Volume 3, Ch. 13
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)
“You can use a spear for a walking stick, but it will not change its nature.”
Variant: He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.
Source: The Song of Achilles
The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
Context: Scholars and artists thrown together are often annoyed at the puzzle of where they differ. Both work from knowledge; but I suspect they differ most importantly in the way their knowledge is come by. Scholars get theirs with conscientious thoroughness along projected lines of logic; poets theirs cavalierly and as it happens in and out of books. They stick to nothing deliberately, but let what will stick to them like burrs where they walk in the fields.
Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), p. 148
Ticks, written by Brad Paisley, Kelley Lovelace, and Tim Owens.
Song lyrics, 5th Gear (2007)
“I’d worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood.”
“The only right you have with anyone in life is the right to walk away.”
Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 25 (p. 270)
