“Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable.”
Source: The Complete Sherlock Holmes
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Arthur Conan Doyle 166
Scottish physician and author 1859–1930Related quotes
“A mind that has confronted ruin for years
Is half or more a ruined mind.”
Given (2005), Sabbaths 2001
“One ruins the mind with too much writing. — One rusts it by not writing at all.”
“Disinterested love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man.”
volume I, chapter III: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals — continued", page 105 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=118&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image
The Descent of Man (1871)
Lines Written In Dejection http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1524/, st. 1
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
Context: When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies,
For all their broom-sticks and their tears,
Their angry tears, are gone.
Source: Your Forces and How to Use Them (1912), Chapter 8, p. 126–127
Introduction
Popular Astronomy: A Series of Lectures Delivered at Ipswich (1868)
“Take him, earth, for cherishing,
To thy tender breast receive him.
Body of a man I bring thee,
Noble even in its ruin.”
Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum,<br/>gremioque hunc concipe molli.<br/>Hominis tibi membra sequestro,<br/>generosa et fragmina credo.
Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum,
gremioque hunc concipe molli.
Hominis tibi membra sequestro,
generosa et fragmina credo.
"Hymnus X: Ad Exequias Defuncti", line 125 ; translation from Helen Waddell Mediaeval Latin Lyrics (London: Constable, [1929] 1943) p. 45.