“
A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.
”
”
Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West)
“
Scarlett's mind went back through the years to the still hot noon at Tara when grey smoke curled above a blue-clad body and Melanie stood at the top of the stairs with Charles' sabre in her hand. Scarlett remembered that she had thought at the time: 'How silly! Melly couldn't even heft that sword!' But now she knew that had the necessity arisen, Melanie would have charged down those stairs and killed the Yankee - or been killed herself.
”
”
Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind)
“
There is a recurrent scene from those dinners that surfaces again and again, like an obsessive undercurrent in a dream. Julian, at the head of the long table, rises to his feet and lifts his wineglass. ‘Live forever,’ he says.
And the rest of us rise too, and clink our glasses across the table, like an army regiment crossing sabres: Henry and Bunny, Charles and Francis, Camilla and I. ‘Live forever,’ we chorus, throwing our glasses back in unison.
And always, always, that same toast. Live forever.
”
”
Donna Tartt (The Secret History)
“
Elle ferma les yeux quelques secondes, lutta pour faire refluer son désir naissant. Elle savait que les sentiments étaient souvent plus destructeurs et dangereux qu'une balle d'un 9 mm ou que la lame tranchante d'un sabre.
”
”
Guillaume Musso (Que serais-je sans toi?)
“
That's all you get," said Alpharius, and split him in half.
Alpharius sheathed his gladius, and dragged the sabre out of his torso. He tossed it away, and walked through the liter of bodies to where Namatjira was kneeling on the deck.
"Please! My lord primarch! Please, I beg you!" Namtjira pleaded, his hands making a desperate namaste.
Alpharius drew his boltgun.
"Why?" shrieked Namatjira. "Why are you doing this?
"For the Emperor," said Alpharius, and pulled the trigger.
”
”
Dan Abnett (Legion (The Horus Heresy, #7))
“
There is one thing I like about the Poles—their language. Polish, when it is spoken by intelligent people, puts me in ecstasy. The sound of the language evokes strange images in which there is always a greensward of fine spiked grass in which hornets and snakes play a great part. I remember days long back when Stanley would invite me to visit his relatives; he used to make me carry a roll of music because he wanted to show me off to these rich relatives. I remember this atmosphere well because in the presence of these smooth−tongued, overly polite, pretentious and thoroughly false Poles I always felt miserably uncomfortable. But when they spoke to one another, sometimes in French, sometimes in Polish, I sat back and watched them fascinatedly. They made strange Polish grimaces, altogether unlike our relatives who were stupid barbarians at bottom. The Poles were like standing snakes fitted up with collars of hornets. I never knew what they were talking about but it always seemed to me as if they were politely assassinating some one. They were all fitted up with sabres and broad−swords which they held in their teeth or brandished fiercely in a thundering charge. They never swerved from the path but rode rough−shod over women and children, spiking them with long pikes beribboned with blood−red pennants. All this, of course, in the drawing−room over a glass of strong tea, the men in butter−colored gloves, the women dangling their silly lorgnettes. The women were always ravishingly beautiful, the blonde houri type garnered centuries ago during the Crusades. They hissed their long polychromatic words through tiny, sensual mouths whose lips were soft as geraniums. These furious sorties with adders and rose petals made an intoxicating sort of music, a steel−stringed zithery slipper−gibber which could also register anomalous sounds like sobs and falling jets of water.
”
”
Henry Miller (Sexus (The Rosy Crucifixion, #1))
“
What shall we do?’ said Twoflower. ‘Panic?’ said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival; back in the olden days, his theory went, people faced with hungry sabre-toothed tigers could be divided very simply into those who panicked and those who stood there saying ‘What a magnificent brute!’ and ‘Here, pussy.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (The Light Fantastic (Discworld, #2))
“
Dear Hunger Games :
Screw you for helping cowards pretend you have to be great with a bow to fight evil.
You don't need to be drafted into a monkey-infested jungle to fight evil.
You don't need your father's light sabre, or to be bitten by a radioactive spider.
You don't need to be stalked by a creepy ancient vampire who is basically a pedophile if you're younger than a redwood.
Screw you mainstream media for making it look like moral courage requires hair gel, thousands of sit ups and millions of dollars of fake ass CGI.
Moral courage is the gritty, scary and mostly anonymous process of challenging friends, co-workers and family on issues like spanking, taxation, debt, circumcision and war.
Moral courage is standing up to bullies when the audience is not cheering, but jeering. It is helping broken people out of abusive relationships, and promoting the inner peace of self knowledge in a shallow and empty pseudo-culture.
Moral courage does not ask for - or receive - permission or the praise of the masses. If the masses praise you, it is because you are helping distract them from their own moral cowardice and conformity. Those who provoke discomfort create change - no one else.
So forget your politics and vampires and magic wands and photon torpedoes. Forget passively waiting for the world to provoke and corner you into being virtuous. It never will.
Stop watching fictional courage and go live some; it is harder and better than anything you will ever see on a screen.
Let's make the world change the classification of courage from 'fantasy' to 'documentary.'
You know there are people in your life who are doing wrong. Go talk to them, and encourage them to pursue philosophy, self-knowledge and virtue.
Be your own hero; you are the One that your world has been waiting for.
”
”
Stefan Molyneux
“
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not,
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
”
”
Alfred Tennyson
“
Affronter Edwin Til'Illan, un sabre à la main, revient à se jeter nu entre les griffes d'un tigre des prairies affamé. C'est ce que prétendent de nombreux spécialistes sans savoir de quoi ils parlent. On peut vaincre un tigre affamé !
”
”
Pierre Bottero (Les Frontières de glace (La Quête d'Ewilan, #2))
“
She shook her head. “A fantasy…” “Fantasy Romance,” Sabre added, winking at Poe.
”
”
Lucian Bane (Seven Sons of Zion (Scribbler Guardian #2))
“
New girl,” says Piper Morello now, Monday morning in the common hall with her sabre slivering the air into jagged little pieces. “Where’d you come from?”
“Hell,” I say before I can stop myself.
”
”
Hannah Capin (Foul Is Fair)
“
An agile, well-trained, brave elephant, ridden by a good mahout, its trunk armed with the kind of sabre known as a qartal and covered with chain mail, while the rest of its body is protected by sheets of bark and iron, surrounded by 500 men to defend it and protect it to the rear, can fight against 6000 men on horseback.
”
”
al-Mas'udi
“
Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17—, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof. I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow—a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:
”
”
Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)
“
You're son of an alpha, Cade. The most that will happen is that you get sick for a while. You have pure blood in your veins. You can take it. We’ll be right here with you.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
Ewilan, lorsqu'elle a dessiné le sabre d'Edwin, a eu la bonne idée de le lui placer entre les mains et non de le ficher dans un rocher jusqu'à la garde. C'est peut-être moins romantique, mais sacrément plus pratique.
”
”
Pierre Bottero (Les Frontières de glace (La Quête d'Ewilan, #2))
“
tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.
