Authors From England

"If you look very carefully, you may see a fairy in your garden"

"The world of fairies is all around us, though we seldom notice it"

"Fairies are very shy creatures and prefer to keep themselves hidden from human eyes"

"Fairies, elves, mermaids and water-babies inhabit the magical world created by Shirley Barber"

"You are, and haue beene feared ouer all, England's an Ile, of stoute and hardie men: Be stronge in faith, your foes downe right shall fall, For one of you, in armes shall vanquish ten."

"The Wages of Sin is Death; it's poor Wages that will not make a Man live; as Virtue is its own Reward, so Sin is its own Executioner."

"Before you act, it's Prudence soberly to consider; for after Action you cannot recede without dishonour: Take the Advice of some Prudent Friend; for he who will be his own Councellour, shall be sure to have a Fool for his Client."

"Phidias made the statue of Venus at Elis with one foot upon the shell of a tortoise, to signify two great duties of a virtuous woman, which are to keep home and be silent."

"And then the English Ministrels blew aloud their Trumpets, and sounded their Pipes, and other Instruments of Martial Musick, and Marched furiously to meet the Scots. Now to each Battail of English, were two Wings of chosen Archers, who shot this day so thick, and so home, that the Scots could by no means maintain their Order: So that the Englishmen of Arms and Footmen enter'd in among them, and beat them down by Heaps. Yet still the Scots fought valiantly; and while the Lord Archibald Douglas liv'd, kept the Field with great Courage; tho' much to their Loss: But when they saw him struck thro' the Body with a Spear, they began to flee for safeguard of their Lives, tho' to very little purpose. For when the Scotch Valets and Pages saw the Discomfiture, they ran away upon the Spur, with their Masters' Horses to save themselves, taking no Care for their Masters. But when the English men of Arms saw that, they leap'd on their Horses, and follow'd the Chace with great Fury; then were the Scotch men trodden down on all sides, their display'd Banners fell'd to the Ground, all torn and hack'd in pieces; and many a good Habergeon bathed in the Owners' Blood. Yet frequently did the Scots gather together in Companies to dispute the point with their Pursuers; but still they were discomfited. And thus, says my Author (M.S. vet. Ang. in Bibl. C.C.C. c. 224), it befell as God would, that the Scots had that day no more Power nor Might against the English, than twenty Sheep would have against five Wolves."

"[S]ome learned writers...have compared a Scorpion to an Epigram...because as the sting of the Scorpion lyeth in the tayle, so the force and vertue of an Epigram is in the conclusion."

"A fool and his money are soon parted."

"The reader must not expect in this work merely the private uninteresting history of a single town. He may expect whatever curious particulars can with any propriety be connected with it. [...] Nor must the general disquisitions and the general narratives of the prefent work be ever confidered as actually digressionary in their natures, and as merely useful in their notices. They are all united with the rest, and form proper parts of the whole. They have fome of them a necessary connexion with the history of Manchester. They have many of them an intimate relation, they have all of them a natural affinity, to it. And the author has endeavoured, by a judicious distribution of them through the work, to prevent that difgusting uniformity, and to take off that uninteresting locality, which must necessarily result from the merely barren and private annals of a town. He has thus in some measure adopted the elegant principles of modern gardening. He has thrown down the close hedges and the high walls that have hitherto confined the antiquarians of our towns in their views. He has called in the scenes of the neighbouring country to his aid, and has happily combined them into his own plan. He has drawn off the attention to the history of Manchester before it became languid and exhausted, by fetching in some objects from the county at large, or by presenting some view of the national history. But he has been cautious of multiplying objects in the wantonness of refinement, and of distracting the attention with a confused variety. He has always considered the history of Manchester as the great fixed point, as the enlivening center, of all his excursions. Every opening is therefore made to carry an actual reference, either mediate or immediate, to the reregular history of Manerester. And every visto is employed only for the useful purpose of breaking the stiff straight lines, of lighting up the dark, of heightening the little, and colouring over the lifeless, in the regular history of Manchester."

"Galileo approached the modern scientific outlook more nearly than did Kepler. Like Kepler, he believed that Nature lent itself to mathematical description, but he does not seem to have regarded the fulfillment of mathematical relations as the cause of phenomena. He regarded mathematics rather as the one and only true key that would introduce order and coherence into our sense impressions."

"Science deals with but a partial aspect of reality, and...there is no faintest reason for supposing that everything science ignores is less real than what it accepts...Why is it that science forms a closed system? Why is is that the elements of reality it ignores never come in to disturb it? The reason is that all the terms of physics are defined in terms of one another. The abstractions with which physics begins are all it ever has to do with."

