Counted Thread

Famous quotes containing the words counted and/or thread:

    What helps it now, that Byron bore,
    With haughty scorn which mock’d the smart,
    Through Europe to the Aetolian shore
    The pageant of his bleeding heart?
    That thousands counted every groan,
    And Europe made his woe her own?
    Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

    Fate forces its way to the powerful and violent. With subservient obedience it will assume for years dependency on one individual: Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, because it loves the elemental human being who grows to resemble it, the intangible element. Sometimes, and these are the most astonishing moments in world history, the thread of fate falls into the hands of a complete nobody but only for a twitching minute.
    Stefan Zweig (18811942)