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Thames Quotes

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Thames Quotes

“A RIB is a rigid inflatable boat, and this has an engine at the rear which pushes the nose up and out of the water as it bounces along at a great speed. This was a good-sized one and I realised that it must have an antigrav component because it never sank in the water though the team of Neptunians got on with us. The marine engineer steering it took us out to the dive boat, a large – to our eyes – vessel over a mile offshore. We sat back and gripped the rope lacings along the sides and breathed in salt spray air, grinning foolishly at our friends and each other. The RIB engine was so noisy that we couldn’t really talk but we were relishing being right down at water level, streaking across the Thames estuary, heading for the most dangerous boat in the world.”

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Book:Dining Out Around The Solar System
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“They bear down upon Westminster, the ghost-consecrated Abbey, and the history-crammed Hall, through the arches of the bridge with a rush as the tide swelters round them; the city is buried in a dusky gloom save where the lights begin to gleam and trail with lurid reflections past black velvety- looking hulls - a dusky city of golden gleams. St. Paul's looms up like an immense bowl reversed, squat, un-English, and undignified in spite of its great size; they dart within the sombre shadows of the Bridge of Sighs, and pass the Tower of London, with the rising moon making the sky behind it luminous, and the crowd of shipping in front appear like a dense forest of withered pines, and then mooring their boat at the steps beyond, with a shuddering farewell look at the eel-like shadows and the glittering lights of that writhing river, with its burthen seen and invisible, they plunge into the purlieus of Wapping. ("The Phantom Model")”

LondonThamesWestminsterWestminster AbbeySt Paul S CathedralTower Of LondonSt Paul SWappingBridge Of SighsWestminster Hall
Book:Gaslit Nightmares: Stories by Robert W. Chambers, Charles Dickens, Richard Marsh, and Others
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“There is no river in the world to be compared for majesty and the witchery of association, to the Thames; it impresses even the unreading and unimaginative watcher with a solemnity which he cannot account for, as it rolls under his feet and swirls past the buttresses of its many bridges; he may think, as he experiences the unusual effect, that it is the multiplicity of buildings which line its banks, or the crowd of sea-craft which floats upon its surface, or its own extensive spread. In reality he feels, although he cannot explain it, the countless memories which hang for ever like a spiritual fog over its rushing current. ("The Phantom Model")”

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Book:Gaslit Nightmares: Stories by Robert W. Chambers, Charles Dickens, Richard Marsh, and Others
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“The Thames here had a vastly different character to the wide, muddy tyrant that seethed through London. It was graceful and deft and remarkably light of heart. It skipped over stones and skimmed its banks, water so clear that one could see the reeds swaying deep down on her narrow bed. The river here was a she, he'd decided. For all its sunlit transparency, there were certain spots in which it was suddenly unfathomable.”

WaterNatureLondonWomanRiverThames
Book:The Clockmaker's Daughter
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“Numerous gifted objects; black granite Etchings, carved statues, broken goddesses, Inscriptions, pottery, jewelry, rough-hewn Garnets, flowers, consecrated herbs, skulls, Gold ornaments, weapons, prized artifacts; Sacrifices, ancestors’ ageless prayers Left with olden Father Thames. For them, The sinuous streams were alive, full worlds Of votive offerings inside murky depths, Lifeblood pleas, observances thereafter Troubles now vanished, solemn promises, Treasures carefully bestowed upon Spirits, watchful deities; faithfully Invoking his ancient name Tamesas.”

LondonRiverPaganThamesOfferingsTamesaTamesasTamesis
Book:The Bones of the Poor
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“From seasonal splashes near Trewsbury European eels migrate upstream; Myriad carp, redfin perch, brook lamprey, Dragonflies, mosquitoes, wee midges, Pale cormorant, herring gulls, wagtails, Swans glide round woodland tapestry, Braided channel islands rest alone, Arched medieval stone slab bridges, Tree lines fête ash, alder, chestnut, beech. Floodplains, tangled sedge reedbeds, Owls speed above tree-covered islets, Teaming alluvium water-meadows Growing lavender, iris, marigold.”

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Book:The Bones of the Poor
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“The time shall come, when, free as seas or wind, Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind, Whole nations enter with each swelling tide, And seas but join the regions they divide; Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold, And the new world launch forth to seek the old.”

WorldEndsWholeEarthNationsSeaMankindWindGloryFlowRegionsDividesNew WorldTidesSwellingThames
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Alexander Pope (Illustrated)
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“And there is London!--England's heart and soul. By the proud flowing of her famous Thames, She circulates through countless lands and isles Her greatness; gloriously she rules, At once the awe and sceptre of the world.”

WorldHeartSoulLandGreatnessProudEnglandLondonAweHeart And SoulIsleThames
Book:Selections from the Poetical Works: With Introductory Remarks, and an Appendix Containing Extracts from Satires, Notes, &c
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“To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser. It is as if a ship captain should sail to India from the Port of London; and having brought a chart of the Thames on deck at his first setting out, should obstinately use no other for the whole voyage.”

