FAUSTUS. Ah, Faustus,
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damn’d perpetually!
Stand still, you ever-moving Spheres of Heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come;
Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again, and make
Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
Quotations about:
pause
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Oftentimes, in the evening after they have finished spreading the fertilizer, the writer and his wife sit on the fence — with a wonderful sense of “togetherness” — and listen to the magic symphony of the crickets.
I can understand that. Around our house, we’re pretty busy, and of course we’re not the least bit integrated, but nevertheless my husband and I often sit together in the deepening twilight and listen to the sweet, gentle slosh-click, slosh-click of the dishwasher. He smiles and I smile. Oh, it’s a golden moment.
Dean Swift’s rule is as good for women as for men — never to talk above a half minute without pausing, and giving others an opportunity to strike in.
The art of the parenthesis is one of the great secrets of eloquence in society.
[L’art de la parenthèse est un des grands secrets de l’éloquence dans la Société.]
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 3, ¶ 243 (1795) [tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]
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(Source (French)). Alternate translations:The art of the parenthesis is one of the great secrets of social eloquence.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]The art of parenthesis is one of the great secrets of eloquence in society.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]
There was a pause — just long enough for an angel to pass, flying slowly.
Ronald Firbank (1886-1926) British novelist and playwright
Vainglory (1915)
Think before thou speakest.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 4, ch. 3 (1605) [tr. Motteux and Ozell (1743)]
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Mark Twain’s Speeches, Introduction [ed W.D. Howells (1923 ed.)]
It’s all right to hesitate if you then go ahead!
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
The Good Person of Szechwan [Der gute Mensch von Sezuan], Prologue (1941) [tr. Bentley (1947)]
You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Speech (1922-05-03), “Courage,” Rectoral Address, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
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For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 1, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, ch. 33 (1979)
(Source)
Act nothing in furious Passion; it’s putting to Sea in a Storm.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 365 (1725)
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