Quotes4study

Ardon was greeted by several of the members of the tribe of Dan. They were an unruly, quarrelsome group, and Ardon remembered the prophecy that Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, had given on his deathbed. He had identified the nature of each of his sons, and of Dan he had said, “Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.” A grim smile touched Ardon’s broad lips. “Old Jacob got it right that time. Dan has some good soldiers, but they are not to be trusted.

Gilbert Morris

Truth is a good dog; but beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

_Coleridge._

After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.

Ann Richards

Poverty treads upon the heels of great and unexpected riches.

_La Bruyere._

O human folly! dost thou not perceive that thou hast been with thyself all thy life, and thou art not yet aware of the thing which more fully than any other thing thou dost possess, namely, thy own folly? And thou desirest with the multitude of sophists to deceive thyself and others, despising the mathematical sciences in which truth dwells and the knowledge of the things which they contain; and then thou dost busy thyself with miracles, and writest that thou hast attained to the knowledge of those things which the human mind cannot comprehend, which cannot be proved by any instance in nature, and thou deemest that thou hast wrought a miracle in spoiling the work of some speculative mind; and thou perceivest not that thy error is the same as that of a man who strips a plant of the ornament of its branches covered with leaves, mingled with fragrant flowers and fruits. Just as Justinius did when he abridged the stories written by Trogus Pompeius, who had written elaborately the noble deeds of his forefathers, which were full of wonderful beauties of style; and thus {19} he composed a barren work, worthy only of the impatient spirits who deem that they are wasting the time which they might usefully employ in studying the works of nature and mortal affairs. But let such men remain in company with the beasts; let dogs and other animals full of rapine be their courtiers, and let them be accompanied with these running ever at their heels! and let the harmless animals follow, which in the season of the snows come to the houses begging alms as from their master.

Leonardo da Vinci     Thoughts on Art and Life

Truditur dies die, / Nov?que pergunt interire lun?=--Day presses on the heels of day, and new moons hasten to their wane.

Horace.

Good to the heels the well-worn slipper feels When the tired player shuffles off the buskin; A page of Hood may do a fellow good After a scolding from Carlyle or Ruskin.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 1809- ----.     _How not to settle it._

I took to my heels as fast as I could.

TERENCE. 185-159 B. C.     _Eunuchus. Act v. Sc. 2, 5._ (_844._)

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels Than C?sar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise? 'T is but to know how little can be known; To see all others' faults, and feel our own.

ALEXANDER POPE. 1688-1744.     _Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 254._

He who has love in his heart has spurs in his heels.

Proverb.

A great licentiousness treads on the heels of a reformation.

_Emerson._

Shit,” Ku’Sox said speculatively, and he loosened his grip until my heels dragged on the floor again. “I’ve heard that several times now. Is that the word of choice? I do so like all-encompassing words. Verb, adjective, noun. Yes, you are shitted.

Kim Harrison

An you had any eye behind you, you might see more detraction at your heels than fortunes before you.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 1564-1616.     _Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 5._

There’s a day to ride thumb on a thunderhead There’s a day to make fantasy real There’s a day to deny and a day to decry and a day for the man the wind at his heels.

Mike Scott

Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; / Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.

_Congreve._

One pair of heels is often worth two pair of hands.= (?)

Unknown

Grief still treads upon the heels of Pleasure.

_Congreve._

Good to the heels the well-worn slipper feels / When the tired player shuffles off the buskin; / A page of Hood may do a fellow good / After a scolding from Carlyle or Ruskin.

_Lowell._

If a spiritual community only points back to where it has been or if it only digs in its heels where it is now, it is a dead end or a parking lot, not a way.

Brian D. McLaren

I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot!

Marilyn Monroe

Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself.

Seneca.

I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head.

MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE. 1533-1592.     _Book iii. Chap. xiii. Of Experience._

Fear sometimes adds wings to the heels, and sometimes nails them to the ground and fetters them from moving.

