Spartan General

Famous quotes containing the words spartan and/or general:

    But there’s another knowledge that my heart destroys
    As the fox in the old fable destroyed the Spartan boy’s
    Because it proves that things both can and cannot be;
    That the swordsmen and the ladies can still keep company;
    Can pay the poet for a verse and hear the fiddle sound,
    That I am still their servant though all are underground.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    Towards him they bend
    With awful reverence prone; and as a God
    Extoll him equal to the highest in Heav’n:
    Nor fail’d they to express how much they prais’d,
    That for the general safety he despis’d
    His own: for neither do the Spirits damn’d
    Loose all thir vertue; lest bad men should boast
    Thir specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
    Or close ambition varnisht o’er with zeal.
    John Milton (1608–1674)