Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Julie, or the New Heloise," 1761

Just as clocks are ordinarily wound up to go only twenty-four hours at a time, so these people have to go into society every night to learn what they're going to think the next day.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Joseph Addison, "Cato," 1713

"'Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it."
[I.i.44-5]

"Let me alone, good Syphax: I'll conceal
My thoughts in passion ('tis the surest way);
I'll bellow out for Rome and for my country,
And mouth at Caesar till I shake the senate.
Your cold hypocrisy's a stale device,
A worn-out trick: wouldst thou be thought in earnest?
Clothe thy feigned zeal in rage, in fire, in fury!"
[I.iii.36-42]

"'Tis not a set of features, or complexion,
The tincture of a skin, that I admire.
Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover,
Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense."
[I.iv.143-6]