"If an entity is to be considered as a scientific entity we must be able to say what would enable us to detect it. This is the basis of Einstein's objection to Newton's . There are no physical operations, according to Einstein, which enable us to distinguish absolute space. As regards absolute time, Newton himself confessed that there may be no natural processes which enable us to measure it. We can never, in the nature of things, say whether we are dealing with absolute time or not. Both these entities, therefore, are described by Einstein as metaphysical, with no real place in science."

"Misery follows sin; sin itself is misery; and the soul that sinneth dies of course, without any means taken to put that soul to death; though Divine interference would be indispensable to prevent the consequences following the cause."

"To-morrow, didst thou say? Methought I heard Horatio say, to-morrow. Go to — I will not hear of it — to-morrow! ’Tis a sharper that stakes his penury Against thy plenty — who takes thy ready cash, And pays thee naught but wishes, hopes, and promises, The currency of idiots. Injurious bankrupt, That gulls the easy creditor! to-morrow! It is a period nowhere to be found In all the hoary registers of time, Unless perchance in the fool’s calendar. Wisdom disclaims the word, nor holds society With those that own it. No, my Horatio, ’Tis fancy’s child, and folly is its father: Wrought on such stuff as dreams are; and baseless As the fantastic visions of the evening."

"Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers, We, who improve his golden hours, By sweet experience know That marriage, rightly understood, Gives to the tender and the good A paradise below."

"The Shadows now so long do grow, That Brambles like tall Cedars show, Mole-hills seem Mountains, and the Ant Appears a monstrous Elephant."

"That man is happy in his share, Who is warm clad, and cleanly fed, Whose Necessaries bound his Care, And honest Labour makes his Bed."

"... She cries I doe not love her, And tells me of her Honor; Then have I no way to disprove her, And my true passion to discover, But streight to fall upon her."

"Arrest the present moments; For be assur'd they are all arrant tell-tales; And though their flight be silent, and their path trackless As the wing'd couriers of the air, They post to heaven, and there record their folly — Because, tho' station'd on the important watch, Thou, like a sleeping, faithless sentinel, Didst let them pass unnotic'd, unimprov'd. And know, for that thou slumber'st on the guard, Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar For every fugitive: and when thou thus Shalt stand impleaded at the high tribunal Of hood-wink'd justice, who shall tell thy audit? Then stay the present instant, dear Horatio, Imprint the marks of wisdom on its wings; 'Tis of more worth than kingdoms! far more precious Than all the crimson treasures of life's fountain. Oh! let it not elude thy grasp, but, like The good old patriarch upon record, Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee."

"No, hang me if I ever marry, Till Womankind grow stancher, I do delight delights to vary, And love not in one Hulk to tarry, But only Trim and Launch her."

"Woman, man’s greatest woe, or bliss, Does ofter far, than serve, enslave, And with the Magick of a Kiss, Destroys whom she was made to save."

"I vow to strive to apply my professional skills only to projects which, after conscientious examination, I believe to contribute to the goal of coexistence of all human beings in peace, human dignity and self-fulfillment. I believe that this goal requires the provision of an adequate supply of the necessities of life (good food, air, water, clothing and housing, access to natural and man-made beauty), education, and opportunities to enable each person to work out for himself his life objectives and to develop creativeness and skill in the use of hands as well as head. I vow to struggle through my work to minimise danger; noise; strain or invasion of privacy of the individual; pollution of earth, air or water; destruction of natural beauty, mineral resources and wildlife."

"My state is more advanc’d than when I first attempted thee; I su’d to be a Servant then, But now to be made free."

"My infant love could humbly wait, When young it scarce knew how To plead; but grown to Man's estate, He is impatient now."

"The whole point I am making is that a hard, irreducible sense of our own self-awareness has been progressively denied us by the inroads of science both as a form and as a creator of our society."

"An adolescent act of defiance has now become a familiar form of virtue. 'Going with the flow' has become an imperative, a clear version of the good life. Change is sentimentally evoked in popular fictions. We 'change' to move on from tragedy or difficulty, we 'change' to overcome trauma, we are frequently told to accept 'change' as some perennial fact of life, the contemplation of which brings wisdom. Virtuous change is the ethic of the soap opera and the ne plus ultra of the advice column."

"It would be unfair to suggest that one of the most characteristic sounds of the English Sunday is the sound of Harold Hobson barking up the wrong tree."

"The United States, I believe, are under the impression that they are twenty years in advance of this country; whilst, as a matter of actual verifiable fact, of course, they are just about six hours behind it."

"Scientists need to be observed and criticized more than any other members of society. I say this not just because of the horrors that might emerge from their laboratories, but also because of the necessity for making them as morally and philosophically answerable as the rest of us."

