Source: The Windup Girl (2009), p. 212
“Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at ease.”
Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno.
I, i, 39
Tristia (Sorrows)
Source: Anarchism and Other Essays
Source: Rent: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical
“But on paper, things can live forever.
On paper, a butterfly
never dies.”
Source: Brown Girl Dreaming
“The written law is binding, but the unwritten law is much more so.”
The Law
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VII - On the Making of Music, Pictures, and Books
Context: The written law is binding, but the unwritten law is much more so. You may break the written law at a pinch and on the sly if you can, but the unwritten law — which often comprises the written — must not be broken. Not being written, it is not always easy to know what it is, but this has got to be done.
Revolution by Number
“T is a very fine thing to be father-in-law
To a very magnificent three-tailed Bashaw!”
Blue Beard, Act ii, Scene 5, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Statement in Spring of 1972, while participating in the presidential campaign of George McGovern; as quoted at the official Cass Elliot website.
Context: Our job as entertainers is to ease some pain. So to begin with, you have to know what and where the pain is. I've never campaigned before and I wanted to be damn sure before putting my name behind anyone. I wrote to all the campaign officers to find out what they were. My issue is that it's all very well to sit back and complain but when it's your country you have a responsibility.
The Clod and the Pebble, st. 3
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)
Source: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d'avoir quelqu'un qui sache répondre, à qui on puisse dire de temps en temps, que c'est un belle chose.
Dissertations chrétiennes et morales (1665), XVIII: "Les plaisirs de la vie retirée".
