Defensive Walls

Famous quotes containing the words defensive and/or walls:

    “What is clear is that Christianity directed increased attention to childhood. For the first time in history it seemed important to decide what the moral status of children was. In the midst of this sometimes excessive concern, a new sympathy for children was promoted. Sometimes this meant criticizing adults. . . . So far as parents were put on the defensive in this way, the beginning of the Christian era marks a revolution in the child’s status.”
    —C. John Sommerville (20th century)

    “Lift not thy spear against the Muses’ bower:
    The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
    The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
    Went to the ground; and the repeated air
    Of sad Electra’s poet had the power
    To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.”
    —John Milton (1608–1674)