"Science is not a neutral or innocent commodity which can be employed as a convenience by people wishing to partake only of the West's material power. Rather it is spiritually corrosive, burning away ancient authorities and traditions. It has shown itself unable to co-exist with anything. Scientists inevitably take on the mantle of the wizards, sorcerers and witch-doctors. Their miracle cures are our spells, their experiments our rituals."

"Speak from your heart...Be bold, yet not overbold."

"It is strange, sometimes, to find that some silent old lady has a power for sounding human character, which far shrewder persons lack."

"Philosophers tell us that the value of existence lies not in the objects perceived, but in the powers of perception."

"Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly is not freedom, except in the minds of those who prefer darkness to light, and chains to liberty. The more true information we can acquire, the better for our enfranchisement."

"I agree that your troubles are real enough. But all the better. ... I think that the Authorities are pleased sometimes 'to give us something to cry for.' ... Most of us cry without anything. ... And I think that the insane desire one has sometimes to bang and kick grumblers and peevish persons, is a Divine instinct. ... Ergo. ... Therefore thank Them that you something to cry for. One doesn't get far without it."

"She has been taught to hold herself in, and not to show her feelings; and that, I think, is as much a drawback sometimes as wearing the heart upon the sleeve."

"The tragedy of a child over a broken doll is not less poignant than the anguish of a worshipper over a broken idol, or of a king over a ruined realm."

"The Holy Father was attended at the altar by the usual sovereigns; and Percy from his place watched the heavenly drama of Christ’s Passion enacted through the veil of His nativity at the hands of His old Angelic Vicar. It was hard to perceive Calvary here ; it was surely the air of Bethlehem, the celestial light, not the supernatural darkness, that beamed round the simple altar. It was the Child called Wonderful that lay there beneath the old hands, rather than the stricken Man of Sorrows."

"We offer no rewards except those which God Himself has promised to those that love Him, and lay down their life for Him; no promise of peace, save of that which passeth understanding; no home save that which befits pilgrims and sojourners who seek a City to come; no honour save the world’s contempt; no life, save that which is hid with Christ in God."

"Might not this mystic Birth once more do what it had done before—bring into subjection through the might of its weakness every proud thing that exalts itself above all that is called God? It had drawn wise Kings once across the desert, as well as shepherds from their flocks. It had kings about it now, kneeling with the poor and foolish, kings who had laid down their crowns, who brought the gold of loyal hearts, the myrrh of desired martyrdom, and the incense of a pure faith. Could not republics, too, lay aside their splendour, mobs be tamed, selfishness deny itself, and wisdom confess its ignorance?"

"Men have thought—led astray by seducers—that the unity of nations was the greatest prize of this life, forgetting the words of our Saviour, Who said that He came to bring not peace but a sword, and that it is through many tribulations that we enter God’s Kingdom. First, then, there should be established the peace of man with God, and after that the unity of man with man will follow. Seek ye first, said Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God—and then all these things shall be added unto you."

"Huge principles, once bewildering and even repellent, were again luminously self-evident; he saw, for example, that while Humanity-Religion endeavoured to abolish suffering the Divine Religion embraced it, so that the blind pangs even of beasts were within the Father’s Will and Scheme; or that while from one angle one colour only of the web of life was visible—material, or intellectual, or artistic—from another the Supernatural was as eminently obvious. Humanity-Religion could only be true if at least half of man’s nature, aspirations and sorrows were ignored. Christianity, on the other hand, at least included and accounted for these, even if it did not explain them. This ... and this ... and this ... all made the one and perfect who. There was the Catholic Faith, more certain to him than the existence of himself: it was true and alive. He might be damned, but God reigned. He might go mad, but Jesus Christ was Incarnate Deity, proving Himself so by death and Resurrection, and John his Vicar. These things were as the bones of the Universe—facts beyond doubting—if they were not true, nothing anywhere was anything but a dream."

"He pictured the peace of the ransomed soul, that knows itself safe in the arms of God; that rejoices, even in this world, in the Light of His Face and the ecstasy of His embrace; that dwells by waters of comfort and lies down in the green pastures of the Heavenly Love; while, round this little island of salvation in an ocean of terror, the thunders of wrath sound only as the noise of surge on a far-off reef."

"The Three Evangelical Counsels shall be the foundation of the Rule, to which we add a fourth intention, namely, that of a desire to receive the crown of martyrdom and a purpose of embracing it."

"The car was now ascending rapidly towards the pass up across the huge tumbled slopes, ravines, and cliffs that lie like outworks of the enormous wall. Seen from this great height they were in themselves comparatively insignificant, but they at least suggested the vastness of the bastions of which they were no more than buttresses."

"Nothing is so bad as not trusting God."

"Their nakedness was their armour, their slow tongues their persuasiveness, their weakness demanded God’s strength, and found it."