Famous quotes containing the words history, saint, helena, british, rule, napoleons and/or exile:
“Universal history is the history of a few metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“Child in the womb,
Or saint on a tomb
Which way shall I lie
To fall asleep?”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Her name was called Lady Helena Herring and her age was 25 and she mated well with the earl.”
—Daisy Ashford (1881–1972)
“The British blockade won the war; but the wonder is that the British blockhead did not lose it. I suppose the enemy was no wiser. War is not a sharpener of wits.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“As a rule we develop a borrowed European idea forward, and ... Europe develops a borrowed American idea backwards.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)