Painted Circle

Famous quotes containing the words painted and/or circle:

    Let Sporus tremble—‘What? That thing of silk,
    Sporus, that mere white curd of ass’s milk?
    Satire or sense, alas, can Sporus feel,
    Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?’
    Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings,
    This painted child of dirt, that stinks and stings;
    Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys,
    Yet wit ne’er tastes, and beauty ne’er enjoys:
    Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion.... The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust.
    Charles Dickens (1812–1870)