
“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”
XI, 15
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XI
Source: The Apology, Phaedo & Crito of Plato/Golden Sayings of Epictetus/Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”
“While he smells like nectar, you smell like a goat.”
As quoted in The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe (2005) by Max Nelson, p. 28. In this epigram, Julian mocked the beer of the Germans and Celts as disgusting in comparison with wine.
General sources
Context: Who and from where are you Dionysus?
Since by the true Bacchus,
I do not recognize you; I know only the son of Zeus.
While he smells like nectar, you smell like a goat.
Can it be then that the Celts because of lack of grapes
Made you from cereals? Therefore one should call you
Demetrius, not Dionysus, rather wheat born and Bromus,
Not Bromius.
“Mr Bachchan smells so nice that I can smell him from a good distance.”
His co-artist quoted in Jiah Khan, Amitabh Bachchan's 'Lolita', who never topped that role, 5 June 2013, 15 December 2013, Indian Express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/jiah-khan-amitabh-bachchans-lolita-who-never-topped-that-role/1125093/,
About Amitabh Bachhan
Source: Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners, p. 43
The last sentence is from the 16 October 1854 Peoria speech, slightly paraphrased. No known contemporary source for the rest. It first appears, attributed to Lincoln, in US religious/inspirational journals in 1907-8, such as p123, Friends Intelligencer: a religious and family journal, Volume 65, Issue 8 (1908)
Misattributed
“He who denies his due to the strong man armed grants him everything.”
Arma tenenti
omnia dat, qui justa negat.
Book I, line 348 (tr. J. D. Duff).
Pharsalia
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 129.
“No normal man who has smelled and associated with death ever wants to see any more of it.”
Up Front (1945)
Context: Many celebrities and self-appointed authorities have returned from quick tours of war zones (some of them getting within hearing distance of the shooting) and have put out their personal theories to batteries of photographers and reporters. Some say the American soldier is the same clean-cut young man who left his home; others say morale is sky-high at the front because everybody's face is shining for the great Cause.
They are wrong. The combat man isn't the same clean-cut lad because you don't fight a kraut by Marquess of Queensberry rules. You shoot him in the back, you blow him apart with mines, you kill or maim him the quickest and most effective way you can with the least danger to yourself. He does the same to you.
He tricks you and cheats you, and if you don't beat him at his own game you don't live to appreciate your own nobleness.
But you don't become a killer. No normal man who has smelled and associated with death ever wants to see any more of it. In fact, the only men who are even going to want to bloody noses in a fist fight after this war will be those who want people to think they were tough combat men, when they weren't. The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry. <!-- p. 12 - 14