“He laid him squat as a flounder.”

Source: Epigrams, pp. 372-373

The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

Dr. Theodore Faron About Xan.
The Children of Men (1992)

"The South". Cf. "The Man on the Threshold", in The Aleph (1949)
tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)
Ficciones (1944)
Variant: On the floor, curled against the bar, lay an old man, as motionless as an object. The many years had worn him away and polished him, as a stone is worn smooth by running water or a saying is polished by generations of mankind.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position: (1841)
Context: My readers understand now something of the nature of a false position. I hope they will never know one experimentally. Should they unfortunately become entangled with one, they had better not flounder along in it till they are carried they know not whither, but adopt the practice of French and English statesmen, who, immediately on the happening of such a dilemma, submit to what they call a ministerial crisis, and quietly resign their official posts. An occasion of this kind has just transpired in France.... They wisely chose the latter evil, and retired covered with glory for the great things they would have accomplished had the king only permitted them to carry forward their grand designs: thus the ministers preserve their credit the nation its peace.

Source: Firefly Lane

We nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership. Now we regret it (6 May 2016)

But the fighter still remains.
The Boxer
Song lyrics, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970)

Source: Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996