Defining Empty Sums

Famous quotes containing the words defining, empty and/or sums:

“The U.S. is becoming an increasingly fatherless society. A generation ago, an American child could reasonably expect to grow up with his or her father. Today an American child can reasonably expect not to. Fatherlessness is now approaching a rough parity with fatherhood as a defining feature of American childhood.”
—David Blankenhorn (20th century)

“An empty book is like an infant’s soul, in which anything may be written. It is capable of all things, but containeth nothing. I have a mind to fill this with profitable wonders.”
—Thomas Traherne (1636–1674)

“At Timon’s villalet us pass a day,
Where all cry out,What sums are thrown away!’”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)