That's a good one, Sheol. I like it.

This from Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice, and from one of my favorite scenes in any book I've ever read.

To set it up, three Elder Gods have come to the mortal realm to depose a tyrannical king named Kallor. They arrive in his kingdom to find everything burned to dust, the entire continent laid to waste, and they find Kallor himself sitting on a golden throne atop a massive heap of bones. This is part of the conversation they have with him.

'Very well,' the High King sighed. He leaned forward. 'You've come to liberate my people from my tyrannical rule. Alas, I am not one to relinquish such things. Not to you, not to anyone.' He settled back, waved a languid hand. 'Thus, what you would refuse me, I now refuse you.'

Though the truth was before K'rul's eyes, he could not believe it. 'What have--'

'Are you blind?' Kallor shrieked, clutching at the arms of his throne. 'It is gone! They are gone! Break the chains, will you? Go ahead -- no, I surrender them! Here, all about you, is now free! Dust! Bones! All free!'

"The having spoken of myself with unaffected freedom will need little apology with the candid; and let the un-candid consider that they injure me less then their own hearts and minds by misrepresentation. Whatever talents a person may possess to amuse and instruct others, be they ever so inconsiderable, he is yet bound to exert them: if his attempt be ineffectual, let the punishment of an unaccomplished purpose have been sufficient; let none trouble themselves to heap the dust of oblivion upon his efforts; the pile they raise will betray his grave which might otherwise have been unknown."

- Percey Byshe Shelly, Preface to Prometheus Unbound.

(Case in point, Ovid's works were the equivalent of Roman smut. It was not considered proper reading at the time, so naturally, it's what we know about now. ;).)

So, Shelly is basically saying "Don't feed the trolls"? :D

And, another random quote from an author none of you have heard of,

Of course we make crutches of one another. Why else would be crawl when we lose our lovers? -- Ontillas, on the Folly of Men

-Scott Bakker, The Thousandfold Thought.

In his own, very wordy way I imagine. More like "don't complain about crappy things because it draws attention to them."



"Little spoat/gider, who made thee?"

From Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. The spoat/gider is a genetically engineered mix of goat and spider. The phrase is on a fridge magnet in a student's room.

This is technically from a song, but this thread could use a bump and it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. It's from a My Dying Bride song called Two Winters Only.

Jesus wept, that all men might live in peace forevermore. The tears I shed are only for you. Only for you.

At least, I think that's how it goes, quoting off the top of my head.

"Follow my mother!" is the line that sticks out to me. And yes, that's the play with Ophelia.

Planning on (finally) borrowing the unabridged Macbeth and Hamlet from the library this summer.

You mean people read abridged copies? It's a play, it's hardly long to begin with. Unless you're talking about Hamlet. That's a titch lengthy when it comes to reading Shakespeare.

Speaking of plays, I haaaaaaaaaate the "modernized English" version of plays. They sound so...I dunno....stupid ._____.

Haven't read any, though after reading Chaucer in middle English reading his work in contemporary English sounds odd; plebian somehow. I imagine part of it has to do with the fact that English just doesn't rhyme as well with itself now as it used to. No pronouncing the funky endings anymore.

Hahahaha... Pretty much nobody on my class would pronounce "again" as rhyming with "rain"...I for some reason did that automatically while reading.

Really? How does one pronounce "again"? I always rhyme them. Rhyme's with "brain" too, in a poem by a famous author who's identity I do not know nor do I know what the name of the poem is to begin with.

Something about the carol of a bird...