"I knew the histories well enough to know that folks who pounded desks and yelled “Unity” a lot usually just wanted everyone else to shut up and do what they were told." - A Kiss for Damocles, from chapter 18, by Kenton Pierce.I just finished reading...

"[H]is instinct fortunately telling him that it was better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.""I have enemies, and I am proud of it. I think I have deserved them."The two quotes above are from The Revolt of Angels by Anatole France. I...

I'd like to be the sort of man the flag could boast about;I'd like to be the sort of man it cannot live without;I'd like to be the type of manThat really is American:The head-erect and shoulders-square,Clean-minded fellow, just and fair,That all men...

"By all their swords, by all their scars,By all their names, a mighty spell!By all their wounds, by all their wars,Arise, the mighty strain to tell!For, fiercer than fierce Hengist's strain,More impious than the heathen Dane,More grasping than all-gr...

'E lifted up my 'ead,An' he plugged me where I bled,An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water-green:It was crawlin' and it stunk,But of all the drinks I've drunk,I'm gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.   It was "Din! Din! Din!--From "Gunga Di...

The stars are with the voyagerWherever he may sail;The moon is constant to her time;The sun will never fail;But follow, follow round the world,The green earth and the sea,So love is with the lover's heart,Wherever he may be.Wherever he may be, the st...

Prepare, prepare the iron helm of war,Bring forth the lots, cast in the spacious orb;Th' Angel of Fate turns them with mighty hands,And casts them out upon the darken'd earth!Prepare, prepare!--William Blake, "A War Song to Englishmen"Iron Helm sound...

Though you should build a bark of dead men's bones,And rear a phantom gibbet for a mast,Stitch shrouds together for a sail, with groansTo fill it out, blood-stained and aghast;Although your rudder be a dragon's tailLong sever'd, yet still hard with a...

Souls of Poets dead and gone,   What Elysium have ye known,  Happy field or mossy cavern,  Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?--From "Lines on the Mermaid Tavern" - KeatsElysium, paradise, heaven, shangri-la - Well, I'm ins...

The wild winds weep  And the night is a-cold;Come hither, Sleep,  And my griefs infold:But lo! the morning peeps  Over the eastern steeps,And the rustling birds of dawnThe earth do scorn.--From "Mad Song" by William Blak...