”
”
Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)
“
I guess she felt as I: that the weakness was not Government but Man, one at a time, that men were never as strong as their ideas and that ideas were governments turned into men;
and so it began on a couch with a spilled martini
and it ended in the bedroom: desire, revolution,
nonsense ended, and the shades rattled in the wind,
rattled like sabres, cracked like cannon,
and 30 dogs, 20 men on 20 horses chased one fox
across the fields under the sun
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame)
“
I guess she felt as I: that the weakness was not Government
but Man, one at a time, that men were never as strong as
their ideas and that ideas were governments turned into men;
and so it began on a couch with a spilled martini
and it ended in the bedroom: desire, revolution,
nonsense ended, and the shades rattled in the wind,
rattled like sabres, cracked like cannon,
and 30 dogs, 20 men on 20 horses chased one fox
across the fields under the sun
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame)
“
hand-barrow—a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.
”
”
Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)
“
But I see you're not standing in a bleedin' shadow, Perks, nor have you done anything to change your bleedin' shape, you're silhouetted against the bleedin' light and your sabre's shining like a diamond in a chimney-sweep's bleedin' ear'ole! Explain!"
"It's because of the one C, sarge!" said Polly, still staring straight ahead.
"And that is?"
"Colour, sarge! I'm wearing bleedin' red and white in a bleedin' grey forest, sarge!
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Monstrous Regiment (Discworld, #31; Industrial Revolution, #3))
“
Are you ready region of doom? Here comes the Buffalo Sabres!
”
”
Rick Jeanneret
“
Sabr is not spending all my savings on books!
”
”
KP
“
I wouldn’t call them unfinished,” Sabre said. “More like… brilliance on hold.
”
”
Lucian Bane (Seven Sons of Zion (Scribbler Guardian #2))
“
(Regarding a twenty-questions game:)
Did you know that the Russian composer Aram Katchaturian described his ‘Sabre Dance’ as no more than a button on the shirt on the body of his work? No? You’re not alone. Suppose my twenty-questions answer was that metaphorical button — would that be fair?
”
”
Stephen Minkin (A no doubt mad idea)
“
heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.
”
”
Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)
“
Top shelf where momma hides the cookies!
”
”
Rick Jeanneret
“
Les mots sont la vie.Quoi qu'il puisse t'arriver, tu aurais écrit, même dans ta tête.Écrire, c'est tricoter avec les laines des pensées : formes, couleurs, fils, sensations, idées abstraites. Les agencer, puis les couvrir d'une couette douillette. Ou au contraire, les trancher avec un sabre.
”
”
Florence Hinckel (Nos éclats de miroir)
“
So the women would not forgive. Their passion remained intact, carefully guarded and nurtured by the bitter knowledge of all they had lost, of all that had been stolen from them. For generations they vilified the Yankee race so the thief would have a face, a name, a mysterious country into which he had withdrawn and from which he might venture again. They banded together into a militant freemasonry of remembering, and from that citadel held out against any suggestion that what they had suffered and lost might have been in vain. They created the Lost Cause, and consecrated that proud fiction with the blood of real men. To the Lost Cause they dedicated their own blood, their own lives, and to it they offered books, monographs, songs, acres and acres of bad poetry. They fashioned out of grief and loss an imaginary world in which every Southern church had stabled Yankee horses, every nick in Mama's furniture was made by Yankee spurs, every torn painting was the victim of Yankee sabre - a world in which paint did not stick to plaster walls because of the precious salt once hidden there; in which bloodstains could not be washed away and every other house had been a hospital.
”
”
Howard Bahr (The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War)
“
Roll the highlight film!
”
”
Rick Jeanneret
“
father’s words echoed in his mind. Take the big one out first. The rest will run. The big one he supposed was the boy with the stick. He was the one in charge, at least. “You
”
”
Mason Sabre (The Rise of the Phoenix)
“
The boy imagined that if he heard someone talking, their voices would sound like a 45 record on 33 speed.
”
”
Mason Sabre (The Rise of the Phoenix)
Teresa Burrell (The Advocate (The Advocate, #1))
“
Damas. Seul endroit où l’on sache faire les sabres. Toute bonne lame est de Damas.
”
”
Gustave Flaubert (Le dictionnaire des idées reçues (French Edition))
“
Ensign Fitzgerald had somehow managed to get himself a jewelled sabre that he was now flashing around like a shilling whore given a guinea fan.
”
”
Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe's Tiger (Sharpe, #1))
“
He’s so ugly his mama takes him everywhere so she doesn’t have to kiss him goodbye.” Sabre
”
”
Teresa Burrell (The Advocate's Conviction (The Advocate, #3))
“
Un homme était apparu au sommet des escaliers.
Il tenait à la main un sabre ruisselant de sang et une détermination effrayante irradiait de ses yeux gris acier.
Il ne lui fallut qu'une fraction de seconde pour jauger la situation.
Pour que son regard capte celui d'Ellana.
Pour qu'il comprenne l'incroyable présent que lui offrait la vie.
Pour qu'il en juge l'inestimable valeur et en mesure la terrible fragilité.
Pour qu'il bondisse et atterrisse au milieu des mercenaires.
Une fraction de seconde.
Edwin entreprit de se frayer un passage jusqu'à Ellana.
”
”
Pierre Bottero (Ellana, la Prophétie (Le Pacte des MarchOmbres, #3))
“
I've been living like this for a long time - about twenty years. I'm forty now. I used to be in the civil service; I no longer am. I was a wicked official. I was rude, and took pleasure in it. After all, I didn't accept bribes, so I had to reward myself at least with that. (A bad witticism, but I won't cross it out. I wrote it thinking it would come out very witty; but now, seeing for myself that I simply had a vile wish to swagger - I purposely won't cross it out!) When petitioners would come for information to the desk where I sat - I'd gnash my teeth at them, and felt an inexhaustible delight when I managed to upset someone. I almost always managed. They were timid people for the most part: petitioners, you know. But among the fops there was one officer I especially could not stand. He simply refused to submit and kept rattling his sabre disgustingly. I was at war with him over that sabre for a year and a half. In the end, I prevailed. He stopped rattling. However, that was still in my youth. But do you know, gentlemen, what was the main point about my wickedness? The whole thing precisely was, the greatest nastiness precisely lay in my being shamefully conscious every moment, even in moments of the greatest bile, that I was not only not a wicked but was not even an embittered man, that I was simply frightening sparrows in vain, and pleasing myself with it. I’m foaming at the mouth, but bring me some little doll, give me some tea with a bit of suger, and maybe I’ll calm down. I’ll even wax tenderhearted, though afterwards I’ll certainly gnash my teeth at myself and suffer from insomnia for a few months out of shame. Such is my custom.
And I lied about myself just now when I said I was a wicked official. I lied out of wickedness. I was simply playing around both with the petitioners and with the officer, but as a matter of fact I was never able to become wicked.
”
”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground)
“
Let go” Cade said. Let the wolf become you. The small wolf gave a frightened look, his blue eyes reflecting the depth of his fear. Cade’s heart squeezed at the sight. He hated what he had to do.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
si les Américains s'étaient donné autant de mal pour le désarmement que pour envoyer un pauvre type sur la lune, ou coller des rayures roses dans le dentifrice, on l'aurait depuis longtemps, le désarmement. (...) le plus grand péché de l'Occident était de croire qu'il pouvait foutre en l'air le système soviétique par une surenchère dans la course aux armements, parce que dans ce cas-là, on jouait avec le destin de l'humanité. Et qu'en mettant sabre au clair, l'Ouest avait fourni un bon prétexte aux dirigeants soviétiques pour garder leur rideau baissé et instituer un État militaire. (chapitre 4)
”
”
John Le Carré (The Russia House)
“
He had dreamt of her. It was a cruel dream. She had knelt beside him, whispered to him and told him that it wasn’t his fault. She had even run her hands through his fur… Fur. He didn’t know whether to love or hate it.
