Commandment

Famous quotes containing the word commandment:

    The Gospel of the army is cunning, as of all other human activities. The wisdom of the snake under the meekness of the sheep is what wins out.
    The first Commandment is—never let them get anything on you—
    The second: Graft—get privileges others haven’t got—worm yourself into confidence
    The Third—seem neat and prosperous—as if you had money in the bank—
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    Ideals possess the strange quality that if they were completely realized they would turn into nonsense. One could easily follow a commandment such as “Thou shalt not kill” to the point of dying of starvation; and I might establish the formula that for the proper functioning of the mesh of our ideals, as in the case of a strainer, the holes are just as important as the mesh.
    Robert Musil (1880–1942)

    Remember thee?
    Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
    In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
    Yea, from the table of my memory
    I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
    All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
    That youth and observation copied there,
    And thy commandment all alone shall live
    Within the book and volume of my brain,
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)