“I could not but be struck by the strangers.”
Describing his first meeting of Sir Richard Francis Burton and his wife Isabel, on 13 August 1878, Vol. 1, p. 224
Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1907)
Context: I could not but be struck by the strangers. The lady was a big, handsome blonde woman, clever-looking and capable. But the man riveted my attention. He was dark, and forceful, and masterful, and ruthless. I have never seen so iron a countenance. I did not have much time to analyse the face; the bustle of arrival prevented that. But an instant was enough to make up my mind about him. We separated in the carriage after cordial wishes that we might meet again. When we were on the platform, I asked Irving:
"Who is that man?"
"Why," he said, " I thought I introduced you!"
"So you did, but you did not mention the names of the others!" He looked at me for an instant and said inquiringly as though something had struck him:
"Tell me, why do you want to know?"
"Because," I answered, "I never saw any one like him. He is steel! He would go through you like a sword!"
"You are right!" he said. "But I thought you knew him. That is Burton — Captain Burton who went to Mecca!
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Bram Stoker 84
Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for… 1847–1912Related quotes
“The universe wasn’t just stranger than you knew, it was stranger than you could know.”
Source: The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Chapter 1 (p. 11)
“The very people you trusted most could become like strangers in their longing…”
Source: The Secret of the Indian
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
Source: A Case of Identity
“I turned you into a stranger in order to forget you and now I'm the stranger.”
Source: The Angel's Game
1930s, Fireside Chat in the night before signing the Fair Labor Standards (1938)
Context: In nine cases out of ten the speaker or writer who, seeking to influence public opinion, descends from calm argument to unfair blows hurts himself more than his opponent.
The Chinese have a story on this — a story based on three or four thousand years of civilization: Two Chinese coolies were arguing heatedly in the midst of a crowd. A stranger expressed surprise that no blows were being struck. His Chinese friend replied: "The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out."
Article for The Sunday Telegraph, citing the swing to the Conservatives in his constituency and others with large working-class electorates (18 October 1964), from Simon Heffer, Like the Roman. The Life of Enoch Powell (Phoenix, 1999), p. 364
1960s