“The captain called me to his bed and fumbled for my hand
"Take these silver bars," he said, "I'm giving you command."
Command of what? There's no on here. There's only you and me.
The rest are dead or in retreat or with the enemy.
"Complain, complain, that's all you've done ever since we lost,
If it's not the crucifixion then it's the holocaust."”

— Leonard Cohen

"The Captain"
Various Positions (1984)

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Do you have more details about the quote "The captain called me to his bed and fumbled for my hand "Take these silver bars," he said, "I'm giving you command." …" by Leonard Cohen?

Leonard Cohen 169

Canadian poet and singer-songwriter 1934–2016

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Wicked Nights

“For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians; your mother commands me, and you command your mother.”

Themistocles (-524–-459 BC) Athenian statesman

Statement to his son, as quoted in Familiar Quotations 9th Edition (1894) edited by J. Bartlett, p. 723 http://books.google.com/books?id=pus-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA723
Originally quoted in Plutarch, Themistocles http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0074%3Achapter%3D18%3Asection%3D5 (18.5): (5) Of his son, who lorded it over his mother, and through her over himself, he said, jestingly, that the boy was the most powerful of all the Hellenes; for the Hellenes were commanded by the Athenians, the Athenians by himself, himself by the boy's mother, and the mother by her boy. (Bernadotte Perrin, Ed., via Perseus Project)
Original Greek http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0074%3Achapter%3D18%3Asection%3D5: "(5) ποῦ ἂν ἦτε νῦν ὑμεῖς;’ τὸν δὲ υἱὸν ἐντρυφῶντα τῇ μητρὶ καὶ δι᾽ ἐκείνην αὐτῷ σκώπτων ἔλεγε πλεῖστον τῶν Ἑλλήνων δύνασθαι: τοῖς μὲν γὰρ Ἕλλησιν ἐπιτάττειν Ἀθηναίους, Ἀθηναίοις δ᾽ αὐτόν, αὐτῷ δὲ τὴν ἐκείνου μητέρα, τῇ μητρὶ δ᾽ ἐκεῖνον."