
“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”
As quoted in Eternal Greece (1961) by Rex Warner, p. 34
Context: Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now. We do not need the praises of a Homer, or of anyone else whose words may delight us for the moment, but the estimation of facts will fall short of what is really true.
“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”
“Soul of the age!
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!”
Source: To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare (1618), Lines 17 - 24; this was inspired by a eulogy by William Basse, On Shakespeare:
Context: Soul of the age!
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!
My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room;
Thou art a monument, without a tomb,
And art alive still, while thy book doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
Source: The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913), The Crowning Hour, I
Context: p>It was ages ago in life's first wonder
I found you, Virgilia, wild sea-heart;
And 'twas ages ago that we went asunder,
Ages and worlds apart.Your luminous face and your hair's dark glory,
I knew them of old by an ocean-stream,
In a far, first world now turned to story,
Now faded back to dream.</p
“I wonder what the retirement age is in the novel business.
The day you die.”
Source: Beauty and Sadness
Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979). 1.
"Julius Caesar: An Appreciation of the Hollywood Production" in The Mercury (15 June 1916)
Letters and essays
On Milton (1825)
“It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don't know by now”
Compare: "It ain't no use to sit and sigh now, darlin." Paul Clayton, Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone).
Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 38, “The Taglian Territories: The Dandha Presh” (p. 502)