we drift into our minority. In the little towns and villages there are no minorities; people are not numerous enough. You must see the world there, perforce. Every man is himself a class; every hour carries its new challenge. When you pass the inn at the end of the village you leave your favourite whimsy behind you; for you will meet no one who can share it. We listen to eloquent speaking, read books and write them, settle all the affairs of the universe. The dumb village multitudes pass on unchanging; the feel of the spade in the hand is no different for all our talk: good seasons and bad follow each other as of old. The dumb multitudes are no more concerned with us than is the old horse peering through the rusty gate of the village pound. The ancient map-makers wrote across unexplored regions, 'Here are lions.' Across the villages of fishermen and turners of the earth, so different are these from us, we can write but one line that is certain, 'Here are ghosts.' ("Village Ghosts")
W.B. Yeats
For her own breakfast she'll project a scheme,Nor take her tea without a strategem.
Edward Young
The hound and hare were both so wearied that the peasant got them all.
Luo Guanzhong
Just introduce a woman, conspiracies succeed; Of soldiers, or their weapons, there really is no need.
Luo Guanzhong
Then the woman in the bed sat up and looked about her with wild eyes; and the oldest of the old men said: 'Lady, we have come to write down the names of the immortals,’ and at his words a look of great joy came into her face. Presently she, began to speak slowly, and yet eagerly, as though she knew she had but a little while to live, and, in English, with the accent of their own country; and she told them the secret names of the immortals of many lands, and of the colours, and odours, and weapons, and instruments of music and instruments of handicraft they held dearest; but most about the immortals of Ireland and of their love for the cauldron, and the whetstone, and the sword, and the spear, and the hills of the Shee, and the horns of the moon, and the Grey Wind, and the Yellow Wind, and the Black Wind, and the Red Wind. ("The Adoration of the Magi")
W.B. Yeats
She felt a tightness in her chest and sent for Dr Simcox.'What's the trouble?''Look out there, that's the trouble! It's so green and quiet and it's always bloody raining.''That's England, Mrs Mallard-Greene. I'm afraid there's no known cure for it.
John Mortimer
The Cat and the Moon The cat went here and thereAnd the moon spun round like a top,And the nearest kin of the moon,The creeping cat, looked up.Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,For, wander and wail as he would,The pure cold light in the skyTroubled his animal blood.Minnaloushe runs in the grassLifting his delicate feet.Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?When two close kindred meet,What better than call a dance?Maybe the moon may learn,Tired of that courtly fashion,A new dance turn.Minnaloushe creeps through the grassFrom moonlit place to place,The sacred moon overheadHas taken a new phase.Does Minnaloushe know that his pupilsWill pass from change to change,And that from round to crescent,From crescent to round they range?Minnaloushe creeps through the grassAlone, important and wise,And lifts to the changing moonHis changing eyes.
W.B. Yeats
The truly free man is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.
Jules Renard
And now he is singing a bard's curse upon you, O brother abbot, and upon your father and your mother, and your grandfather and your grandmother, nd upon all your relations.'Is he cursing in rhyme?'He is cursing in rhyme, and with two assonances in every line of his curse.'("The Crucifixion Of The Outcast")
W.B. Yeats
The Celt, and his cromlechs, and his pillar-stones, these will not change much – indeed, it is doubtful if anybody at all changes at any time. In spite of hosts of deniers, and asserters, and wise-men, and professors, the majority still are adverse to sitting down to dine thirteen at a table, or being helped to salt, or walking under a ladder, of seeing a single magpie flirting his chequered tale. There are, of course, children of light who have set their faces against all this, although even a newspaperman, if you entice him into a cemetery at midnight, will believe in phantoms, for everyone is a visionary, if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt, unlike any other, is a visionary without scratching.
W.B. Yeats
From the days of old, those who walk in the way have replaced those who deviate therefrom; those who lack virtue have fallen before those who possess it. Can one escape fate?
Luo Guanzhong
Success is not worth rejoicing over, failure is not worth grieving over.
Luo Guanzhong
Victory and defeat are but ordinary events in a soldier's career, and why should you give up?
Luo Guanzhong
Labour is blossoming or dancing whereThe body is not bruised to pleasure soul.
W.B. Yeats
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,How can we know the dancer from the dance?
W.B. Yeats
A couple of hours after Sunset Michael Robartes returned and told me that I would have to learn the steps of an exceedingly antique dance, because before my initiation could be perfected I had to join three times in a magical dance, for rhythm was the wheel of Eternity, on which alone the transient and accidental could be broken, and the spirit set free.
