“And didst thou imbibe mighty potions from the fruit of the grape (...)? And hast thou one Ache, this morning (...) appertaining unto Head, and much repentance in thy Soul forsooth?”
Source: The Slaves of Solitude
“Now, this is my little public service announcement: If you get invited to something, it's incumbent upon you to RSVP as soon as possible. A quick “no” is better than a long “maybe.” People go to a lot of trouble to plan a party, and it's a big deal to open up your home. What's more, it's essential to show up if you say you will. I have a busy life, but I still don't cancel unless it's a superduper emergency – I'm talking hospital-visit, in-the-newspapers-the-next-day emergency. Being tired just isn't a good enough excuse. C'mon! Make an effort!
One trick I use to determine whether or not to say yes to an invite is: Would I want to go right then and there? If the party were that second, would I get dressed and rush out of the house to go to the party? If the answer is yes, I probably do want to go, but if the answer is no, I don't accept the invitation.”
Source: Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits
“Not showing up to a wedding post-RSVP guarantees expulsion from the couple's A list in the future.”
Source: Anti-Bride Etiquette Guide: The Rules And How to Bend Them
“....Then he told me that that was like the Stranger.
"That book?"
"You wind a rubber band around your wrist so your hand falls asleep."
"Oh," I said. "Does it do the trick?"
Tom wished to God he knew, but there were never any rubberbands when he needed one.”
Source: Hot Pink
“Det var i Genève som de sex Oslostaternas utrikesministrar sammanträdde. Före det första plenarmötet fördes en del interskandinaviska samtal, varvid man fick intrycket att det rådde en hel del meningsskiljaktigheter. När de sex signatärmakterna sammanträdde, uppträdde emellertid de tre skandinaviska ministrarna med förklaringar som angav den mest rörande enighet. Då jag sade något härom till utrikesminister [Fredrik] Ramel efter sammanträdets slut, skrattade han belåtet. "Det är ju det, som är finessen med Oslokonventionen. Vill man få skandinaverna att bli eniga, måste man alltid konfrontera dem med några icke-skandinaver.”
Source: Diplomat: memoirs of a Swedish envoy in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Washington;
“But to the slave mother New Year's day comes laden with peculiar sorrows. She sits on her cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn from her the next morning; and often does she wish that she and they might die before the day dawns. She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother's instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother's agonies.”
Source: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
“Scott saw its ludicrous proportions; and it is likely that posterity will remember the Pictish question in the discussion between Monkbarns and Sir Arthur Wardour after the volumes of Whitaker, Goodall, Pinkerton, Chalmers, Ritter, and Grant have been long entombed in their proper shelves.”
“As Smollett relates, Dumbarton has always sat on the edge of something. Historically, it has marked the line between the Romans and Picts, between the Picts and Britons, and between Highlands and Lowlands. The area has been a geographic, social, cultural, linguistic, agricultural and economic border zone for millennia. This liminal status seems to fascinate Smollett, and he returns to it again and again in his writing.”
Source: The Scottish Enlightenment: Human Nature, Social Theory and Moral Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Christopher J. Berry
“Where did the Picts live? Might they still be here? The Romans were so scared of them they built a wall. Two walls, by orders of two emperors after they successively failed to frighten them into passivity. And now the Celtic Supremicists. Is there nothing this part of the world will stop at to create its own agenda?”
Source: Badlands
“And he said...
...mistakes are broken steps which need to be mended in order to progress to the next level.”