“The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At out quaint spirits.”
William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
Context: Many are the fools who say that Jesus stood in His own path and opposed Himself; that He knew not His own mind, and in the absence of that knowledge confounded Himself.
Many indeed are the owls who know no song unlike their own hooting.
You and I know the jugglers of words who would honor only a greater juggler, men who carry their heads in baskets to the market-place and sell them to the first bidder.
We know the pygmies who abuse the sky-man. And we know what the weed would say of the oak tree and the cedar.
I pity them that they cannot rise to the heights.
Nicodemus The Poet, The Youngest Of The Elders In The Sanhedrim: On Fools And Jugglers
“The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At out quaint spirits.”
William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle
Source: I Capture the Castle
Joseph Strutt (1749–1802) British engraver, artist, antiquary and writer
pg. 285
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Public entertainment
Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer
Julian, on the songs of the early Germans. As quoted in his Mispogon.
General sources
“Unlike my subject will I frame my song,
It shall be witty, and it shan't be long.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) British statesman and man of letters
Epigram on ("Long") Sir Thomas Robinson
“Impossible; for how many people did you know who refracted your own light to you?”
Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451
Source: Fahrenheit 451