”
”
Mason Sabre (The Rise of the Phoenix)
“
Just nipping to the loo,” he explained when she frowned. She nodded as her mind raced to connect the word to meaning. She knew that word. She knew she knew it, and yet, her mind kept hiding it every moment she tried to recall it. Loo, loo, loo. “The bank?” she dared in a tiny voice. He gave another hefty chuckle, having the time of his life with her inexperience. “Spend a penny … water the one eyed dragon?” “The bathroom,” she cried.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cuts Like An Angel Book 1 (Cuts Like an Angel, #1))
“
Dwayne Hoover, incidentally, had an unusually large penis, and didn’t even know it. The few women he had had anything to do with weren’t sufficiently experienced to know whether he was average or not. The world average was five and seven-eighths inches long, and one and
one-half inches in diameter when engorged with blood. Dwayne’s was seven inches long and two and one-eighth inches in diameter when engorged with blood.
Dwayne’s son Bunny had a penis that was exactly average.
Kilgore Trout had a penis seven inches long, but only one and one-quarter inches in diameter...
Harry LeSabre, Dwayne’s sales manager, had a penis five inches long and two and one-eighth inches in diameter.
Cyprian Ukwende, the black physician from Nigeria, had a penis six and seven-eighths inches long and one and three-quarters inches in diameter.
Don Breedlove, the gas-conversion unit installer who raped Patty Keene, had a penis five and seven-eighths inches long and one and seven-eighths inches in diameter.
Patty Keene had thirty-four-inch hips, a twenty-six-inch waist, and a thirty-four-inch bosom.
Dwayne’s late wife had thirty-six-inch hips, a twenty-eight-inch waist, and a thirty-eight-inch bosom when he married her. She had thirty- nine-inch hips, a thirty-one-inch waist, and a thirty-eight-inch bosom when she ate Dr‚no.
His mistress and secretary, Francine Pefko, had thirty-seven-inch hips, a thirty-inch waist, and a thirty-nine-inch bosom. His stepmother at the time of her death had thirty-four-inch hips, a twenty-four-inch waist, and a thirty-three-inch bosom.
”
”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Breakfast of Champions)
“
Un guerrier Thül sortit du rang. Il leva les bras à la hauteur de son visage et, avec force, claqua ses mains l'une contre l'autre. Comme un Frontalier.
Un Frontalier s'avança à son tour. Il dégaina son sabre et, se calquant sur le rythme du Thül, en abattit le pommeau sur son fourreau. Comme un homme de la Légion Noire.
Un Légionnaire s'approcha d'eux en boitant, se campa fièrement à leurs côtés et, de son poing fermé, frappa sa poitrine de vargelite. Comme un Thül.
”
”
Pierre Bottero (Ellana, la Prophétie (Le Pacte des MarchOmbres, #3))
“
The impact of a dollar upon the heart"
The impact of a dollar upon the heart
Smiles warm red light
Sweeping from the hearth rosily upon the white table,
With the hanging cool velvet shadows
Moving softly upon the door.
The impact of a million dollars
Is a crash of flunkeys
And yawning emblems of Persia
Cheeked against oak, France and a sabre,
The outcry of old beauty
Whored by pimping merchants
To submission before wine and chatter.
Silly rich peasants stamp the carpets of men,
Dead men who dreamed fragrance and light
Into their woof, their lives;
The rug of an honest bear
Under the feet of a cryptic slave
Who speaks always of baubles,
Forgetting state, multitude, work, and state,
Champing and mouthing of hats,
Making ratful squeak of hats,
Hats.
”
”
Stephen Crane
“
The notebook had been a gift from his mother. A reward, she had said, for doing well in his test at school. On the cover was a Phoenix. “It’s a bird,” she had told him with a smile. “They never die. Not properly. They rise from the ashes of their old lives and start a new one.
”
”
Mason Sabre (The Rise of the Phoenix)
“
He wrapped his clawed fingers around something soft, warm and wet, and then he pulled with everything he had in him. He let out a feral scream of his own. Blood spurted all over him, covering his face, going into his mouth and igniting the hunger that he had denied for so long.
”
”
Mason Sabre (The Rise of the Phoenix)
“
Red Army cavalry divisions also ranged far into the rear, mounted on resilient little Cossack ponies. Squadrons and entire regiments would suddenly appear fifteen miles behind the front, charging artillery batteries or supply depots with drawn sabres and terrifying war-cries. The
”
”
Antony Beevor (Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943)
“
I phoned the Admiral back.
'It's no use, Admiral, the French speak nothing but French.'
There was a short pause on the end of the line then his voice rattled into life like a sabre.
'They're lying, Tim!'
'What?'
'The French Navy must by law speak English, as English is the international maritime language of the sea.'
'Has anyone told the French that?'
The line went dead for a moment before he thundered, 'Yes Nelson. At the battle of Trafalgar.'
I tried to stifle an irresistibly British giggle not knowing if the Admiral was making a joke or not. I got it right. He was serious.
”
”
Tim FitzHigham (In the Bath: Conquering the Channel in a Piece of Plumbing)
“
She faced death, as women mostly do, bravely and even gaily, racked slowly to unconsciousness, but yielding only to violence, as a soldier sabred in battle. For many thousands of years, on these hills and plains, Nature had gone on sabring men and women with the same air of sensual pleasure.
”
”
Henry Adams (Education of Henry Adams. The)
“
I come," replied he, "to thee, Manfred, usurper of the principality of Otranto, from the renowned and invincible Knight, the Knight of the Gigantic Sabre: in the name of his Lord, Frederic, Marquis of Vicenza, he demands the Lady Isabella, daughter of that Prince, whom thou hast basely and traitorously got into thy power, by bribing her false guardians during his absence; and he requires thee to resign the principality of Otranto, which thou hast usurped from the said Lord Frederic, the nearest of blood to the last rightful Lord, Alfonso the Good. If thou dost not instantly comply with these just demands, he defies thee to single combat to the last extremity.
”
”
Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto)
“
With the smugness of an end man on parade, he bounced along on his sinewy legs, effortlessly marching to attention, floating with a lightness of step remarkably different from the heavy tread of the soldiers keeping time with him. Down by his thigh he carried, unsheathed, a thin little sword – it was a small curved sabre, for ceremonial use only – and he looked and turned sideways to the commander and back to the men behind, without straining his big powerful frame or getting out of step. He seemed to strive with every fibre of his soul to march past his commander with maximum style, and his strong sense of doing this well made him a happy man. ‘Left . . . left . . . left . . .’ he seemed to be mouthing to himself at each alternate step, and that was the rhythm to which the solid wall of military men, weighed down by packs and guns, advanced; each face was different in its stern concentration, and each one of these hundreds of soldiers seemed to mouth his own ‘Left . . . left . . . left . . .’ at each alternate step
”
”
Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace)
“
Oh brother we are not worthy!
