Quotes about armour

A collection of quotes on the topic of armour, likeness, time, down.

Quotes about armour

Louis IX of France photo

“Our clothing and our armour ought to be of such a kind that men of mature experience will not say that we have spent too much on them, nor younger men say we have spent too little.”

Louis IX of France (1214–1270) King of France

On se doit assemer en robes et en armes en tel manière que li preudome de cest siècle ne dient que on en face trop, ne les joenes gens de cest siècle ne dient que on en face peu.
Page 171. http://users.skynet.be/antoine.mechelynck/chroniq/joinv/JV006.htm
Jean de Joinville Livre des saintes paroles et des bons faiz nostre roy saint Looys

Gene Simmons photo

“We can't be The Beatles. I can't shine their shoes. I can't sing as well as Paul or John. I can't write those kind of songs. But they would die in my armour and my eight-inch platform heels, and Paul can't spit fire, so there you have it.”

Gene Simmons (1949) Israeli-born American rock bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and actor

Mojo magazine (December 2009), p. 40.

Jimi Hendrix photo

“Anger he smiles towering in shiney metallic purple armour,
Queen jealousy envy waits behind him,
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

Bold as Love
Song lyrics, Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

Leonardo Da Vinci photo
Douglas Adams photo

“The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he, by peddling second rate technology, led them into it in the first place, and continues to do so today.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

As quoted in The Guardian (1995), and in "Biting back at Microsoft" (5 June 2001) http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2001/jun/05/guardianletters3

Rick Riordan photo
Leonard Cohen photo

“As our eyes grow accustomed to sight they armour themselves against wonder.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Source: The Favorite Game

Michael Palin photo
E.M. Forster photo
Steven Erikson photo
Steven Erikson photo
Anastacia photo

“I'm just as fragile and broken as anyone else at times. We all have to get through our stuff as best we can. Some of us have strong armour, some of us don't. Sometimes my armour has been very strong and sometimes it's been very fragile.”

Anastacia (1968) American singer-songwriter

Anastacia: I'm as fragile and as broken as anyone else http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/01/anastacia-im-as-fragile-and-as-broken-as-anyone-else-4714481/, Metro.co.uk, May 1, 2014.
General Quotes

Fred Astaire photo
Sri Aurobindo photo

“There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which calls down the rain of God's bounty…. Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives, is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction…. In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defence against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall rise again; even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return. Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable. Mete not the power of the Breath by thy petty instruments, but trust and go forward…. But most keep thy soul clear, even if for a while, of the clamour of the ego. Then shall a fire march before thee in the night and the storm be thy helper and thy flag shall wave on the highest height of the greatness that was to be conquered.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

1918 (The Hour of God)
India's Rebirth

Nick Drake photo

“And at the chime of the city clock
Put up your road block.
Hang on to your crown.
For a stone in a tin can
Is wealth to the city man
Who leaves his armour down.”

Nick Drake (1948–1974) British singer-songwriter

At the Chime of a City Clock
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

Kate Bush photo

“Joanni, Joanni wears a golden cross
And she looks so beautiful in her armour
Joanni, Joanni blows a kiss to God
And she never wears a ring on her finger…”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Aerial (2005), A Sea of Honey (Disc 1)

Kenneth Grahame photo
Diodorus Siculus photo
James Shirley photo
Derren Brown photo
Samuel Butler photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“Their horse cavalry, of which they had twelve brigades, charged valiantly against the swarming tanks and armoured cars but could not harm them with their swords and lances.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

On the Polish defense against Germany, in The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948).
Post-war years (1945–1955)

H. G. Wells photo
Bruno Schulz photo

“">“Sadly, Adela,” said Father, “you have never been able to comprehend matters of a higher order. Always and everywhere, you have thwarted my actions with your outbursts of mindless animosity. But today, clad in armour, I mock your tickling, by which you once drove one helpless to despair.””

Bruno Schulz (1892–1942) Polish novelist and painter

“My Father Joins the Fire Brigade” http://www.schulzian.net/translation/sanatorium/fire_brigade.htm
His father, Adela (the domestic servant)

Tertullian photo

“Why lean upon a blind guide, if you have eyes of your own? Why be clothed by one who is naked, if you have put on Christ? Why use the shield of another, when the apostle gives you armour of your own? It would be better for him to learn from you to acknowledge the resurrection of the flesh, than for you from him to deny it; because if Christians must needs deny it, it would be sufficient if they did so from their own knowledge, without any instruction from the ignorant multitude.”

Tertullian (155–220) Christian theologian

De Resurrectione Carnis [Of the Resurrection of Flesh] Ch.1 as quoted in The Writings of Tertullian, Vol.2 http://books.google.com/books?id=nlcPAQAAMAAJ Tr. Peter Holmes, as contained in Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to AD 325 Vol.15 (1870)

Steven Erikson photo
John Galsworthy photo
Vivian Stanshall photo
Marco Girolamo Vida photo

“I sing the form of war, the bloodless plain,
Armies of ivory, and a mock campaign;
How two bold kings in different armour veil'd,
One black, one white, for conquest fought the field.”

Ludimus effigiem belli, simulataque veris Praelia, buxo acies fictas, et ludicra regna, Ut gemini inter se reges albusque, nigerque Pro laude oppositi certent bicoloribus armis.

