Quotes: Men and Gods. Men and Women. Mental State.Mercy. Metaphor.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Men and Gods
The gods have ordained that men bear the burden of life while the gods feel no affliction.
Men and gods 214 Achilles: This is the way/ the gods ordained the destiny of men,/ to bear such burden in our lives, while they/ feel no affliction. Homer, Iliad.

Men and Women
In Jane Austen’ time, men only read newspapers because women were not free to express their opinions.
Men and women 510 The inclusion of newspapers in the male catalog [of activities in the time of Jane Austen] is significant; women were not allowed to express an opinion on politics. Austen, Emma

In the days of Jane Austen, men’s opinions of the weather were valued.
Men and women 510 I think the weather was another subject on which only masculine opinion was valued [in the days of Jane Austen]. Austen, Emma

I don’t want you for a friend; I want to possess you, own you.
Men and women 354 George Gerry: I don’t want you for my friend, but for my own to keep and to have. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

Enthroning women is a big part of men’s lives.
Men and women 212 The remote worship of a woman throned out of their reach plays a great part in men’s lives…. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Mental State
He let his mind passively accept impressions, then exerted himself to organize and catalog them. Mental state 126 Edward at length retired, his mind agitated by a variety of new and conflicting feelings, which detained him from rest for some time, in that not unpleasing state of mind in which fancy takes the helm, and the soul rather drifts passively along with the rapid and confused tide of reflections than exerts itself to encounter, systematize, or examine them. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.

He tried to remember every word she had used with the looks and gestures enforcing them, but he was still in a state of uncertainty.
Mental state 152 He taxed his memory to recall every word she had used, with the appropriate looks and gestures which had enforced them, and ended by finding himself in the same state of uncertainty. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.

Mercy
You don’t need mercy, so you don’t know how to have it.
Mercy 117 Kenyon to Hilda: You need no mercy, and therefore know not how to show any. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.

Metaphor
She was a feather, not a plummet, floating, not dragging.
Metaphor 168 The delight in Nicole’s face—to be a feather again instead of a plummet, to float and not to drag. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.

The city below looked like a necklace of lights.
Metaphor 175 Two thousand feet below she saw the necklace and bracelet of lights that were Montreux and Vevey…. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.

A crab-like retreat....
Metaphor 275 …a crab-like retreat toward the nearest door. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.

He did not know that the party was over.
Metaphor 181 Probably it [a car over at Gatsby’s] was some final guest who had been away at the ends of the earth and didn’t know that the party was over. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

His legs were parenthetical.
Metaphor 382 …with parenthetical legs…. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

I know how far I can sail her and when to stop so as not to be wrecked on the shore.
Metaphor 311 I know just how far to sail with her and when to stop, if I don’t want to get wrecked on a lee shore. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

I guess I will have to steer a straight course and speak directly to the point.
Metaphor 348 “Dear me,” [the Captain] grumbled at last, “I shall have to steer a straight course” [i.e., speak directly to the point]. Jewett, A Country Doctor.