Famous quotes containing the words john a, john, early and/or years:
“And you could have a new automobile
Ping pong set and garage, but the thief
Stole everything like a miracle.
In his book there was a picture of treason only
And in the garden, cries and colors.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Look Johnny, Spig just joined the Navy. I’m married to it. I run the mess hall. I swab the deck. I chip the rust. You’re afraid that they’ll kick Spig out of the Navy. I’m afraid that they won’t.”
—Frank Fenton, William Wister Haines, co-scenarist, and John Ford. Minne Wead (Maureen O’Hara)
“We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.”
—Henry Reed (1914–1986)
“When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)