“Mr. Speaker, as I was saying on November 27, 1979, before I was so rudely interrupted…”
Joe Clark (1939) 16th Prime Minister of Canada
spoken in jest in the House of Commons, March 5, 1984, regarding Pierre Trudeau's resignation as Liberal leader. Clark had delivered a similar salute in 1979, only to have Trudeau remain and defeat him in the 1980 Federal Election. ( http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2006/en/wma/trudeau19840305er1.wma)
“For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.”
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien book The Monsters and the Critics
"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936), p. 14
Context: The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who feels rather than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world of history and geography, as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical allegory, and what is more, probably with one that will not work. For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.
“I have to see a thing a thousand times before I see it once.”
Thomas Wolfe book You Can't Go Home Again
Source: You Can't Go Home Again
“I very nearly died before it was over.”
Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888–1957) Medal of Honor recipient and United States Navy officer
Preface
Alone (1938)
Context: This book is the account of a personal experience — so personal that for four years I could not bring myself to write it. It is different from anything else I have ever written. My other books have been factual, impersonal narratives of my expeditions and flights. This book, on the other hand, is the story of an experience which was in considerable part subjective. I very nearly died before it was over.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky book The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Source: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877), I
Context: I gave up caring about anything, and all the problems disappeared.
And it was after that that I found out the truth. I learnt the truth last November — on the third of November, to be precise — and I remember every instant since.
“I killed her once and died for her many times”
Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory
Source: My Name Is Memory
