Famous quotes containing the words affair, preface and/or defense:
“Time, which shows so vacant, indivisible, and divine in its coming, is slit and peddled into trifles and tatters. A door is to be painted, a lock to be repaired. I want wood, or oil, or meal, or salt; the house smokes, or I have a headache; then the tax; and an affair to be transacted with a man without heart or brains; and the stinging recollection of an injurious or very awkward word,—these eat up the hours.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I suspect by the account you give me of your garden, that you mean a surprise. As good singers always preface their performance by complaints of cold, hoarseness &c.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The aims of life are the best defense against death.”
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)