”
”
Rick Jeanneret
“
This is the only job I ever wanted and this is the only place I ever wanted to be!
”
”
Rick Jeanneret
“
She tried to remember all the reasons why this was a bad idea. He was wolf and she was tiger—that in itself was going against one of the most fundamental rules of Society law.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
We can't all have fresh meat,” Cade ground out. “I keep some there for when I need it.” “I’d rather starve that eat radioactive bunny.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
When we start to put our lives before others, when we let someone die so that we don’t suffer, then you can say sorry to me.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
Slowly, she raised her gaze and glared at her reflection in the mirror. “How could I have been so stupid?” Pregnant. The
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
Humans ...” He swore violently. “Fucking Humans have Cade and Gemma.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
Only Humans can have possessions,” Stick boy grinned. “And last time I checked, you were not Human.” The boy was about to correct him and tell him that he was Human, but then he remembered that that was no longer true. He clamped his mouth shut, fury starting to blaze inside. He sat back, appearing relaxed, but he was anything but. Inside, the wolf was beginning to rage.
”
”
Mason Sabre (The Rise of the Phoenix)
“
She was gone and he had done it. In that garden, on the bench she had there, it was as if he could almost feel her there. He wished she was really there, to show him forgiveness for what he had done. Her scent mingled with the scent of the flowers. Each one bloomed from years of her guidance. Yet, he had taken it all away. The sorrow in his heart roused the creature inside him from his sleep. “Not
”
”
Mason Sabre (The Rise of the Phoenix)
“
Quiet! Go over there, fifty paces away from the wood, and you’ll find one of those poor soldiers from our regiment who’ve just been sabred; take his musket and cartridge-pouch. Be sure not to take ‘em from one of the wounded, take the musket and cartridge-pouch of someone who’s good and dead, and hurry, so you don’t get shot by our men.’ Fabrice ran off, returning very quickly with a musket and cartridge-pouch.
”
”
Stendhal (The Charterhouse of Parma)
“
Don’t,” Phoenix warned her. “Or I’ll drop her right on you. You get them to stop this van.” Janie laughed, an evil sound. “No.” “Get them to stop it.” The witch continued to smile as she chanted. Phoenix stood up, and his head hit the top of the van. He held Sage to him tightly, clinging to her, and then he raised his foot and smacked it into the double doors at the back of the van. They swung open with a thump. “Get
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
When the first Americans marched south from Alaska into the plains of Canada and the western United States, they encountered mammoths and mastodons, rodents the size of bears, herds of horses and camels, oversized lions and dozens of large species the likes of which are completely unknown today, among them fearsome sabre-tooth cats and giant ground sloths that weighed up to eight tons and reached a height of twenty feet.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“
One person was never just one person. You made the decision to do the right thing and took the first step. Then, gradually, others would follow. But someone had to be brave enough to dare. Somebody had to take that first step.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
He wants the baby, right? You said that. He is happy?” “Yes, but …” “If you abort his baby …” She stopped short and leaned in to embrace Gemma. “If you abort this baby,” she whispered, “there are more ways to die than death.” And
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
watched Gemma walk away. It literally physically hurt. Such longing in his gut and his chest—he had never felt this way before. It was total madness, he knew, but a hunger had awoken inside him, and he had no idea how to appease it.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
There’s an entire field of bloody sheep out there. Don’t you … I don’t know … fancy some fresh lamb chops or something?” Stephen laughed at his own joke and Cade rolled his eyes. “Big bad wolf could find some little pigs or something?
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
You know what, my dear, I learned something in war. Those of my peers in the unit who were to die earlier were wiser and knew more about the world around them than the others, and that is how we recognized them and sensed that they would soon be killed. They knew that every murder is committed with a thousand years of premeditation . . . The others, who were to die later, were more stupid. But none of that had anything to do with the innate brightness or dull-wittedness of the ones or the others. So, there are two cases. We belong to the latter.' 'How do you mean?' 'We are happy lovers. Aren't we? And happiness makes one stupid. Happiness and wisdom do not go together, just as body and thought do not go together. Because only pain is the thought of the body. In other words, happy people become stupid people. It is only when they get tired of their happiness that lovers can become wise again, if that is what they otherwise are. So let us not decide now about unbelting my sabre . . . Your steps
”
”
Milorad Pavić (Last love in Constantinople)
“
She clenched her hands into fists and then she was pummelling against the solid wall of his torso. He didn’t stop her, didn’t step away. He stood there and took it, deserving every one of her blows. “I love you, Cade. Don’t you get that? I've loved you forever
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
Lifting a sabre-saw, feeling the heft of it, Mickelsson recognized his hand as his father's hand. They were the same size and shape and had much the same freckled redness; the only real difference was that his father's hand had always been barked, scabbed, cracked, and calloused, always at least one fingernail discolored by some mishap. He remembered a chest his uncle and father had let him help them make when he was seven or so, a pine chest longer and deeper than a coffin, no nails or screws, just wooden pegs, locust. It had served as a windowseat through most of his childhood; later they'd used it to hold cow-feed. In the bright, pleasant-smelling hardware store, the discovery that his father and uncle, all those years, had been playing, enjoying themselves—making art, in a way—came over Mickelsson like an awakening. He felt an extravagant inclination to pity himself. What foolishness his life was, in comparison to theirs! But the likeness of his hand to his father's hand distracted him, made him feel, almost unwillingly, a surge of joy.
”
”
John Gardner (Mickelsson's Ghosts)
“
I’m just one person,” Cade murmured. He stared at the boy. “What can one person do?” But Cade knew the answer to that, too. One person was never just one person. You made the decision to do the right thing and took the first step. Then, gradually, others would follow.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
Il fallait un pays où la langue était un enjeu, un enjeu et un territoire. Au commencement était le verbe, et le pouvoir aux grammairiens. La règle de proximité. En 1767, Nicolas Beauzée, Grammaire générale : "Le genre masculin est réputé plus noble que le genre féminin à cause de la supériorité du mâle sur la femelle." En 1772, Nicolas Beauzée, grammairien, est élu à l'Académie française. Depuis, le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin, officiellement, à coups de sabre, avec la bénédiction du Bescherelle et les bons vœux du Petit Robert.
”
”
Chloé Delaume (Les Sorcières de la République)
“
I love you too, god damn it. Don’t you know that, Gemma? I love you so fucking much that it’s breaking my heart,” he shouted. “But I can't see a boy given to the Humans. Do you get that? Do you? Because I need you to. I need you to know that I love you. I love you so god damn much that I can't even explain it to you.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cade (The Society, #2))
“
Stephen didn’t care for the women—they bored him mostly. It would take a better woman than any on offer to make him want to stay. But he also knew that what he was doing was telling him to run and not worry. For that he was grateful because they had to do something, and they had to do it fast. “Together, remember? Whatever happens.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
If you abort his baby and don’t tell him, will you be able to look him in the eye? Will you be able to hold that secret inside of you forever?” Stephen put a finger under Gemma’s chin and turned her head so that she faced him. “You know you won’t be able to. You know you have to tell him, or you two are screwed.” “We’re screwed anyway.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
In July 1900, at the time of the intervention against the Boxers, between 3,000 and 5,000 Chinese were drowned at Blagoveshchensk when they were forced by whip-wielding Cossacks and local Russian police to swim across the wide and fast-flowing Amur to the Chinese side. No boats were provided and those who resisted or refused to get in the water were shot or cut down with sabres. This little-known incident, a harbinger of so many twentieth-century massacres, lay bare the utter contempt with which the Russians regarded all Asiatic peoples. As Nikolai Gondatti, the governor of Tomsk, explained in 1911: ‘My task is to make sure that there are lots of Russians and few yellows here.
