Siege Quotes - Page 3

• But young men have not only this frivolous ambition of being thought masters of execution, inciting them on the one hand, but also their natural sloth tempting them on the other. They are terrified at the prospect before them, of the toil required to attain exactness. The impetuosity of youth is disgusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from mere impatience of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They wish to find some shorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain the reward of eminence by other means, than those which the indispensable rules of art have prescribed.

  Joshua Reynolds

  Art, Ambition, Mean

  Sir Joshua Reynolds (1867). “The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone”, p.12

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• The Encyclopedia - the advance artillery of reason, the armada of philosophy, the siege engine of the enlightenment.

  Peter Prange

  Philosophy, Enlightenment, Reason

  Peter Prange (2011). “The Philosopher's Kiss: A Novel”, p.291, Simon and Schuster

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• Wealth from trade was the mainspring of Western material advance; the visible agents of change were great guns. These came of age in Europe in the 15th century. On land their potency in reducing castle walls favoured central over local power, since in general only monarchs could afford siege-trains; so nation-states were consolidated and extended into great territorial empires. At sea, guns transformed sailing ships into mobile castles virtually impregnable to opponents who lacked equally powerful ordnance. With the ocean-going gunned warship, western Europe began to extend around the globe.

  Peter Padfield

  Wall, Powerful, Ocean

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• In a sense, every human construction, whether mental or material, is a component in a landscape of fear because it exists in constant chaos. Thus children's fairy tales as well as adult's legends, cosmological myths, and indeed philosophical systems are shelters built by the mind in which human beings can rest, at least temporarily, from the siege of inchoate experience and of doubt.

  Yi-Fu Tuan

  Children, Philosophical, Mind

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• Cultural America is under siege. And as the Soviet experience illustrates, ideology is a weak glue to hold together people otherwise lacking racial, ethnic, and cultural sources of community.

  Samuel P. Huntington

  America, People, Community

  Samuel P. Huntington (2005). “Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity”, Simon & Schuster

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• In Cuba I have always understood harsh treatment of dissenting voices as stemming from a "siege situation" imposed upon it from outside. And I believe that to a certain extent that is true.

  Harold Pinter

  Believe, Voice, Cuba

  "Caribbean Cold War". Red Pepper Magazine, May 1996.

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• Ah, whither shall a maiden flee, When a bold youth so swift pursues, And siege of tenderest courtesy, With hope perseverant, still renews!

  Coventry Patmore

  Youth, Courtesy, Maidens

  Coventry Patmore (1853). “Tamerton Church-tower: And Other Poems”, p.85

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• Well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit, And, in strong proff of chastity well armed, From Love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed. She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes, Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold. O, she is rich in beauty; only poor That, when she dies, with dies her store. Act 1,Scene 1, lines 180-197

  William Shakespeare

  Strong, Eye, Arrows

  William Shakespeare (2000). “Romeo and Juliet”, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• The home is under siege. So many families are being destroyed...If anyone can change the dismal situation into which we are sliding, it is you. Rise up, oh women of Zion, rise up to the great challenge which faces you. My message to you, my challenge to you, my prayer is that you will rededicate yourselves to the strengthening of your homes.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Prayer, Home, Motherhood

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• He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

  Sun Tzu

  Strength, Art, Strong

  Sun Tzu “Sun Tzu: The Art of War (Illustrated)”, Charles River Editors

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• It is not the most distinguished achievements that men's virtues or vices may be best discovered; but very often an action of small note. An casual remark or joke shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles.

  Plutarch

  Real, Character, Men

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• Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;
  Still question'd me the story of my life,
  From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
  That I have pass'd.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Father, Years

  William Shakespeare (1826). “Plays of William Shakespeare”, p.934

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• my brain had begun to endure its familiar siege: panic and dislocation, and a sense that my thought processes were being engulfed by a toxic and unnameable tide that obliterated any enjoyable response to the living world.

  William Styron

  Brain, Toxic, World

  William Styron (1990). “Darkness visible: a memoir of madness”, Random House Incorporated

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• We live in the shadow of crime with the unspoken understanding that we are victims.. of fear, of violence, of social impotence. A man has risen to show us that the power is, ans always has been, in our hands. We are under siege. He's showing us that we can resist.

  Frank Miller

  Men, Hands, Understanding

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• As far back as she could remember, a phantom life had mocked her with its impenetrable “something else,” but now it was the opposite. Here, in the circle of Akiva's presence, even as they spoke of war and siege and enduring enmity, she felt herself being drawn into the warm absoluteness and rightness of him, like he was both place and person and, contrary to all reason, exactly where she was supposed to be.

  Laini Taylor

  War, Opposites, Circles

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• So why are we practicing this, anyway?" Percy asked. "Do you guys spend a lot of time laying siege to fortified cities?

  Rick Riordan

  Cities, Guy

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• I tried to imagine how things could get much worse. The gods were in the Midwest fighting a huge monster that had almost defeated them once before. Poseidon was under siege and losing a war against the sea Titan Oceanus. Kronos was still out there somewhere. Olympus was virtually undefended. The demigods of Camp Half-Blood were on our own with a spy in our midst. Oh, and according to the ancient prophecy, I was going to die when I turned sixteen—which happened to be in five days, the exact same time Typhon was supposed to hit New York. Almost forgot that.

  Rick Riordan

  New York, War, Fighting

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• If there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it, Making it momentary as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!' The jaws of darkness do devour it up; So quick bright things come to confusion.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, War, Night

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. 141

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• Science fiction is a dialogue, a tennis match, in which the Idea is volleyed from one side of the net to the other. Ridiculous to say that someone 'stole' an idea: no, no, a thousand times no. The point is the volley, and how it's carried, and what statement is made by the answering 'statement.' In other words — if Burroughs initiates a time-gate and says it works randomly, and then Norton has time gates confounded with the Perilous Seat, the Siege Perilous of the Round Table, and locates it in a bar on a rainy night — do you see both the humor and the volley in the tennis match?

  C. J. Cherryh

  Night, Ideas, Tennis

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• Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any expirienced in a town when it is under siege.

  Voltaire

  Art, Blessing, Cities

  "Candide, Or, Optimism". Book by Voltaire, 1759.

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• Out on the street I start to run; I need to breathe in this life, the trees, the warmth of my town. I will be able to control my own fate and I will know how to be happy. Happiness is something you lay siege to, it is a battle . . .

  Shan Sa

  Running, Fate, Tree

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• My weaknesses are women in high heels, freedom under siege, and ebay. (Steele)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  High Heels, Ebay, Weakness

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• Because to the poor, books are not diversions. Book are siege weapons.

  Joe Queenan

  Book, Weapons, Poor

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• I love the combination of smartness, pain, and what one might call conscious postmodern trashiness in this book: a version of the erotic full of nervous tension which animates the sensuality, and also Zimroth's feeling for words, compressed, ironic, withholding, but also 'asking for it . . . the siege, the thrill, the battle fatigue.' A profoundly urban book, of harsh memory and fantasy, set in harsher reality.

  Alicia Ostriker

  Pain, Memories, Book

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• What of miniature boats constructed of birch bark and fallen leaves, launched onto cold water clear as air? How many fleets were pushed out toward the middles of ponds or sent down autumn brooks, holding treasures of acorns, or black feathers, or a puzzled mantis? Let those grassy crafts be listed alongside the iron hulls that cleave the sea, for they are all improvisations built from the daydreams of men, and all will perish, whether from the ocean siege or October breeze.

  Paul Harding

  Ocean, Autumn, Men

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