W.B. Yeats
ROSE of all Roses, Rose of all the World!tThe tall thought-woven sails, that flap unfurledtAbove the tide of hours, trouble the air,tAnd God’s bell buoyed to be the water’s care;tWhile hushed from fear, or loud with hope, a bandt With blown, spray-dabbled hair gather at hand.tTurn if you may from battles never done,tI call, as they go by me one by one,tDanger no refuge holds, and war no peace,tFor him who hears love sing and never cease,t Beside her clean-swept hearth, her quiet shade:tBut gather all for whom no love hath madetA woven silence, or but came to casttA song into the air, and singing pasttTo smile on the pale dawn; and gather yout Who have sought more than is in rain or dewtOr in the sun and moon, or on the earth,tOr sighs amid the wandering starry mirth,tOr comes in laughter from the sea’s sad lips;tAnd wage God’s battles in the long grey ships.t The sad, the lonely, the insatiable,tTo these Old Night shall all her mystery tell;tGod’s bell has claimed them by the little crytOf their sad hearts, that may not live nor die.tRose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!t You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurledtUpon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ringtThe bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.tBeauty grown sad with its eternitytMade you of us, and of the dim grey sea.tOur long ships loose thought-woven sails and wait,tFor God has bid them share an equal fate;tAnd when at last defeated in His wars,tThey have gone down under the same white stars,tWe shall no longer hear the little cryt Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die.The Sweet Far Thing
W.B. Yeats
THE HOST is riding from Knocknarea And over the grave of Clooth-na-bare; Caolte tossing his burning hair And Niamh calling Away, come away: Empty your heart of its mortal dream. The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round, Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound, Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are a-gleam, Our arms are waving, our lips are apart; And if any gaze on our rushing band, We come between him and the deed of his hand, We come between him and the hope of his heart. The host is rushing ’twixt night and day, And where is there hope or deed as fair? Caolte tossing his burning hair, And Niamh calling Away, come away
W.B. Yeats
The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite; this is how it has always been.
Luo Guanzhong
My fiftieth year had come and gone,I sat, a solitary man,In a crowded London shop,An open book and empty cupOn the marble table-top.While on the shop and street I gazedMy body of a sudden blazed;And twenty minutes more or lessIt seemed, so great my happiness,That I was blessed and could bless.
W.B. Yeats
Condemn you me for that the duke did love me?So may you blame some fair and crystal river, For that some melancholic distracted manHath drowned himself in’t.
John Webster
Writing about the indignities of old age: the daunting stairway to the restaurant restroom, the benefits of a wheelchair in airports and its disadvantages at cocktail parties, giving the user what he described as a child's-eye view of the party and a crotch-level view of the guests.Dying is a matter of slapstick and pratfalls. The aging process is not gradual or gentle. It rushes up, pushes you over and runs off laughing. No one should grow old who isn't ready to appear ridiculous.
John Mortimer
Whether I resolve to fire, earth, water, air, Or all the elements by scruples, I know not, Nor greatly care. - Shoot. Shoot!Of all deaths, the violent death is best;For from ourselves it steals ourselves so fast,The pain, once apprehended, is quite past.
John Webster
Danger, the spur of all great minds.
George Chapman
A hundred pounds! He couldn't remember ever having seen a hundred pounds, all at one time. He found himself envying his father, who had nothing to worry about except the future of mankind.
John Mortimer
The Mother Of GodThe threefold terror of love; a fallen flareThrough the hollow of an ear;Wings beating about the room;The terror of all terrors that I boreThe Heavens in my womb.Had I not found content among the showsEvery common woman knows,Chimney corner, garden walk,Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothesAnd gather all the talk?What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,This fallen star my milk sustains,This love that makes my heart's blood stopOr strikes a sudden chill into my bonesAnd bids my hair stand up?
W.B. Yeats
At thirty a man suspects himself a fool;Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;At fifty chides his infamous delay,Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;In all the magnanimity of thoughtResolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same.
Edward Young
To kill deliberately is very wrong,” said Chen Gong. “I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me,” was Cao Cao’s reply. Chen Gong could say nothing.
Luo Guanzhong
By all means use some time to be alone.
Edward Young
O me, this place is hell.
John Webster
When I go to hell, I mean to carry a bribe: for look you, good gifts evermore make way for the worst persons.
John Webster
lIf someone tries to steal your watch, by all means fight them off. If someone sues you for your watch, hand it over and be glad you got away so lightly.
John Mortimer
Crushed again!
W.S. Gilbert
Consider too, how deep the abyss between life and death; across this, my power can build a bridge, but it can never fill up the frightful chasm.
Ludwig Tieck
In tombs of gold and lapis lazuliBodies of holy men and women exudeMiraculous oil, odour of violet.But under heavy loads of trampled clayLie bodies of the vampires full of blood;Their shrouds are bloody and their lips are wet("Oil and Blood")
W.B. Yeats
Young men think old men are fools, but old men know young men are fools.
George Chapman
The Coming of Wisdom with TimeThough leaves are many, the root is one;Through all the lying days of my youthI swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;Now I may wither into the truth.
W.B. Yeats
I am persuaded that our intellects at twenty contain all the truths we shall ever find
W.B. Yeats
Paradise does not exist, but we must nonetheless strive to be worthy of it.
Jules Renard
Oh, the summer night / HAS A SMILE OF LIGHT / And she sits on a sapphire throne.
Barry Cornwall
I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping...I hear it in the deep heart's core.
W.B. Yeats