Famous quotes containing the word softly:
“That air would disappear from the whole earth in time, perhaps; but long after his day. He did not know just when it had become so necessary to him, but he had come back to die in exile for the sake of it. Something soft and wild and free, something that whispered to the ear on the pillow, lightened the heart, softly, softly picked the lock, slid the bolts, and released the prisoned spirit of man into the wind, into the blue and gold, into the morning, into the morning!”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“It has been played once more. I think you exist only
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“My grandfathers, my grandmothers and my mother hardly ever spanked at all. My grandfather said that if you spanked the little ones, you made them scared and they couldn’t think. My great great-grandfathers used to use the double rope, but they never hit you; they would just barely miss you with that rope. Afterwards, they would go easy. They would take this boy or girl and talk very softly and kindly to them, and these youngsters would listen.”
—Max Hanley (20th century)