_Montaigne._

O Lady, he is dead and gone! Lady, he 's dead and gone! And at his head a green grass turfe, And at his heels a stone.

THOMAS PERCY. 1728-1811.     _The Friar of Orders Gray._

A business with an income at its heels Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.

WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800.     _Retirement. Line 614._

A spur in the head is worth two in the heels.

Proverb.

Joke with a slave, and he'll soon show his heels.

_Ar. Pr._

In Hindustan, as in Ionia, a period of relatively high and tolerably stable civilization had succeeded long ages of semi-barbarism and struggle. Out of wealth and security had come leisure and refinement, and, close at their heels, had followed the malady of thought. To the struggle for bare existence, which never ends, though it may be alleviated and partially disguised for a fortunate few, succeeded the struggle to make existence intelligible and to bring the order of things into harmony with the moral sense of man, which also never ends, but, for the thinking few, becomes keener with every increase of knowledge and with every step towards the realization of a worthy ideal of life.

T. H. Huxley     Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley

With the meal there was karaoke. As the Chinese waiters brought the food, everyone at the restaurant sang “shanson,” the gravelly, syrupy gangster ballads that have become some of Russia’s favorite pop music. Shanson reflect the gangsters’ journeys to the center of Russian culture. These used to be underground, prison songs, full of gangster slang, tales of Siberian labor camps and missing your mother. Now every taxi driver and grocery plays them. “Vladimirsky Tsentral” is a wedding classic. Tipsy brides across the country in cream-puff wedding dresses and high, thin heels slow-dance with their drunker grooms: “The thaw is thinning underneath the bars of my cell / but the Spring of my life has passed so fast.” At the Chinese restaurant Miami Stas sang along too, but he seemed too meek, too obliging to be a gangster.

Peter Pomerantsev

Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure; Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.

WILLIAM CONGREVE. 1670-1729.     _The Old Bachelor. Act v. Sc. 1._

Fortune Documents the Great Legal Decisions:

We think that we may take judicial notice of the fact that the term "bitch"

may imply some feeling of endearment when applied to a female of the canine

species but that it is seldom, if ever, so used when applied to a female

of the human race. Coming as it did, reasonably close on the heels of two

revolver shots directed at the person of whom it was probably used, we think

it carries every reasonable implication of ill-will toward that person.

        -- Smith v. Moran, 193 N.E. 2d 466.

Fortune Cookie

There's amnesia in a hangknot,

And comfort in the ax,

But the simple way of poison will make your nerves relax.

    There's surcease in a gunshot,

    And sleep that comes from racks,

    But a handy draft of poison avoids the harshest tax.

You find rest on the hot squat,

Or gas can give you pax,

But the closest corner chemist has peace in packaged stacks.

    There's refuge in the church lot

    When you tire of facing facts,

    And the smoothest route is poison prescribed by kindly quacks.

Chorus:    With an *ugh!* and a groan, and a kick of the heels,

    Death comes quiet, or it comes with squeals --

    But the pleasantest place to find your end

    Is a cup of cheer from the hand of a friend.

        -- Jubal Harshaw, "One For The Road"

Fortune Cookie

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller, like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

        -- R. L. Stevenson

Fortune Cookie

A couple of young fellers were fishing at their special pond off the

beaten track when out of the bushes jumped the Game Warden.  Immediately,

one of the boys threw his rod down and started running through the woods

like the proverbial bat out of hell, and hot on his heels ran the Game

Warden.  After about a half mile the fella stopped and stooped over with

his hands on his thighs, whooping and heaving to catch his breath as the

Game Warden finally caught up to him.

    "Let's see yer fishin' license, boy," the Warden gasped.  The

man pulled out his wallet and gave the Game Warden a valid fishing

license.

    "Well, son", snarled the Game Warden, "You must be about as dumb

as a box of rocks!  You didn't have to run if you have a license!"

