William Cobbett quote: “But what is to be the fate of the great wen of all? The monster, called, by the silly coxcombs of the press, "the metro…”

“But as soon as any of us dies, there is only the monster left. What I had been pursuing was not Belham but the monster called Belham. And what my whole journey had taught me was precisely what sort of monster it was: it was made, as all such monsters are, of contradiction, supposition, miscalculation, impossibility, and ignorance.”

Samuel R. Delany book Flight from Nevèrÿon

Section 9.82 (p. 302)
Flight from Nevèrÿon (1985)

“We all believe silly things. What matters is how silly and how many.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

“We have imported a monster and this monster is called Islam.”

Geert Wilders (1963) Dutch politician

As quoted in "‘We have imported a monster called Islam’: Dutch Far-Right leader Geert Wilders says EU should refuse entry to all Muslim migrants" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3708401/Dutch-Far-Right-Freedom-Party-leader-Geert-Wilders-says-EU-refuse-entry-Muslim-migrants.html by Gareth Davies, Mail Online (26 July 2016)
2010s

“Another illustration. When for the first time I met Mister Clay, the other day in the cars, in front of us sat an old gentleman with an enormous wen upon his neck. Everybody would say the wen was a great evil, and would cause the man's death after a while. But you couldn't cut it out, for he'd bleed to death in a minute. But would you engraft the seeds of that wen on the necks of sound and healthy men? He must endure and be patient, hoping for possible relief. The wen represents slavery on the neck of this country. This only applies to those who think slavery is wrong. Those who think it right would consider the snake a jewel, and the wen an ornament.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)

“Another illustration. When for the first time I met Mister Clay, the other day in the cars, in front of us sat an old gentleman with an enormous wen upon his neck. Everybody would say the wen was a great evil, and would cause the man's death after a while. But you couldn't cut it out, for he'd bleed to death in a minute. But would you engraft the seeds of that wen on the necks of sound and healthy men? He must endure and be patient, hoping for possible relief. The wen represents slavery on the neck of this country. This only applies to those who think slavery is wrong. Those who think it right would consider the snake a jewel, and the wen an ornament.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)

“It is conventional to call ''monster'' any blending of dissonant elements. I call ''monster'' every original inexhaustible beauty.”

Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) French writer

“I resent your calling this a silly myth. I made the myth and it is not silly; charming rather.”

R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer

Source: Space Chantey (1968), Ch. 6
Context: I am Aeaea. To my notion there is no other lady anywhere. And I resent your calling this a silly myth. I made the myth and it is not silly; charming rather. Well, come along, come along! You are my things now, and you will come when I call you.

“At the time this hazardous prophecy was made, the huge overgrown Roman Empire was tottering to its fall. Does a similar fate await the British Empire?”

Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (1841–1917) British diplomat

Political and Literary Essays, 1908-1913

“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

“Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

“But what is to be the fate of the great wen of all? The monster, called, by the silly coxcombs of the press, "the metropolis of the empire?"”

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William Cobbett 58

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