Alas Quotes - Page 13

• Alas, what wickedness to swallow flesh into our own flesh, to fatten our greedy bodies by cramming in other bodies, to have one living creature fed by the death of another!

  Pythagoras

  Vegetarianism, Wickedness, Body

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• Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress-trees Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day Across the mournful marbles play!

  John Greenleaf Whittier

  Stars, Play, Shining

  John Greenleaf Whittier (1873). “The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier”, p.288

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• Like driftwood spares which meet and pass Upon the boundless ocean-plain, So on the sea of life, alas! Man nears man, meets, and leaves again.

  Matthew Arnold

  Ocean, Men, Sea

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• A true evangelist is almost as great a rarity as a true pastor. Alas! Alas! How rare are both! The two are closely connected. The evangelist gathers the sheep; the pastor feeds and cares for them. The work of each lies very near the heart of Christ- [Who Is] The Divine Evangelist and Pastor.

  Charles Henry Mackintosh

  Christian, Lying, Heart

  Charles Henry Mackintosh (2012). “The Mackintosh Treasury - Miscellaneous Writings - Volume V: The Church – The Body of Christ”, p.7, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Years hence, perhaps, may dawn an age, More fortunate, alas! than we, Which without hardness will be sage, And gay without frivolity.

  Matthew Arnold

  Gay, Years, Age

  Matthew Arnold (1954). “A selection of his poems”

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• It's a joy to be up close to Derek Jacobi's work. Alas, we haven't worked very much, over the years, since we were at university together, but I don't think I've missed many of his great shows and performances.

  Ian Mckellen

  Thinking, Years, Joy

  Source: collider.com

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• Alas, it is just a single image - an extended moment perhaps. Unlike a biography, a portrait cannot present the many differing moments that make up a personality.

  Burton Silverman

  Personality, Portraits, Portraiture

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• Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish. Alas, the heart hardens as the blood ceases to run. The cold snow strikes down from the head, and checks the glow of feeling. Who wants to survive into old age after abdicating all his faculties one by one, and be sans teeth, sans eyes, sans memory, sans hope, sans sympathy?

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Running, Memories, Selfish

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2008). “The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition”, p.353, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: What are you asking God to do? To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.

  C. S. Lewis

  Running, Past, Offering

  "The Problem of Pain". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1940.

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• I've long believed alas, that in highly organized industrial societies, capitalist or socialist, the stronger tendency is to converge - that if steel or automobiles are wanted and must be made on a large scale, the process will stamp its imprint on the society, whether that me be Magnitogorsk or Gary, Indiana.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Long, Stronger, Steel

  "The Age of Uncertainty". Book by John Kenneth Galbraith. Chapter 2, p. 84, 1977.

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• Alas! I have nor hope nor health, Nor peace within nor calm around, Nor that content surpassing wealth The sage in meditation found.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Meditation, Sage, Calm

  'Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples' (1818)

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• I built myself a house of glass:It took me years to make it:And I was proud. But now, alas!Would God someone would break it.

  Edward Thomas

  Glasses, Years, House

  Edward Thomas (2011). “Selected Poems of Edward Thomas”, p.100, Faber & Faber

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• Everything, alas, is an abyss, — actions, desires, dreams, words!

  Charles Baudelaire

  Dream, Desire, Action

  "Le Gouffre". Poem by Charles Baudelaire, 1862.

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• If a pot can multiply. One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour, who was giving a feast. The neighbour returned them, together with one extra one – a very tiny pot. 'What is this?' asked Nasrudin. 'According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care,' said the joker. Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbour's pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get them back. 'Alas!' said Nasrudin, 'they are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?'.

  Idries Shah

  Men, Law, Giving

  Idries Shah (2015). “The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin”, p.15, ISF Publishing

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• Love is sublime, truly, a precious gift. But also, alas, one of God's little pranks. It's naive of you to confuse love with happiness, as if they were somehow the samae thing. In fact love, once found, is more akin to gravity: too strong, too close, and it will crush you. Unless you're careful, always.

  Wil McCarthy

  Crush, Strong, Love Is

  Wil McCarthy (2009). “The Collapsium”, p.319, Bantam

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• Alas! we makeA ladder of our thoughts, where angels step,But sleep ourselves at the foot: our high resolvesLook down upon our slumbering acts.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Sleep, Angel, Feet

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1829). “The Venetian bracelet: the lost pleiad ; a history of the lyre, and other poems”, p.111

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• Alas! fond child, How are thy thoughts beguil'd To hope for honey from a nest of wasps? Thou may'st as well Go seek for ease in hell, Or sprightly nectar from the mouths of asps. The world's a hive, From whence thou canst derive No good, but what thy soul's vexation brings: But case thou meet Some petty-petty sweet, Each drop is guarded with a thousand stings.

  Francis Quarles

  Sweet, Children, Soul

  Francis Quarles, Robert Wilson (A. M.) (1839). “Emblems divine and moral”, p.17

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• Alas, poor men, their destiny. When all goes well a shadow will overthrow it. If it be unkind one stroke of a wet sponge wipes all the picture out.

  Aeschylus

  Destiny, Men, Shadow

  Aeschylus (2013). “Aeschylus II: The Oresteia”, p.66, University of Chicago Press

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• Like water spilt upon the ground--alas, Our little lives flow swiftly on and pass; Yet may they bring rich harvests and green grass!

  Henry Van Dyke

  Life, Water, May

  Henry Van Dyke (1920). “The Poems of Henry Van Dyke”

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• Those that have wealth must be watchful and wary,
  Power, alas! naught but misery brings!

  Thomas Haynes Bayly

  Misery, Wealth

  "I'd be a Butterfly". "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations", 10th edition, 1919.

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• Alas! is even love too weak To unlock the heart, and let it speak?

  Matthew Arnold

  Love, Heart, Speak

  Matthew Arnold (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)”, p.167, Delphi Classics

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• War is a culture, bellicosity is addictive, defeat for a community that imagines itself to be history's eternal victim can be as intoxicating as victory. How long will it take for the Serbs to realize that the Milosevic years have been an unmitigated disaster for Serbia, the net result of Milosevic's policies being the economic and cultural ruin of the entire region, including Serbia, for several generations? Alas, one thing we can be sure of, that will not happen soon.

  Susan Sontag

  War, Years, Long

  "Why Are We in Kosovo?" by Susan Sontag, www.nytimes.com. May 2, 1999.

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• Great wealth may be to its owner a blessing or a curse. Alas! I fear it is too often the latter. It hardens the heart, blunts the finer susceptibilities, and transforms into a fiend what under more favourable circumstances might have been a human being.

  Arnold Bennett

  Heart, Blessing, May

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• The dumpling is indeed of more ancient institution, and of foreign origin; but alas, what were those dumplings? Nothing but a few lentils sodden together, moisten'd and cemented with a little seeth'd fat.

  John Arbuthnot

  Together, Littles, Ancient

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• Alas, criticism has always been what human beings, especially leaders, most hate to hear.

  David Brin

  Hate, Leader, Criticism

  David Brin (1999). “The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?”, p.11, Basic Books

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