“O wretched virtue! thou art a bare name! I mistook thee for a substance; but thou thyself art the slave of fortune.”

“Heaven has turned against me. No wise ruler arises, and no one in the Empire wishes to make me his teacher. The hour of my death has come.”

“If I have seen further, it has been on the shoulders of giants”

“More than cherry blossoms,

inviting a wind to take them away.

I wonder what to do

with the rest of spring.”

“Why do you persist? You are doomed no matter your actions.”

You are alone, Child.

There is only darkness for you and only death for your people. These ancients are just the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army and we will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished.

You are strong, Child, but I am beyond strength.

I am the end, and I have come for you, Finn.

“Those who don't build must burn.”

“Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.”

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

“The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.”

“Icarus laughed as he fell.

Threw his head back and

yelled into the winds,

arms spread wide,

teeth bared to the world.

(There is a bitter triumph

in crashing when you should be

soaring.)

The wax scorched his skin,

ran blazing trails down his back,

his thighs, his ankles, his feet.

Feathers floated like prayers

past his fingers,

close enough to snatch back.

Death breathed burning kisses

against his shoulders,

where the wings joined the harness.

The sun painted everything

in shades of gold.

(There is a certain beauty

in setting the world on fire

and watching from the centre

of the flames.)”

“Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.”

“Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.”

“Miniver loved the days of old

When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;

The vision of a warrior bold

Would set him dancing.

Miniver sighed for what was not,

And dreamed, and rested from his labors;

He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,

And Priam’s neighbors.

Miniver mourned the ripe renown

That made so many a name so fragrant;

He mourned Romance, now on the town,

And Art, a vagrant.

Miniver scorned the gold he sought,

But sore annoyed was he without it;

Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,

And thought about it.

Miniver Cheevy, born too late,

Scratched his head and kept on thinking;

Miniver coughed, and called it fate,

And kept on drinking.”

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

“Evil is ignorance.”

“The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own.”

“Arise, arise, riders of Rohan!

Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter!

Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered!

A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!

Ride now, ride now, ride to Gondor!”

“‘Ride with an outlaw, die with him,’ he added. ‘I admit it’s a harsh code. But you rode on the other side long enough to know how it works. I’m sorry you crossed the line, though.‘”

“Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?”