Vida's Game of Chess https://books.google.com/books?id=IGMIAAAAQAAJ, opening lines
Compare:
Of armies on the chequer'd field array'd,
And guiltless war in pleasing form display'd;
When two bold kings contend with vain alarms,
In ivory this, and that in ebon arms.
William Jones, Caïssa; Or, The Game of Chess.
Scacchia Ludus (1527)

Michael Foot photo

“We had not the armour, the strength, the quickness in manoeuvre, yes, the leadership”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

explaining Labour's 1983 election defeat when he was leader in his book Another Heart And Other Pulses, 1984.
1980s

Aleister Crowley photo
Diogenes of Sinope photo

“Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside.”

Diogenes of Sinope (-404–-322 BC) ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy

Stobaeus, iii. 22. 40
Quoted by Stobaeus

Homér photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Derren Brown photo

“Under British law, you’re not allowed to fire a live round unless you are a qualified armourer. This is why the live game has to take place overseas.”

Derren Brown (1971) British illusionist

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live (2003)

Arrian photo
Muhammad of Ghor photo

“When the army was mustered, it was found to amount to "fifty thousand mounted men clad in armour and coats of mail," with which they advanced to fight against the Rai of Benares… The Rai of Benares, Jai Chand, the chief of idolatry and perdition, advanced to oppose the royal troops with an army… The Rai of Benares, who prided himself on the number of his forces and war elephants," seated on a lofty howdah, received a deadly wound from an arrow, and "fell from his exalted seat to the earth." His head was carried on the point of a spear to the commander, and " his body was thrown to the dust of contempt." "The impurities of idolatry were purged by the water of the sword from that land, and the country of Hind was freed from vice and superstition."… From that place the royal army proceeded towards Benares 'which is the centre of the country of Hind, and here they destroyed nearly one thousand temples, and raised mosques on their foundations; and the knowledge of the law became promulgated, and the foundations of religion were established.”

Muhammad of Ghor (1160–1206) Ghurid Sultan

About the fight with the Rai of Banares and capture of Asni and of Benares. Hasan Nizami: Taju’l-Ma’sir, in Elliot and Dowson, Vol. II : Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. pp. 222-223 Also quoted in Jain, Meenakshi (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts.

William Ernest Henley photo

“A people, roaring ripe
With victory, rises, menaces, stands renewed,
Sheds its old piddling aims,
Approves its virtue, puts behind itself
The comfortable dream, and goes,
Armoured and militant,
New-pithed, new-souled, new-visioned, up the steeps
To those great altitudes, whereat the weak
Live not. But only the strong
Have leave to strive, and suffer, and achieve.”

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English poet, critic and editor

Epilogue
Hawthorn and Lavender (1901)
Context: A people, haggard with defeat,
Asks if there be a God; yet sets its teeth,
Faces calamity, and goes into the fire
Another than it was. And in wild hours
A people, roaring ripe
With victory, rises, menaces, stands renewed,
Sheds its old piddling aims,
Approves its virtue, puts behind itself
The comfortable dream, and goes,
Armoured and militant,
New-pithed, new-souled, new-visioned, up the steeps
To those great altitudes, whereat the weak
Live not. But only the strong
Have leave to strive, and suffer, and achieve.

Aristotle photo
Peter S. Beagle photo

“Now he spoke them gently and with joy, and as did so he felt his immortality fall from him like an armour, or like a shroud.”

The Last Unicorn (1968)
Context: Schmendrick stepped out into the open and said a few words. They were short words, undistinguished either by melody or harshness, and Schmendrick himself could not hear them for the Red Bull's dreadful bawling. But he knew what they meant, and he knew exactly how to say them, and he knew that he could say them again when he wanted to, in the same way or in a different way. Now he spoke them gently and with joy, and as did so he felt his immortality fall from him like an armour, or like a shroud.

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“The best efforts of human scientists in this direction seemed comparable to those of Stone Age men trying to break through the armour of a bank vault with flint axes.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

2010: Odyssey Two (1982), Ch. 43: Thought Experiment
1980s
Context: Plans for the final assault on Big Brother had already been worked out and agreed upon with Mission Control. Leonov would move in slowly, probing at all frequencies, and with steadily increasing power — constantly reporting back to Earth at every moment. When final contact was made, they would try to secure samples by drilling or laser spectroscopy; no one really expected these endeavours to succeed, as even after a decade of study TMA-1 resisted all attempts to analyse its material. The best efforts of human scientists in this direction seemed comparable to those of Stone Age men trying to break through the armour of a bank vault with flint axes.

“Applause we crave, from scorn we take defence
But have no armour 'gainst indifference.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

A Prologue (1939) to Oliver Goldsmith's The Good Natur'd Man (1768).
Context: Our fate lies in your hands, to you we pray
For an indulgent hearing of our play;
Laugh if you can, or failing that, give vent
In hissing fury to your discontent;
Applause we crave, from scorn we take defence
But have no armour 'gainst indifference.

Charles Stross photo
Seneca the Younger photo
C. L. R. James photo

“Respectability was not an ideal, it was an armour.”

Source: Beyond a Boundary (1963), p. 8

Rufus Wainwright photo

“Rufus is extraordinary, so musically gifted in many diverse fields. He is a prince in shining armour, a true star in these days of dull and boring, pissy little pop stars.”

Rufus Wainwright (1973) American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer

Gavin Friday, [July 16, 2012, http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/everybody-loves-rufus-3168433.html, everybody loves rufus]

Archilochus photo
Prevale photo

“The body is the envelope of the soul, the armour for communicating with the world. It's a duty to take care of it, not only for physical well-being, but to improve the quality of life and its perception.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il corpo è l'involucro dell'anima, l'armatura per comunicare con il mondo. È un dovere prendersene cura, non solo per il benessere fisico, ma per migliorare la qualità della vita e la sua percezione.
Source: prevale.net