    "Yes, sir," replied his victim, "but, well, see, my friend back

there, he don't have one!"

Fortune Cookie

High heels are a device invented by a woman who was tired of being kissed

on the forehead.

Fortune Cookie

Just close your eyes, tap your heels together three times, and think to

yourself, `There's no place like home.'

        -- Glynda the Good

Fortune Cookie

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage leaf to make an apple pie;

and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street pops its head

into the shop. "What! no soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently

married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies, and the Grand

Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top, and they all

fell to playing the game of catch as catch can, till the gunpowder ran

out at the heels of their boots.

        -- Samuel Foote

Fortune Cookie

A bell with an old voice--which I dare say in its time had often said to the house, Here is the green farthingale, Here is the diamond-hilted sword, Here are the shoes with red heels and the blue solitaire--sounded gravely in the moonlight, and two cherry-colored maids came fluttering out to receive Estella. The doorway soon absorbed her boxes, and she gave me her hand and a smile, and said good night, and was absorbed likewise. And still I stood looking at the house, thinking how happy I should be if I lived there with her, and knowing that I never was happy with her, but always miserable.

Charles Dickens     Great Expectations

The grandfather executed a pirouette on his eighty-year-old heels, and began to talk again like a spring that has broken loose once more:

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

"Alas, sir, in the most unexpected manner. After a long talk with the harbor-master, Captain Leclere left Naples greatly disturbed in mind. In twenty-four hours he was attacked by a fever, and died three days afterwards. We performed the usual burial service, and he is at his rest, sewn up in his hammock with a thirty-six pound shot at his head and his heels, off El Giglio island. We bring to his widow his sword and cross of honor. It was worth while, truly," added the young man with a melancholy smile, "to make war against the English for ten years, and to die in his bed at last, like everybody else."

Alexandre Dumas, Pere     The Count of Monte Cristo

Henceforth, there existed no means of ascending to the quay; there was no other inclined plane, no staircase; and they were near the spot, marked by the bend in the Seine towards the Pont de Jena, where the bank, growing constantly narrower, ended in a slender tongue, and was lost in the water. There he would inevitably find himself blocked between the perpendicular wall on his right, the river on his left and in front of him, and the authorities on his heels.

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

Prince Hippolyte hurriedly put on his cloak, which in the latest fashion reached to his very heels, and, stumbling in it, ran out into the porch following the princess, whom a footman was helping into the carriage.

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

She said, and from her quiver chose with speed The winged shaft, predestin'd for the deed; Then to the stubborn yew her strength applied, Till the far distant horns approach'd on either side. The bowstring touch'd her breast, so strong she drew; Whizzing in air the fatal arrow flew. At once the twanging bow and sounding dart The traitor heard, and felt the point within his heart. Him, beating with his heels in pangs of death, His flying friends to foreign fields bequeath. The conqu'ring damsel, with expanded wings, The welcome message to her mistress brings.

Virgil     The Aeneid

But we didn't answer; we just unfurled our heels and shoved. Then there was a rush, and a _Bang, Bang, Bang!_ and the bullets fairly whizzed around us! We heard them sing out:

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)     Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

But she fled upstairs, nevertheless, with Sid and Mary at her heels. And her face grew white, too, and her lip trembled. When she reached the bedside she gasped out:

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)     The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

About seven o’clock in the evening we drew out of the station, an immense long train drawn by a weak little locomotive burning wood, and stumbled along slowly, with many stops. The soldiers on the roof kicked with their heels and sang whining peasant songs; and in the corridor, so jammed that it was impossible to pass, violent political debates raged all night long. Occasionally the conductor came through, as a matter of habit, looking for tickets. He found very few except ours, and after a half-hour of futile wrangling, lifted his arms despairingly and withdrew. The atmosphere was stifling, full of smoke and foul odours; if it hadn’t been for the broken windows we would doubtless have smothered during the night.

