“Over all the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach, studded with the eternal stars.”
Walt Whitman book Drum-Taps
Drum-Taps. Bivouac on a Mountain-side
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“The stars are far from eternal, but for man they might as well be.”
— Larry Niven, book Protector
Section 1, Phssthpok, Chapter 1 (p. 7)
Protector (1973)
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Larry Niven138
American writer 1938Related quotes
Robert Pollok book The Course of Time
Book ii, line 270.
The Course of Time (published 1827)
Joel Barlow (1754–1812) American diplomat
The Conspiracy of Kings (1792)
Context: And didst thou hope, by thy infuriate quill
To rouse mankind the blood of realms to spill?
Then to restore, on death devoted plains,
Their scourge to tyrants, and to man his chains?
To swell their souls with thy own bigot rage,
And blot the glories of so bright an age?
First stretch thy arm, and with less impious might,
Wipe out the stars, and quench the solar light :
“For heav'n and earth," the voice of God ordains,
“Shall pass and perish, but my word remains,"
Th' eternal Word, which gave, in spite of thee,
Reason to man, that bids the man be free.
“Ooh find me the man with the ladder
And he might lift me up to the stars.”
Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer
Song lyrics, The Red Shoes (1993)
“A man without trust might as well be dead.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer
Lews Therin Telamon
(15 October 1994)
“You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.”
James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
"The Bear Who Let It Alone", The New Yorker (29 April 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“ordinary eternal machinery, like the grinding of the stars”
Leonard Cohen book Beautiful Losers
Source: Beautiful Losers
“A man might as well play for nothing as work for nothing.”
Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet (1802–1880) Lord Chief Justice
In an obituary, Canada Law Journal, January 1, 1881, p. 11. According to the journal: "[Cockburn] subsequently acquired a large practice in London in railway and election cases. Although he did his best for his clients, he was careful that they should do their duty by him, and the story is told that on one occasion, when an election committee met, Mr. Cockburn, the counsel for one of the parties, was absent because his fee had not accompanied the brief and the only message left was that he had gone to the Derby, with the remark that 'A man might as well play for nothing as work for nothing'".
Attributed