New lives, what do they mean in the end? A fresh set of little troubles, more solid perhaps than the old. People who talk of new lives believe there will be no new troubles.
Phyllis Bottome (1884-1963) British novelist and short story writer [mar. Phyllis Forbes Dennis]
Old Wine, ch. 18 (1925)
Quotations about:
escape
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Art and Religion are, then, two roads by which men escape from circumstance to ecstasy.
No shame in running,
fleeing disaster, even in pitch darkness.
Better to flee from death than feel its grip.[Οὐ γάρ τις νέμεσις φυγέειν κακόν, οὐδ’ ἀνὰ νύκτα.
βέλτερον ὃς φεύγων προφύγῃ κακὸν ἠὲ ἁλώῃ.]Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 14, l. 80ff (14.80) [Agamemnon] (c. 750 BC) [tr. Fagles (1990), l. 96ff]
(Source)
Original Greek. Alternate translations:
Better from evils, well foreseen, to run
Than perish in the danger we may shun.
[tr. Pope (1715-20)]
For there is no disgrace in flying from evil, not even during the night. It is better for a flying man to escape from evil, than to be taken.
[tr. Buckley (1860)]
For there is no shame in fleeing from ruin, yea, even in the night. Better doth he fare who flees from trouble, than he that is overtaken.
[tr. Leaf/Lang/Myers (1891)]
There is nothing wrong in flying ruin even by night. It is better for a man that he should fly and be saved than be caught and killed.
[tr. Butler (1898)]
There is no shame in running, even by night, from disaster.
The man does better who runs from disaster than he who is caught by it.
[tr. Lattimore (1951)]
There's no disgrace in getting away from ruin, not by a night retirement. Better a man should leave the worst behind him than be caught.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1974)]
Dreams, books, are each a world; and books we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good:
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
Lucius Arruntius killed himself, he said, to escape both the future and the past.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
“A Custom of the Island of Cea,” Essays (1588) [tr. Frame (1958)]
I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
(Attributed)
Mentioned frequently as being part of his earlier speeches, but unsourced. Also found as "failed to see the slightest scintillation of an answer until I prayed with my legs."
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
[Nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, magnis semper conatibus adversa.]
Tacitus (c.56-c.120) Roman historian, orator, politician [Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
Annals, Book 15, 50 (AD 117)
Referring to Subrius Flavus’ thought of assassinating Nero while the emperor sang on stage. Alt. trans.: "But desire of escape, foe to all great enterprises, held him back."
The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
(Attributed)
Beseech you, sir, be merry. You have cause —
So have we all — of joy, for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day some sailor’s wife,
The masters of some merchant, and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe. But for the miracle —
I mean our preservation — few in millions
Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Tempest, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 1ff [Gonzalo] (1611)
(Source)