John Reed     Ten Days That Shook the World

But the difficulty is how am I to cling for ever to Mother Earth. I don't kiss her. I don't cleave to her bosom. Am I to become a peasant or a shepherd? I go on and I don't know whether I'm going to shame or to light and joy. That's the trouble, for everything in the world is a riddle! And whenever I've happened to sink into the vilest degradation (and it's always been happening) I always read that poem about Ceres and man. Has it reformed me? Never! For I'm a Karamazov. For when I do leap into the pit, I go headlong with my heels up, and am pleased to be falling in that degrading attitude, and pride myself upon it. And in the very depths of that degradation I begin a hymn of praise. Let me be accursed. Let me be vile and base, only let me kiss the hem of the veil in which my God is shrouded. Though I may be following the devil, I am Thy son, O Lord, and I love Thee, and I feel the joy without which the world cannot stand.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Brothers Karamazov

"Pardieu!" exclaimed Courfeyrac ("Parbleu" was falling into disuse at this period), "that number 18 is strange and strikes me. It is Bonaparte's fatal number. Place Louis in front and Brumaire behind, you have the whole destiny of the man, with this significant peculiarity, that the end treads close on the heels of the commencement."

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

49:17. Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, that his rider may fall backward.

THE BOOK OF GENESIS     OLD TESTAMENT

Fear was diffused all over her; she was covered with it, so to speak; fear drew her elbows close to her hips, withdrew her heels under her petticoat, made her occupy as little space as possible, allowed her only the breath that was absolutely necessary, and had become what might be called the habit of her body, admitting of no possible variation except an increase. In the depths of her eyes there was an astonished nook where terror lurked.

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

To crown all, his poverty had returned. He felt that icy breath close to him, on his heels. In the midst of his torments, and long before this, he had discontinued his work, and nothing is more dangerous than discontinued work; it is a habit which vanishes. A habit which is easy to get rid of, and difficult to take up again.

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

"Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the highroad, where all traces were lost.

Arthur Conan Doyle     The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

There was no laughter in the maids' large hall. In the men servants' hall all sat waiting, silently and alert. In the outlying serfs' quarters torches and candles were burning and no one slept. The old prince, stepping on his heels, paced up and down his study and sent Tikhon to ask Mary Bogdanovna what news.--"Say only that 'the prince told me to ask,' and come and tell me her answer."

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

The trenches first they pass'd; then took their way Where their proud foes in pitch'd pavilions lay; To many fatal, ere themselves were slain. They found the careless host dispers'd upon the plain, Who, gorg'd, and drunk with wine, supinely snore. Unharness'd chariots stand along the shore: Amidst the wheels and reins, the goblet by, A medley of debauch and war, they lie. Observing Nisus shew'd his friend the sight: "Behold a conquest gain'd without a fight. Occasion offers, and I stand prepar'd; There lies our way; be thou upon the guard, And look around, while I securely go, And hew a passage thro' the sleeping foe." Softly he spoke; then striding took his way, With his drawn sword, where haughty Rhamnes lay; His head rais'd high on tapestry beneath, And heaving from his breast, he drew his breath; A king and prophet, by King Turnus lov'd: But fate by prescience cannot be remov'd. Him and his sleeping slaves he slew; then spies Where Remus, with his rich retinue, lies. His armor-bearer first, and next he kills His charioteer, intrench'd betwixt the wheels And his lov'd horses; last invades their lord; Full on his neck he drives the fatal sword: The gasping head flies off; a purple flood Flows from the trunk, that welters in the blood, Which, by the spurning heels dispers'd around, The bed besprinkles and bedews the ground. Lamus the bold, and Lamyrus the strong, He slew, and then Serranus fair and young. From dice and wine the youth retir'd to rest, And puff'd the fumy god from out his breast: Ev'n then he dreamt of drink and lucky play- More lucky, had it lasted till the day. The famish'd lion thus, with hunger bold, O'erleaps the fences of the nightly fold, And tears the peaceful flocks: with silent awe Trembling they lie, and pant beneath his paw.

