“Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question”

Source: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

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T.S. Eliot270

20th century English author 1888–1965

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“It is impossible to say just what I mean!
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T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

“You know and I know and everybody in the state knows that the overwhelming majority of the people that have been arrested this year, coming out of Connecticut and New York, have been black and Hispanic, it's not a matter of race, it's a matter of fact. Are there some white ones? Yes, there are some white people.”

Paul LePage (1948) American businessman, Republican Party politician, and the 74th Governor of Maine

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“In order to be the go-to guy, you must have everything right. You have to be on point with your routes and catch the ball no matter where the quarterback puts it. You just have to have confidence. I'm rolling, and I want to go out and have fun.”

Ted Ginn, Jr. (1985) American football wide receiver, kick returner

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“If my head had been a ball, it would have been in the top corner of the net.”

Eyal Berkovic (1972) Israeli footballer and manager

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“Rolling the ball, rolling the ball, rolling the ball to me…”

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“Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.”

Alfonso X of Castile (1221–1284) King of Castile

Si hubiera estado presente en la Creación, habría dado algunas indicaciones útiles.
After studying Ptolemy's treatise on astronomy.; reported in Thomas Carlyle, History of Frederick the Great, book ii. chap. vii. Carlyle wrote that this saying of Alfonso about Ptolemy's astronomy, "that it seemed a crank machine; that it was pity the Creator had not taken advice," is still remembered by mankind, — this and no other of his many sayings.
If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on creation thus, I should have recommended something simpler.
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“If you bargain when they squeeze your balls, they will only squeeze again.”

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“It doesn’t matter,” said Adrian, smiling. He rested a hand on my shoulder. “Some things are worth the trouble.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Variant: It doesn't matter,” said Adrian, smiling. He rested a hand on my shoulder. “Some things are worth the trouble.
Source: The Indigo Spell

“I have been merely oppressed by the weariness and tedium and vanity of things lately: nothing stirs me, nothing seems worth doing or worth having done: the only thing that I strongly feel worth while would be to murder as many people as possible so as to diminish the amount of consciousness in the world. These times have to be lived through: there is nothing to be done with them.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Letter to Gilbert Murray, March 21, 1903
1900s

“Life’s always been a business of working hard and fighting the cold,” Pa was saying. “The earth’s always been a lonely place, millions of miles from the next planet. And no matter how long the human race might have lived, the end would have come some night. Those things don’t matter. What matters is that life is good. It has a lovely texture, like some thick fur or the petals of flowers—you’ve never seen those, but you know our ice-flowers—or like the texture of flames, never twice the same. It makes everything else worth while. And that’s as true for the last man as for the first.”

Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction

“A Pail of Air” (p. 20); originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1951
Short Fiction, A Pail of Air (1964)

“Would it have been worth while,To have bitten off the matter with a smile,To have squeezed the universe into a ballTo roll it towards some overwhelming question”

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T.S. Eliot270

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“Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question”