“With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old.”

— Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay , book Lays of Ancient Rome

Horatius, st. 70
Lays of Ancient Rome (1842)
Context: When the goodman mends his armor,
And trims his helmet's plume;
When the goodwife's shuttle merrily
Goes flashing through the loom;
With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old." by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay?

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay 101

British historian and Whig politician 1800–1859

Related quotes

“The truth is, laughter always sounds more perfect than weeping. Laughter flows in a violent riff and is effortlessly melodic. Weeping is often fought, choked, half strangled, or surrendered to with humiliation.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

“TWENTY bridges from Tower to Kew -
Wanted to know what the River knew,
Twenty Bridges or twenty-two,
For they were young, and the Thames was old
And this is the tale that River told:”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

“Like the East Side tenement, our house was seldom without the sound of music or laughter or questions being asked or stories being told.”

Harpo Marx (1888–1964) American comedian

book, Harpo Speaks

“To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter.”

Milarepa (1052–1135) Tibetan yogi

As quoted in The Life of Milarepa: A New Translation from the Tibetan (1977) by Tsangnyön Heruka, as translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, p. 12
Context: In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace.

“There's the story, then there's the real story, then there's the story of how the story came to be told. Then there's what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.”

Margaret Atwood book MaddAddam

Source: MaddAddam

“Description is a story well told already; experience offers truth.”

Dejan Stojanovic book The Creator

“Lackadaisical Elements,” p. 93
The Creator (2000), Sequence: “Nostalgic Elements”

“I hope very much that the archway into the Chamber from the Inner Lobby—where the Bar used to be—which was smitten by the blast of the explosion, and has acquired an appearance of antiquity that might not have been achieved by the hand of time in centuries, will be preserved intact, as a monument of the ordeal which Westminster has passed through in the Great War, and as a reminder to those who will come centuries after us that they may look back from time to time upon their forbears who “kept the bridge In the brave days of old.””

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Rebuilding the House of Commons, Speech to the House of Commons https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1945/jan/25/house-of-commons-rebuilding, 25 January 1945.
The Second World War (1939–1945)