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)

    “Boy, I hate their empty shows,
    Persian garlands I detest,
    Bring me not the late-blown rose
    Lingering after all the rest:
    Plainer myrtle pleases me
    Thus outstretched beneath my vine,
    Myrtle more becoming thee,
    Waiting with thy master’s wine.”
    —Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65–8)

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