“Suppose Sisyphus to have been acquitted his need of forever toiling up his hill in Hell, would he have made the last journey in joy? Or would mere fatigue have extinguished all other emotion, as a torch extinguished in a sconce?”

—  Avram Davidson

Vergil in Averno (1987)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Suppose Sisyphus to have been acquitted his need of forever toiling up his hill in Hell, would he have made the last jo…" by Avram Davidson?
Avram Davidson photo
Avram Davidson 41
novelist 1923–1993

Related quotes

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“Chorus of the Eumenides: …
With useless endeavour
Forever, forever,
Is Sisyphus rolling
His stone up the mountain!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems (1875)

Jess Walter photo

“His life was two lives now: the life he would have and the life he would forever wonder about.”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Norman Tebbit photo

“The mark of a single currency is not only that all other currencies must be extinguished but that the capacity of other institutions to issue currencies must also be extinguished…In the case of the United Kingdom, that would involve Parliament binding its successors in a way that it has hitherto regarded as unconstitutional.”

Norman Tebbit (1931) English politician

To the House of Commons (30 October, 1990). http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108234

“Shamanism is a journey of return. A warrior returns victorious to the spirit, having descended into hell. And from hell he brings trophies. Understanding is one of his trophies.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "The Power of Silence" (Chapter 18)

Frederick Rolfe photo

“Rolfe's vice was spiritual more than it was carnal: it might be said that he was a pander and a swindler, because he cared for nothing but his faith. He would be a priest or nothing, so nothing it had to be…If he could not have Heaven, he would have Hell, and the last footprints seem to point unmistakably towards the Inferno.”

Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913) British writer, photographer and historian

Graham Greene "Frederick Rolfe: Edwardian Inferno" (1934); cited from Collected Essays (New York: The Viking Press, 1969) p. 175
Criticism

Bonaventure photo

“He would confidently affirm that the grace of prayerfulness should be more desired than all others by the religious man, and, believing that without it no good could be wrought in the service of God, he would stir up his Brethren unto zeal therefore by all means that he could. For, whether walking or sitting, within doors or without, in toil or at leisure, he was so absorbed in prayer as that he seemed to have devoted thereunto not only his whole heart and body, but also his whole labor and time.”

Bonaventure (1221–1274) franciscan, bishop, cardinal, Doctor of the Church, catholic saint

The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi

Francis Bacon photo

“Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Boldness
Essays (1625)

Ernest King photo

“Well done, Frank Knox. We dedicate ourselves, one and all, to what surely would have been his last order- 'Carry On!”

Ernest King (1878–1956) United States Navy admiral, Chief of Naval Operations

King's public written response to the death of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on April 28, 1944, as quoted in Battle Stations! Your Navy In Action (1946) by Admirals of the U.S. Navy, p. 243

Bernard Cornwell photo

“He was a soldier and he marched where he was ordered to march and he killed the king's enemies when he arrived. That was his job and the army was his home and he loved both even though he knew he would have to fight like a gutter-born bastard for every step of advancement that other men took for granted. And he knew too that he would never be prized for his birth or his wit or his wealth, but would only be reckoned as good as his last fight, but that thought made him smile. For Sharpe's last battle had been against the best soldier France had and Sharpe had drowned the bastard like a rat. Sharpe had won, Loup was dead, and it was over at last: Sharpe's battle.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Captain Richard Sharpe, p. 354
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

Jane Austen photo

“A mother would have been always present. A mother would have been a constant friend; her influence would have been beyond all other.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Related topics