
Nathan the Wise http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt (1779), Act II, scene II
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Nathan the Wise http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt (1779), Act II, scene II
Source: Space Chantey (1968), Ch. 5, on Polyphemia
Context: Roadstrum had always believed that he had troubles enough of his own. He seldom borrowed trouble, and never on usurious terms. He knew that it was a solid thing that sheep do not gather in taverns and drink beer, not even potato beer; that they do not sing, not even badly; that they do not tell stories. But a stranger can easily make trouble for himself on a strange world by challenging local customs.
"But I am the greet Roadstrum," he said, suddenly and loudly. "I am a great one for winning justice for the lowly, and I do not scare easily. I threw the great Atlas at the wrestle, and who else can say as much? I suffer from the heroic sickness every third day about nightfall, and I am not sure whether this is the third day or not. I say you are men and not sheep. I say: Arise and be men indeed!"
"It has been tried before," said Roadstrum's friend, the sheep, "and it didn't work."
"You have tried a revolt, and it failed?"
"No, no, another man tried to incite us to revolt, and failed."
Part III, Chapter XIII, The Reservoir Plan and Credit Control, p. 154
Storage and Stability (1937)
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections
22 September 1830.
Table Talk (1821–1834)
Context: A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket: let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection; and trust more to your imagination than to your memory.
“I try not to borrow, first you borrow then you beg.”
“Stale is stale and borrowed is borrowed, no matter how original your models may have been.”
Introduction to New Dimensions 1, edited by Robert Silverberg