Virgil     The Aeneid

"It is so good, that I have distanced M. de Chateau-Renaud, one of the best riders in France, and M. Debray, who both mount the minister's Arabians; and close on their heels are the horses of Madame Danglars, who always go at six leagues an hour."

Alexandre Dumas, Pere     The Count of Monte Cristo

Thus saying, he drew his brazen faulchion keen Of double edge, and with a dreadful cry Sprang on him; but Ulysses with a shaft In that same moment through his bosom driv'n Transfix'd his liver, and down dropp'd his sword. He, staggering around his table, fell Convolv'd in agonies, and overturn'd Both food and wine; his forehead smote the floor; Woe fill'd his heart, and spurning with his heels His vacant seat, he shook it till he died. Then, with his faulchion drawn, Amphinomus Advanced to drive Ulysses from the door, And fierce was his assault; but, from behind, Telemachus between his shoulders fix'd A brazen lance, and urged it through his breast. Full on his front, with hideous sound, he fell. Leaving the weapon planted in his spine Back flew Telemachus, lest, had he stood Drawing it forth, some enemy, perchance, Should either pierce him with a sudden thrust Oblique, or hew him with a downright edge. Swift, therefore, to his father's side he ran, Whom reaching, in wing'd accents thus he said.

BOOK XXII     The Odyssey, by Homer

"Do just come and see what a moon!... Oh, how lovely! Come here.... Darling, sweetheart, come here! There, you see? I feel like sitting down on my heels, putting my arms round my knees like this, straining tight, as tight as possible, and flying away! Like this...."

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

Huck felt that a silence was going to ensue--a thing still more awful than any amount of murderous talk; so he held his breath and stepped gingerly back; planted his foot carefully and firmly, after balancing, one-legged, in a precarious way and almost toppling over, first on one side and then on the other. He took another step back, with the same elaboration and the same risks; then another and another, and--a twig snapped under his foot! His breath stopped and he listened. There was no sound--the stillness was perfect. His gratitude was measureless. Now he turned in his tracks, between the walls of sumach bushes--turned himself as carefully as if he were a ship--and then stepped quickly but cautiously along. When he emerged at the quarry he felt secure, and so he picked up his nimble heels and flew. Down, down he sped, till he reached the Welshman's. He banged at the door, and presently the heads of the old man and his two stalwart sons were thrust from windows.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)     The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

"We's safe, Huck, we's safe! Jump up and crack yo' heels! Dat's de good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!"

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)     Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The general mounted a horse a Cossack had brought him. Pierre went to his groom who was holding his horses and, asking which was the quietest, clambered onto it, seized it by the mane, and turning out his toes pressed his heels against its sides and, feeling that his spectacles were slipping off but unable to let go of the mane and reins, he galloped after the general, causing the staff officers to smile as they watched him from the knoll.

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

He handed the horses over to the soldier who was stirring the pot and squatted down on his heels by the fire beside the officer with the long neck. That officer did not take his eyes from Dolokhov and again asked to what regiment he belonged. Dolokhov, as if he had not heard the question, did not reply, but lighting a short French pipe which he took from his pocket began asking the officer in how far the road before them was safe from Cossacks.

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

"You have just time to get out by taking to your heels at your best speed."

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

Cosette adored the goodman. She was always at his heels. Where Jean Valjean was, there happiness was. Jean Valjean lived neither in the pavilion nor the garden; she took greater pleasure in the paved back courtyard, than in the enclosure filled with flowers, and in his little lodge furnished with straw-seated chairs than in the great drawing-room hung with tapestry, against which stood tufted easy-chairs. Jean Valjean sometimes said to her, smiling at his happiness in being importuned: "Do go to your own quarters! Leave me alone a little!"

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

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