”
”
Niall Ferguson (The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West)
“
প্রায় সময় আত্মীয়-স্বজনকে স্বপ্নে দেখি। কখনো দেখি, তাদের দ্বীনের দাওয়াত দিচ্ছি। আবার কখনো দেখি, তাদের ঘরে গিয়ে কুরআন তিলাওয়াত করছি। আমার দৃঢ় বিশ্বাস, আমার এই স্বপ্ন আল্লাহ অবশ্যই পূরণ করবেন। তবে কবে করবেন, তা আমি জানি না। আল্লাহ ভালো জানেন। আল্লাহ আমাকে ধৈর্য দিয়েছেন। তাই এখন আর আমি কোনো প্রসঙ্গেই ‘কেন’ কিংবা ‘কখন’ বলি না। ধৈর্যের সাথে আল্লাহর সিদ্ধান্তের অপেক্ষা করি।
”
”
Binti Adil (ফেরা ২ (ফেরা, #2))
“
When you get back, we'll just do nothing but stare at each other until we're sick." He gave her a real smile followed by a chuckle. "I would like that, Rosie," he whispered, touching his nose to hers. "I would win." She laughed. "You'd get sick first." "Never." "You say that now," she assured. "I'll say that when you're two hundred thousand." "I'll be dead," she laughed.
”
”
Mason Sabre (Cuts Like An Angel Book 2 (Cuts Like an Angel, #2))
“
Please don’t,” he murmured, and then his mouth was on hers again, his kiss desperate and all-consuming. When he released her, they were both breathing hard. “We can renounce everything. We can buy our way out and do it properly.” “We leave our families if we do that. You leave Phoenix.” “He can come, too. I don’t care about the rest. Please don’t take our child away.” She
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
Desperté y ya te habías marchado.
Pudo ser justo cuando comencé a soñar
O quiza minutos antes de despertar
no lo sé, pero al inicio si que lloré.
Ya ha pasado algun tiempo, y no tardarás en llegar a otro lugar.
Al inicio la idea me lastimaba, pero ya no.
Me siento agradecida por un millon mas un mil de cosas.
Claro que es triste, pero no es sufrir.
me siento con paz por que soy honesta conmigo.
Se lo mucho que te quiero.
No sabre por que decidiste marcharte así, aún quedo la sensación de tu mano cojiendo la mía, aun se escucha el susurro de tu voz lanzando un "De verdad te quiero" segundos antes de cerrar la puerta.
Pero esta bien.
No se a donde vas pero espero que estes bien.
No estaré esperándote.
Pero siempre ocuparas ese lugar que te corresponde dentro de mi pequeño corazón.
”
”
Lesly Yossie
“
Y’see, I know what ‘training in arms’ means, Ronald. There hasn’t been a real war in ages. So it’s all prancing around wearing padded waistcoats and waving swords with knobs on the end so no one’ll really get hurt, isn’t it? But down in the Shades no one’s had any training in arms either. Wouldn’t know an épée from a sabre. No, what they’re good at is a broken bottle in one hand and a length of four-by-two in the other and when you face ’em, Ronnie, you know you aren’t going off for a laugh and a jolly drink afterward, ’cos they want you dead. They want to kill you, you see, Ron? And by the time you’ve swung your nice shiny broadsword they’ve carved their name and address on your stomach. And that’s where I got my training in arms. Well . . . fists and knees and teeth and elbows, mostly.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Jingo (Discworld, #21))
“
Perspiration ran down Phoenix’s flushed face, beading on his skin. His eyes glistened with the pain that racked his body. Gemma stared at him with respect. Not once had he cried nor begged for them to stop. He had gritted his teeth, clenched his jaw and taken every god damn thing that they had done. The Humans were pathetic—their victims a small child, a sixteen-year-old boy and a pregnant woman. Gemma’s
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
Running a hand through the wolf’s thick fur, he brought the wolf closer to him so that his snout rested against his shoulder. He held him in an embrace and closed his eyes, taking in the familiar earthy scent that was Cade and his wolf. He let his mind slip into Cade’s. It was dark in there, the opposite of Phoenix’s mind. There was something else in the darkness … something sinister … Shit. It was silver. No
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
Don’t worry,” Patterson said to the child, “you’re quite safe in there.” He pulled her by her hair, dragging her along and she started to sob, tears streaking down her dirty face. She pulled at his large hand, where his fingers twisted in her hair and kicked out at him with bare feet as she shrieked, but he ignored her, making her small legs work quickly. When he got to Gemma’s gate, he grinned at her. “A gift for you,
”
”
Mason Sabre (Dark Veil (Society #2))
“
The Americas were a great laboratory of evolutionary experimentation, a place where animals and plants unknown in Africa and Asia had evolved and thrived. But no longer. Within 2,000 years of the Sapiens’ arrival, most of these unique species were gone. According to current estimates, within that short interval, North America lost thirty-four out of its forty-seven genera of large mammals. South America lost fifty out of sixty. The sabre-tooth cats, after flourishing for more than 30 million years, disappeared, and so did the giant ground sloths, the oversized lions, native American horses, native American camels, the giant rodents and the mammoths. Thousands of species of smaller mammals, reptiles, birds and even insects and parasites also became extinct (when the mammoths died out, all species of mammoth ticks followed them to oblivion).
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“
Courageux peuple belge, vous avez vaincu de façon décisive! Veillez maintenant à profiter de cette victoire, vos ennemis ont été réduits au silence, ne perdons pas un instant, unissons-nous autour du gouvernement provisoire qui a été mis en place grâce à vous, ne doutez pas que les incendiaires, que vous avez expulsés de votre capitale d'une manière si humiliante, préparent déjà de nouveaux crimes. N'hésitons plus, n'épargnons plus, chassons une fois pour toutes les assassins de chez nous qui ont travaillé ici par le feu et le sabre, violant et détruisant. Nous devons sauver nos mères, nos femmes, nos enfants et nos biens ; nous devons vivre en hommes libres, ou nous ensevelir sous une montagne de cendres. Soyons unis chers compatriotes, et alors nous serons invincibles, l'ordre véritable, il est indispensable pour préserver notre indépendance. Vive la Belgique!
