“Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at ease.”
Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno.
I, i, 39
Tristia (Sorrows)
“Laws are a fine thing on paper, but painful when no bribery can ease their bind.”
— Paolo Bacigalupi, book The Windup Girl
Source: The Windup Girl (2009), p. 212
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Paolo Bacigalupi20
American science fiction and fantasy writer 1972Related quotes
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Context: The written law is binding, but the unwritten law is much more so. You may break the written law at a pinch and on the sly if you can, but the unwritten law — which often comprises the written — must not be broken. Not being written, it is not always easy to know what it is, but this has got to be done.
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Cass Elliot (1941–1974) American singer
Statement in Spring of 1972, while participating in the presidential campaign of George McGovern; as quoted at the official Cass Elliot website.
Context: Our job as entertainers is to ease some pain. So to begin with, you have to know what and where the pain is. I've never campaigned before and I wanted to be damn sure before putting my name behind anyone. I wrote to all the campaign officers to find out what they were. My issue is that it's all very well to sit back and complain but when it's your country you have a responsibility.
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
The Clod and the Pebble, st. 3
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)
Source: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597–1654) French author, best known for his epistolary essays
La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d'avoir quelqu'un qui sache répondre, à qui on puisse dire de temps en temps, que c'est un belle chose.
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