IfsShouldYearsFirstsWellsHas BeensWholeUseViewsIndiaTwentiesLondonSettingShipsSettingsProphetScoreFortySailCaptainsWiserVoyagesPortDeckBratThames
Book:The Lantern-Bearers and Other Essays
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“Everything I loved had been dead for two centuries - or, as in the case of Graeco-Roman classicism, for two milenniums. I am never a part of anything around me - in everything I am an outsider. Should I find it possible to crawl backward through the Halls of Time to that age which is nearest my own fancy, I should doubtless be bawled out of the coffee-houses for heresy in religion, or else lampooned by John Dennis till I found refuge in the deep, silent Thames, that covers many another unfortunate.”

ShouldTwoAgeFoundHouseMy OwnCasesCenturySilentCoffeeFancyHallsOutsidersRefugeShould IUnfortunateHeresyThamesClassicismCoffee Houses
Author:H. P. Lovecraft
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“Kinship among nations is not determined in such measurements as proximity of size and age. Rather we should turn to those inner things - call them what you will - I mean those intangibles that are the real treasures free men possess. To preserve his freedom of worship, his equality before law, his liberty to speak and act as he sees fit, subject only to provisions that he trespass not upon similar rights of others - a Londoner will fight. So will a citizen of Abilene. When we consider these things, then the valley of the Thames draws closer to the farms of Kansas and the plains of Texas.”

MenShouldMeanRealAgeLawTurnsFightingSpeakNationsLibertyRightsSubjectsCitizensFitWorshipDrawsSizeDeterminedTreasurePreservesTexasFarmsValleysProvisionMeasurementFree ManKansasKinshipProximityThamesLondoners
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear. How the Chimney-sweeper's cry Every black'ning Church appalls; And the hapless Soldier's sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new born Infant's tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.”

MenMindDoeRunningFacesBlackVoiceBornChurchBloodStreetsCryTearsWallWeaknessFlowMarkSoldierEvery ManWanderCurseWoeMidnightSighInfantPlaguePalacesBlastBansCharterChimneysBlightHarlotsThamesSweepers
Book:Poems: Introduction by Patti Smith
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“Trains are great dirty smoky things," said Will. "You won't like it." Tessa was unmoved. "I won't know if I like it until I try it, will I?" "I've never swum naked in the Thames before, but I know I wouldn't like it." "But think how entertaining for sightseers," said Tessa, and she saw Jem duck his head to hide the quick flash of his grin.”

IfsThinkingKnowsTryingSaidSawsTrainNakedDirtyDucksEntertainingFlashWill HerondaleJemTessa GrayThamesClockwork Prince
Book:Clockwork Prince
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“No, the last thing she cared about was whether people were staring at the boy and girl kissing by the river, as London, it's cities and towers and churches and bridges and streets, circled all about them like the memory of a dream. And if the Thames that ran beside them, sure and silver in the afternoon light, recalled a night long ago when the moon shone as brightly as a shilling on this same boy and girl, or if the stones of Blackfriars knew the tread of their feet and thought to themselves: At last, the wheel comes to a full circle, they kept their silence.”

PeopleIfsLongDreamLightLastsNightGirlChurchMemoriesCitiesSilenceBoysFeetStreetsMoonKissingRiversStonesLondonCirclesBridgesStaringRanWheelsSilverAfternoonLong AgoTowersBoy And GirlJem CarstairsFull CircleThames
Author:Cassandra Clare
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“My New Year's Eve is always 2 July, the night before my birthday. That's the night I make my resolutions. And this year scares the life out of me, because no matter how successful, how good things appear, there is always a deep core of failure within me, although I am trying to deal with it. My biggest fear, this coming year, is that I will be waking up alone. It makes me wonder how many bodies will be fished out of the Thames, how many decaying corpses will be found in one-room flats. I'm just being realistic.”

TryingYearsMatterBodyNightFoundRoomsDealsWonderSuccessfulWake UpGood ThingsCoreFlatsResolutionRealisticScareWakingNew YearJust BeingCorpsesJulyMy BirthdayNew Years EveBiggest FearThames
Book:Strangeland
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“I long ago suggested the hypothesis, that in the basin of the Thames there are indications of a meeting in the Pleistocene period of a northern and southern fauna.”

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Book:The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man with an Outline of Glacial and Post-tertiary Geology and Remarks on the Origin of Species with Special Reference to Mans First Appearance on the Earth by Charles Lyell
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“I have a confession to make. Yesterday, I was responsible for the deaths of millions of Britons. What happened is that MI5 asked me to trail Mehan Asnik, a suspected terrorist, through the streets of London. He had escaped from our security services while infected with a plague virus. Tracking him on CCTV, I swear I had him but then, in the rush-hour bustle, lost him. When the secure mobile rang, it was Harry Pearce at Thames House, chewing me out for the slaughter that had been caused by my mistake.”

HouseLostHoursMistakeMillionsHappenedStreetsSecurityComputerResponsibleLondonYesterdayTerroristSecureConfessionSwearTrailsPlagueMobileVirusesSlaughterMy MistakesChewingTrackingBustleThamesBritonsRush Hour
Author:Mark Lawson
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