“A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.”
O. Henry (1862–1910) American short story writer
"A Ruler of Men" Rolling Stones http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3815/3815-h/3815-h.htm (1913)
“Force, unregulated or ill-regulated, is not only wasted in the void, like that of gunpowder burned in the open air, and steam unconfined by science; but, striking in the dark, and its blows meeting only the air, they recoil, and bruise itself.”
Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1
Context: Force, unregulated or ill-regulated, is not only wasted in the void, like that of gunpowder burned in the open air, and steam unconfined by science; but, striking in the dark, and its blows meeting only the air, they recoil, and bruise itself. It is destruction and ruin. It is the volcano, the earthquake, the cyclone; — not growth and progress. It is Polyphemus blinded, striking at random, and falling headlong among the sharp rocks by the impetus of his own blows.
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Confederate States Army general and Freemason 1809–1891Related quotes
Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Pt. V, st. 30
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
Context: The vilest deeds like poison weeds
Bloom well in prison-air:
It is only what is good in Man
That wastes and withers there:
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,
And the Warder is Despair.
“Private armies, and for that matter private air forces- are expensive, wasteful, and unnecessary.”
William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim (1891–1970) former Governor-General of Australia
Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 457
“If you open a window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in.”
Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) Chinese politician, Paramount leader of China
» Great Firewall of China Torfox, cs.stanford.edu, 2018-05-02 https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/2010-11/FreedomOfInformationChina/category/great-firewall-of-china/index.html,
Peter Levi (1931–2000) writer, archaeologist, sometime Jesuit priest
Peter Levi. The Hill of Kronos. 1980.
“I had only to open my bedroom window, and blue air, love, and flowers entered with her”.”
Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter
Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian
St. 14 <br class="br"> Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751) <br class="br">Source: An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard