literature quotes

Let me take you a button-hole lower.
-- William Shakespeare, "Love's Labour's Lost"

AWAKE! FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!
FEAR! FIRE! FOES!
AWAKE! AWAKE!
-- J. R. R. Tolkien

He jests at scars who never felt a wound.
-- Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet, II. 2"

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact...
-- Wm. Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Never laugh at live dragons.
-- Bilbo Baggins [J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit"]

He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his
argument.
-- William Shakespeare, "Love's Labour's Lost"

Every cloud engenders not a storm.
-- William Shakespeare, "Henry VI"

All things that are, are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.
-- Shakespeare, "Merchant of Venice"

Harp not on that string.
-- William Shakespeare, "Henry VI"

For the fashion of Minas Tirith was such that it was built on seven levels,
each delved into a hill, and about each was set a wall, and in each wall
was a gate.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Return of the King"

[Quoted in "VMS Internals and Data Structures", V4.4, when
referring to system overview.]

He hath eaten me out of house and home.
-- William Shakespeare, "Henry IV"

Gratitude and treachery are merely the two extremities of the same procession.
You have seen all of it that is worth staying for when the band and the gaudy
officials have gone by.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
-- Shakespeare, "King Lear"

Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big
enough majority in any town?
-- Mark Twain, "Huckleberry Finn"

As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

Delay not, Caesar. Read it instantly.
-- Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar" 3,1

Here is a letter, read it at your leisure.
-- Shakespeare, "Merchant of Venice" 5,1

[Quoted in "VMS Internals and Data Structures", V4.4, when
referring to I/O system services.]

Many a writer seems to think he is never profound except when he can't
understand his own meaning.
-- George D. Prentice

For years a secret shame destroyed my peace--
I'd not read Eliot, Auden or MacNiece.
But now I think a thought that brings me hope:
Neither had Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope.
-- Justin Richardson.

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has
only nine lives.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

It is often the case that the man who can't tell a lie thinks he is the best
judge of one.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"