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Spirits: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 255.

Your fair discourse hath been as sugar, Making the hard way sweet and delectable.— Shakespeare — Richard II. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 6.

Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it.— BISHOP SOUTH — Sermon. April 30, 1676.

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts. Attributed to TALLEYRAND by BARRÈRE in Memoirs. Doubtless there are men of great parts that are guilty of downright bashfulness, that by a strange hesitation and reluctance to speak murder the finest and most elegant thoughts and render the most lively conceptions flat and heavy. The Tatler. No. 252. Oh, but the heavenly grammar did I hold Of that high speech which angels' tongues turn gold! So should her deathless beauty take no wrong, Praised in her own great kindred's fit and cognate tongue. Or if that language yet with us abode Which Adam in the garden talked with God! But our untempered speech descends-poor heirs! Grimy and rough-cast still from Babel's bricklayers: Curse on the brutish jargon we inherit, Strong but to damn, not memorise, a spirit! A cheek, a lip, a limb, a bosom, they Move with light ease in speech of working-day; And women we do use to praise even so. S.— FRANCIS THOMPSON — Her Portrait.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.— VOLTAIRE — Dialogue XIV. Le Chapon

et la Poularde. Choice word and measured phrase, above the reach Of ordinary men.— WORDSWORTH — Resolution and Independence. St. 14.

Aërial spirits, by great Jove design'd To be on earth the guardians of mankind : Invisible to mortal eyes they go, And mark our actions, good or bad, below: The immortal spies with watchful care preside, And thrice ten thousand round their charges glide: They can reward with glory or with gold, A power they by Divine permission hold.— HESIOD — Works and Days. L. 164.

All heart they live, all head, all eye, all ear, All intellect, all sense, and as they please They limb themselves, and colour, shape, or size Assume, as likes them best, condense or rare.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. VI. L. 350.

For spirits when they please Can either sex assume, or both.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. I. L. 423.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep. C.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 678.

Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names.— MILTON- — Comus. L. 207.

I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. I. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 52.

Spirits are not finely touched But to fine issues.— Shakespeare — Measure for Measure. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 36.

The air around them Looks radiant as the air around a star.— SHELLEY — Prometheus Unbound. Act I. Sc. 1.