”
”
Louis Joseph Antoine de Potter
“
Les habitants, dans leurs chambres assombries, avaient l’affolement que donnent les cataclysmes, les grands bouleversements meurtriers de la terre, contre lesquels toute sagesse et toute force sont inutiles. Car la même sensation reparaît chaque fois que l’ordre établi des choses est renversé, que la sécurité n’existe plus, que tout ce que protégeaient les lois des hommes ou celles de la nature se trouve à la merci d’une brutalité inconsciente et féroce. Le tremblement de terre écrasant sous les maisons croulantes un peuple entier ; le fleuve débordé qui roule les paysans noyés avec les cadavres des bœufs et les poutres arrachées aux toits, ou l’armée glorieuse massacrant ceux qui se défendent, emmenant les autres prisonniers, pillant au nom du Sabre et remerciant un Dieu au son du canon, sont autant de fléaux effrayants qui déconcertent toute croyance à la Justice Éternelle, toute la confiance qu’on nous enseigne en la protection du Ciel et en la raison de l’Homme.
”
”
Guy de Maupassant (Œuvres complètes)
“
I can hardly believe that our nation’s policy is to seek peace by going to war. It seems that President Donald J. Trump has done everything in his power to divert our attention away from the fact that the FBI is investigating his association with Russia during his campaign for office. For several weeks now he has been sabre rattling and taking an extremely controversial stance, first with Syria and Afghanistan and now with North Korea. The rhetoric has been the same, accusing others for our failed policy and threatening to take autonomous military action to attain peace in our time.
This gunboat diplomacy is wrong. There is no doubt that Secretaries Kelly, Mattis, and other retired military personnel in the Trump Administration are personally tough. However, most people who have served in the military are not eager to send our young men and women to fight, if it is not necessary. Despite what may have been said to the contrary, our military leaders, active or retired, are most often the ones most respectful of international law. Although the military is the tip of the spear for our country, and the forces of civilization, it should not be the first tool to be used. Bloodshed should only be considered as a last resort and definitely never used as the first option. As the leader of the free world, we should stand our ground but be prepared to seek peace through restraint. This is not the time to exercise false pride!
Unfortunately the Trump administration informed four top State Department management officials that their services were no longer needed as part of an effort to "clean house." Patrick Kennedy, served for nine years as the “Undersecretary for Management,” “Assistant Secretaries for Administration and Consular Affairs” Joyce Anne Barr and Michele Bond, as well as “Ambassador” Gentry Smith, director of the Office for Foreign Missions. Most of the United States Ambassadors to foreign countries have also been dismissed, including the ones to South Korea and Japan. This leaves the United States without the means of exercising diplomacy rapidly, when needed. These positions are political appointments, and require the President’s nomination and the Senate’s confirmation. This has not happened! Moreover, diplomatically our country is severely handicapped at a time when tensions are as hot as any time since the Cold War.
Without following expert advice or consent and the necessary input from the Unites States Congress, the decisions are all being made by a man who claims to know more than the generals do, yet he has only the military experience of a cadet at “New York Military Academy.” A private school he attended as a high school student, from 1959 to 1964. At that time, he received educational and medical deferments from the Vietnam War draft. Trump said that the school provided him with “more training than a lot of the guys that go into the military.” His counterpart the unhinged Kim Jong-un has played with what he considers his country’s military toys, since April 11th of 2012. To think that these are the two world leaders, protecting the planet from a nuclear holocaust….
”
”
Hank Bracker
“
Les trois hommes avaient laissé leurs arcs pour empoigner des sabres et ils étaient vêtus de cuir souple.
Comme des marchombres.
Comme des marchombres, ils se déplaçaient avec précision et souplesse. Comme des marchombres, ils se séparèrent pour mieux l'encercler, tenant compte du moindre relief, du moindre détail, ne lui laissant aucune chance de s'enfuir.
Comme des marchombres.
Mais ce n'étaient pas des marchombres. Malgré la fluidité de leurs mouvements, la justesse de leurs positions, ils ne dégageaient aucune harmonie. Parfaites machines à tuer, ils étaient hideux. Une laideur que seul un marchombre pouvait percevoir.
Et Ellana était une marchombre.
"Ils possèdent les mêmes pouvoirs que nous, mais les utilisent à des fins diamétralement opposées. Ils sont impitoyables, totalement immoraux et rêvent d'assujettir les Alaviriens à leur soif de puissance. Pour cela, ils se regroupent au sein d'une guilde qui place au rang de vertus la haine, la violence et le meurtre. Une guilde qui, depuis des années, s'oppose à la nôtre..."
Jilano lui avait parlé d'eux. L'avait mise en garde contre eux.
Ellana serra les mâchoires.
Mercenaires du Chaos.
”
”
Pierre Bottero (Ellana (Le Pacte des MarchOmbres, #1))
“
WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF ME
They thought I’m perfect but the truth was not. Because I’m also sinner who seeking forgiveness from Allah. I make mistake and commit sin in private that You never seen and know except me and Allah. So don’t admire me, instead make dua for me that may Allah forgive me.
They thought I don’t have problem in my life but the truth was not. Because I have big problems and my trials in life are difficult. I just don’t share and tell to others that I have problem, instead I share to Allah and asked for help because “No one besides Allah can rescue a soul from hardship.”
They thought I’m happy person but the truth was not. Because behind my smile there is a hidden pain which they can’t see. Behind my smile there is an untold story of sabr. I smile in front of people, especially to my loved ones. I hide my sadness by smiling in front of people.
They thought I’m strong person but the truth was not. Because my heart are soft, I’m weak person, I’m crying secretly when I’m hurt. I’m crying in sujood, crying to Allah and ask to heal my brokenheart. I don’t want to people seen my weakness. I don’t want people to see that I’m weak person.
”
”
Salim Matoussi
“
They caught the sound of footfalls at the same moment, and both stood as a tall figure ran toward them, his blade in hand.
“Stop there, traitor,” Sabre said, raising her sling. “Or I’ll fell you before you take another step.”
“The advantage of a missile weapon,” Moria said.
“Exactly. And it appears he has enough experience with yours to respect mine.”
“No, he’ll only pretend he’s listening, as he talks and distracts, and then creeps close enough to use his sword.”
“I can hear you,” Gavril called.
“Good,” Moria said. “Then you can hear that I’m not under any duress, and you can presume that if our visitor was helping me escape, we’d be gone by now, not chatting like girls at a tea ceremony. Since I know you’ll not stay where you are, you may approach half the distance, then lay down your sword and come closer.”
“May I?”
“Only if you behave. And keep quiet. Otherwise, stay where you are.”
“I think you forget who is—”
“—in charge here? No, Kitsune, I do not. I am in charge, because if you do not return with me, you will pay the price. That is why you’ve accommodated me so far and it’s why you’ll continue to do so now.”
Sabre chuckled. Gavril stalked closer.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (Forest of Ruin (Age of Legends, #3))
“
Nevertheless, in certain respects and in certain places, despite philosophy, despite progress, the spirit of the cloister lingers on, in the middle of the nineteenth century, and a bizarre new outbreak of asceticism now astounds the civilized world. The persistence of antiquated institutions in perpetuating themselves is like the stubbornness of stale scent clinging to your hair, the urgency of spoiled fish clamouring to be eaten, the oppression of childish garb expecting to clothe the adult, and the tenderness of corpses wanting to come back to kiss the living.
'Ungrateful wretch!' says the garment. 'I protected you in bad weather. Why will you have nothing more to do with me?' 'I come from the open sea,' says the fish. 'I was a rose,' says the perfume. 'I loved you,' says the corpse. 'I civilized you,' says the convent.
