Civil

Famous quotes containing the word civil:

    “Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
    And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
    Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
    Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
    Alike reserved to blame, or to commend,
    A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
    Dreading e’en fools, by flatterers besieged,
    And so obliging, that he ne’er obliged;
    Like Cato, give his little senate laws,
    And sit attentive to his own applause:”
    —Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    “Over thy wounds now do I prophesy
    ...
    A curse shall light upon the limbs of men,
    Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
    Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.”
    —Robert Lowell (1917–1977)