Famous quotes containing the words world, war, forced and/or abdication:
“If all things were eternall,
And nothing their end bringing;
If this should be, then how should we
Here make an end of singing?”
—Unknown. If All the World Were Paper (l. 21–24)
“The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean “the foolish face of praise,” the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved but moved, by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face, with the most disagreeable sensation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The abdication of Belief
Makes the Behavior small—
Better an ignis fatuus
Than no illume at all.”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)