There is only one answer to this: once upon a time.
To dream of the indefinite protraction of defunct things and of embalmment as a way of governing mankind, to restore ravaged dogmas, regild shrines, patch up cloisters, re-bless reliquaries, revitalize superstitions, refuel fanaticisms, replace the handles on holy-water sprinklers and on sabres, recreate monasticism and militarism, to believe in the salvation of society by the multiplication of the parasites, to force the past on the present - this seems strange. Still, there are theorists who propound these theories. Such theorists, and they are intelligent people, have a very simple method: they put a gloss on the past, a gloss they call 'social order', 'divine right', 'morality', 'family', 'respect for elders', 'ancient authority', 'sacred tradition', 'legitimacy', 'religion', and they go about shouting, 'Look! Take this, honest people.' This logic was known to the ancients The haruspices practiced it. They rubbed a black heifer with chalk and said, 'It's white.'
We ourselves respect the past in certain instances and in all cases grant it clemency, provided it consents to being dead. If it insists on being alive, we attack and try to kill it.
Superstitions, bigotries, false pieties, prejudices, these spectres, for all that they are spectres, cling to life. They have teeth and nails in their vaporousness, and they must be tackled head-on, and war must be waged against them, and it must be waged constantly. For it is one of the fates of humanity to be doomed to eternal battle against phantoms. Shades are difficult to throttle and destroy.
”
”
Victor Hugo (Les Misérables)
“
Cruelty to animals is cruelty and a vile thing; but cruelty to a man is not cruelty, it is treason. Tyranny over a man is not tyranny, it is rebellion, for man is royal. Now, the practical weakness of the vast mass of modern pity for the poor and the oppressed is precisely that it is merely pity; the pity is pitiful, but not respectful. Men feel that the cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is injustice to equals; nay, it is treachery to comrades. This dark scientific pity, this brutal pity, has an elemental sincerity of its own; but it is entirely useless for all ends of social reform. Democracy swept Europe with the sabre when it was founded upon the Rights of Man. It has done literally nothing at all since it has been founded only upon the wrongs of man. Or, more strictly speaking, its recent failure has been due to its not admitting the existence of any rights, or wrongs, or indeed of any humanity. Evolution (the sinister enemy of revolution) does not especially deny the existence of God; what it does deny is the existence of man. And all the despair about the poor, and the cold and repugnant pity for them, has been largely due to the vague sense that they have literally relapsed into the state of the lower animals.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton (Charles Dickens: A Critical Study)
“
One had heard and read a great deal about death, and even seen a little of it, and knew by heart the thousand commonplaces of religion and poetry which seemed to deaden one's senses and veil the horror. Society being immortal, could put on immortality at will. Adams being mortal, felt only the mortality. Death took features altogether new to him, in these rich and sensuous surroundings. Nature enjoyed it, played with it, the horror added to her charm, she liked the torture, and smothered her victim with caresses. Never had one seen her so winning. The hot Italian summer brooded outside, over the market-place and the picturesque peasants, and, in the singular color of the Tuscan atmosphere, the hills and vineyards of the Apennines seemed bursting with mid-summer blood. The sick-room itself glowed with the Italian joy of life; friends filled it; no harsh northern lights pierced the soft shadows; even the dying women shared the sense of the Italian summer, the soft, velvet air, the humor, the courage, the sensual fulness of Nature and man. She faced death, as women mostly do, bravely and even gaily, racked slowly to unconsciousness, but yielding only to violence, as a soldier sabred in battle. For many thousands of years, on these hills and plains, Nature had gone on sabring men and women with the same air of sensual pleasure.
”
”
Henry Adams (The Education of Henry Adams)
“
Man is an irrational creature...for he seeks pleasure instead of abstinence, lies and deceit, instead of counsel and advice, violence and war, instead of withhold and peace, and easy wanton ignorance and gluttony, instead of hard sought after wisdom and moderation...man has grown indifferent to the sufferings of his fellow man and neighbor, for he only cares as to whether there is any monetary gain or financial reward, for his immediate and erstwhile assistance...man, in this current age, has completely lost the ability to engage in disciplined learning and fair and honest debate, for instead he would rather believe in lies and falsehoods, for it only confirms his prejudicial beliefs and irrational fears, all fed to him by the so-called, "fair and balanced" news media...he is a patriot for all the wrong reasons, for his patriotism is one of selfish jingoism, instead of an objective and unadulterated, "universal brotherhood", that seeks to find common ground and common solutions across the diplomatic table, instead of blind "sabre rattling" and childish and superficial flag waving...man's blind and puerile barbarism is what will ultimately do him in, in the very end, for the prophets of the present who tried to warn him as he stood at the edge of a moral and spiritual precipice, will be the ones who will wear a quiet and confirming smile, as man and his erstwhile shadow of ignorance, will be cast into the bottomless pit, of eternal damnation and doom...
”
”
Carlos .
“
The defenders retreated, but in good order. A musket flamed and a ball shattered a marine’s collar bone, spinning him around. The soldiers screamed terrible battle-cries as they began their grim job of clearing the defenders off the parapet with quick professional close-quarter work. Gamble trod on a fallen ramrod and his boots crunched on burnt wadding. The French reached steps and began descending into the bastion.
'Bayonets!' Powell bellowed. 'I want bayonets!'
'Charge the bastards!' Gamble screamed, blinking another man's blood from his eyes. There was no drum to beat the order, but the marines and seamen surged forward.
'Tirez!' The French had been waiting, and their muskets jerked a handful of attackers backwards. Their officer, dressed in a patched brown coat, was horrified to see the savage looking men advance unperturbed by the musketry. His men were mostly conscripts and they had fired too high. Now they had only steel bayonets with which to defend themselves.
'Get in close, boys!' Powell ordered. 'A Shawnee Indian named Blue Jacket once told me that a naked woman stirs a man's blood, but a naked blade stirs his soul. So go in with the steel. Lunge! Recover! Stance!'
'Charge!' Gamble turned the order into a long, guttural yell of defiance.
Those redcoats and seamen, with loaded weapons discharged them at the press of the defenders, and a man in the front rank went down with a dark hole in his forehead. Gamble saw the officer aim a pistol at him. A wounded Frenchman, half-crawling, tried to stab with his sabre-briquet, but Gamble kicked him in the head. He dashed forward, sword held low. The officer pulled the trigger, the weapon tugged the man's arm to his right, and the ball buzzed past Gamble's mangled ear as he jumped down into the gap made by the marines charge. A French corporal wearing a straw hat drove his bayonet at Gamble's belly, but he dodged to one side and rammed his bar-hilt into the man's dark eyes.
'Lunge! Recover! Stance!
”
”
David Cook (Heart of Oak (The Soldier Chronicles, #2))
“
LXXII
In sooth, it was no vulgar sight to see
Their barbarous, yet their not indecent, glee,
And as the flames along their faces gleam’d,
Their gestures nimble, dark eyes flashing free,
The long wild locks that to their girdles stream’d,
While thus in concert they this lay half sang, half scream’d:
Tambourgi! Tambourgi! thy ’larum afar
Gives hope to the valiant, and promise of war;
All the sons of the mountains arise at the note,
Chimariot, Illyrian, and dark Suliote!
Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote,
To his snowy camese and his shaggy capote?
To the wolf and the vulture he leaves his wild flock,
And descends to the plain like the stream from the rock.
Shall the sons of Chimari, who never forgive
The fault of a friend, bid an enemy live?
Let those guns so unerring such vengeance forego?
What mark is so fair as the breast of a foe?
Macedonia sends forth her invincible race;
For a time they abandon the cave and the chase:
But those scarves of blood-red shall be redder, before
The sabre is sheathed and the battle is o’er.
Then the pirates of Parga that dwell by the waves,
And teach the pale Franks what it is to be slaves,
Shall leave on the beach the long galley and oar,
And track to his covert the captive on shore.
I ask not the pleasure that riches supply,
My sabre shall win what the feeble must buy;
Shall win the young bride with her long flowing hair,
And many a maid from her mother shall tear.
I love the fair face of the maid in her youth,
Her caresses shall lull me, her music shall soothe;
Let her bring from her chamber the many-toned lyre,
And sing us a song on the fall of her sire.
Remember the moment when Previsa fell,
The shrieks of the conquer’d, the conquerors’ yell;
The roofs that we fired, and the plunder we shared,
The wealthy we slaughter’d, the lovely we spared.
I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear;
He neither must know who would serve the Vizier:
Since the days of our prophet, the Crescent ne’er saw
A chief ever glorious like Ali Pasha.
Dark Muchtar his son to the Danube is sped,
Let the yellow-haired Giaours view his horsetail with dread;
When his Delhis come dashing in blood o’er the banks,
How few shall escape from the Muscovite ranks!
Selictar, unsheath then our chief’s scimitar:
Tambourgi! thy ’larum gives promise of war;
Ye mountains, that see us descend to the shore,
Shall view us as victors, or view us no more!
”
”
Lord Byron (Childe Harold's Pilgrimage)
“
I’ve only an hour,” Colin said as he attached the safety tip to his foil. “I have an appointment this afternoon.”
“No matter,” Benedict replied, lunging forward a few times to loosen up the muscles in his leg. He hadn’t fenced in some time; the sword felt good in his hand. He drew back and touched the tip to the floor, letting the blade bend slightly. “It won’t take more than an hour to best you.”
Colin rolled his eyes before he drew down his mask.
Benedict walked to the center of the room. “Are you ready?”
“Not quite,” Colin replied, following him.
Benedict lunged again.
“I said I wasn’t ready!” Colin hollered as he jumped out of the way.
“You’re too slow,” Benedict snapped.
Colin cursed under his breath, then added a louder, “Bloody hell,” for good measure. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing,” Benedict nearly snarled. “Why would you say so?”
Colin took a step backward until they were a suitable distance apart to start the match. “Oh, I don’t know,” he intoned, sarcasm evident. “I suppose it could be because you nearly took my head off.”
“I’ve a tip on my blade.”
“And you were slashing like you were using a sabre,” Colin shot back.
Benedict gave a hard smile. “It’s more fun that way.”
“Not for my neck.” Colin passed his sword from hand to hand as he flexed and stretched his fingers. He paused and frowned. “You sure you have a foil there?”
Benedict scowled. “For the love of God, Colin, I would never use a real weapon.”
“Just making sure,” Colin muttered, touching his neck lightly. “Are you ready?”
Benedict nodded and bent his knees.
“Regular rules,” Colin said, assuming a fencer’s crouch. “No slashing.”
Benedict gave him a curt nod.
“En garde!”
Both men raised their right arms, twisting their wrists until their palms were up, foils gripped in their fingers.
“Is that new?” Colin suddenly asked, eyeing the handle of Benedict’s foil with interest.
Benedict cursed at the loss of his concentration. “Yes, it’s new,” he bit off. “I prefer an Italian grip.”
Colin stepped back, completely losing his fencing posture as he looked at his own foil, with a less elaborate French grip. “Might I borrow it some time? I wouldn’t mind seeing if—”
“Yes!” Benedict snapped, barely resisting the urge to advance and lunge that very second. “Will you get back en garde?”
Colin gave him a lopsided smile, and Benedict just knew that he had asked about his grip simply to annoy him. “As you wish,” Colin murmured, assuming position again.
”
”
Julia Quinn (An Offer From a Gentleman (Bridgertons, #3))
“
What do you call an evil leader digging a hole? Darth Spader What do you call Obi Wan eating crunchy toast? Obi Crumb What do call a padawan who likes to play computer games? i'Pad' me What do you call a starship pilot who likes to drink cocoa? Han Coco What starship is always happy to have people aboard? The Millennium Welcome What did Yoda say to Luke while eating dinner? Use the fork Luke. What do you call a Sith who won't fight? A Sithy. Which Star Wars character uses meat for a weapon instead of a Lightsaber? Obi Wan Baloney. What do call a smelly droid? R2DPOO What do call a droid that has wet its pants? C3PEE0 What do you call a Jedi who loves pies? Luke PieWalker? What do call captain Rex when he emailing on a phone? Captain Text What evil leader doesn’t need help reaching? Ladder the Hutt What kind of evil lord will always say goodbye? Darth Later Which rebel will always win the limbo? Han LowLow What do you call R2D2 when he’s older? R2D3 What do you call R2D2 when he’s busting to go to the toilet? R2DLoo What do call Padme’s father? Dadme What’s do you call the Death Star when its wet? The Death Spa What do call R2D2 when he climbs a tree? R2Tree2 What do you say a Jedi adding ketchup to his dinner? Use the sauce Luke. What star wars baddy is most likely to go crazy? Count KooKoo What do call Count Dooku when he’s really sad? Count Boohoo Which Jedi is most likely to trick someone? Luke Liewalker Which evil lord is most likely to be a dad? Dadda the Hutt Which rebel likes to drink through straws? Chew Sucker Which space station can you eat from? The Death bar What do call a moody rebel? Luke Sighwalker What do you call an even older droid R2D4 What do call Darth Vader with lots of scrapes? Dearth Grazer What call an evil lord on eBay? Darth Trader What do call it when an evil lord pays his mum? Darth Paid-her What do call an evil insect Darth Cicada What sith always teases? General Teasers Who's the scariest sith? Count Spooko Which sith always uses his spoon to eat his lunch Count Spoonu What evil lord has lots of people living next door? Darth Neighbour What Jedi always looks well dressed? Luke TieWalker Which evil lord works in a restaurant? Darth waiter What do you call a smelly storm trooper? A storm pooper What do you call Darth Vader digging a hole? Darth Spader What do you C3PO wetting his pants? C3PEE0 What do you call Asoka’s pet frog? Acroaka What do you call a Jedi that loves pies? Luke Piewalker What rebel loves hot drinks? Han Coco What did Leia say to Luke at the dinner table? Use the fork Luke. What do call Obi Wan eating fruit? Obi plum What do you call Obi in a band? Obi Drum What doe Luke take out at night? A Night Sabre What is the favourite cooking pot on Endor? The e Wok
”
”
Reily Sievers (The Best Star Wars Joke Book)