Ruins Quotes - Page 31

• A great many people never really discover themselves until ruin stares them in the face. They do not seem to know how to bring out their reserves until they are overtaken by an overwhelming disaster, or until the sight of their blighted prospects and of the wreck of their homes and happiness stirs them to the very center of their beings.... There is something in defeat which puts new determination into a man of mettle.

  Orison Swett Marden

  Determination, Home, Men

  Orison Swett Marden (1907). “The Optimistic Life”

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• As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon, So sophistry, cleaves close to, and protects Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects.

  William Cowper

  Ivy, Rotten, Stones

  'The Progress of Error' (1782) l. 285

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• Knowledge forbidden? Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord Envy them that? Can it be sin to know, Can it be death? And do they only stand By ignorance? Is that their happy state, The proof of their obedience and their faith? O fair foundation laid whereon to build Their ruin!

  John Milton

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Envy

  John Milton, Elijah Fenton (1795). “Paradise Lost: A Poem, in Twelve Books”, p.103

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• Oh each successive night that comes has something in it of an abandoned ember that is slowly burning out, and it falls swathed in ruins, surrounded by funereal objects.

  Pablo Neruda

  Fall, Night, Burning

  Pablo Neruda (1990). “Selected Poems”, p.71, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The great community of mankind had been subdivided into ten thousand communities, each organized for the ruin of the other.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Community, Mankind, Thousand

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1988). “Shelley's Prose: Or the Trumpet of a Prophecy”

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• But the line of thought that I'd been chasing for several days was implicit in the ruins of the old Roman Empire, which gradually destroyed itself by substituting the faith in a legion of miraculous words for the strength of armies and the weight of walls.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Wall, Army, Weight

  Lewis H. Lapham (1997). “Waiting for the Barbarians”, p.186, Verso

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• This whole theory [of John Law and Jean Terrasson], as dear to French financial schemers in the eighteenth century as to American "Greenbackers" in the nineteenth, had resulted, under the Orleans Regency and Louis XV, in ruin to France financially and morally, had culminated in the utter destruction of all prosperity, the rooting out of great numbers of the most important industries, and the grinding down of the working people even to starvation.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Numbers, Law, People

  "Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason". Book by Andrew Dickson White, p. 169-170, 1915.

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• In the acceptance of depravity the sense of the past is most truly captured. What is a ruin but time easing itself of endurance? Corruption is the Age of Time.

  Djuna Barnes

  Acceptance, Past, Age

  Djuna Barnes (1995). “Nightwood: The Original Version and Related Drafts”

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• The immortal mind, superior to his fate, amid the outrage of external things, firm as the solid base of this great world, rests on his own foundation. Blow, ye winds! Ye waves! ye thunders! roll your tempests on! Shake, ye old pillars of the marble sky! Till at its orbs and all its worlds of fire be loosen'd from their seats; yet still serene, the unconquer'd mind looks down upon the wreck; and ever stronger as the storms advance, firm through the closing ruin holds is way, when nature calls him to the destin'd goal.

  Mark Akenside

  Fate, Blow, Fire

  Mark Akenside, “The Pleasures Of Imagination: Book The Second”

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• The English Puritans pulled down church and state to rebuild Zion on the ruins, and all the while it was not Zion, but America, they were building.

  James Russell Lowell

  Zion, America, Church

  James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1222, Delphi Classics

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• Men of warm imaginations and towering thoughts are apt to overlook the goods of fortune which are near them, for something that glitters in the sight at a distance; to neglect solid and substantial happiness for what is showy and superficial; and to contemn that good which lies within their reach, for that which they are not capable of attaining. Hope calculates its schemes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin, and dishonour.

  Joseph Addison

  Happiness, Distance, Lying

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 315-635”, p.308

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• A money-lender--he serves you in the present tense; he lends you in the conditional mood; keeps you in the conjunctive; and ruins you in the future.

  Joseph Addison

  Mood, Tense, Lending

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• If men, who in their hearts are friends to a government, forbear giving it their utmost assistance against its enemies, they put it in the power of a few desperate men to ruin the welfare of those who are much superior to them in strength, number, and interest.

  Joseph Addison

  Heart, Men, Numbers

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.194

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• There are a sort of knight-errants in the world, who, quite contrary to those in romance, are perpetually seeking adventures to bring virgins into distress, and to ruin innocence. When men of rank and figure pass away their lives in these criminal pursuits and practices, they ought to consider that they render themselves more vile and despicable than any innocent man can be, whatever low station his fortune or birth have placed him in.

  Joseph Addison

  Adventure, Men, Knights

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.138

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• It is often said that in prosperity we have many friends, but that we are usually neglected when things go badly. I disagree. Not only do malicious people flock about us in order to witness our ruin, but other unfortunates as well, who have been kept away by our happiness, and now feel close to us on account of our troubles.

  Andre Maurois

  Order, People, Prosperity

  "The Art of Living". Book by Andre Maurois, 1939.

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• The very large units of production and exchange have access to credit on a large scale, sometimes without any cover at all, merely upon the prospect of their success, and always upon terms far easier than are open to their smaller rivals. It is perhaps on this line of easier credit that large capital today does most harm to small capital, drives it out and ruins it.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Doe, Credit, Rivals

  Hilaire Belloc (2016). “The Crisis Of Civilization”, p.101, TAN Books

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• When incentive to acquire and obtain property is gone, people no longer make efforts to acquire any... Those who infringe upon property rights commit an injustice... If this occurs repeatedly, all incentives to cultural enterprise are destroyed and they cease utterly to make an effort. This leads to destruction and ruin of civilization.

  Ibn Khaldun

  Wisdom, Rights, Civilization

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• This was all very new to me and I did not want to ruin his film! So we worked hard on that basis of confidence that is needed to collaborate comfortably.

  Helena Christensen

  Want, Film, Bases

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Guys like him ruin it for everybody else. It's just embarrassing. Or maybe he's not embarrassed because he probably believes he's not doing it-that's how liars are.

  Chris Chelios

  Liars, Believe, Nhl

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• Half the Christian churches of New York are trying to ruin the free public schools in order to replace them by religious dogma.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Christian, Religious, New York

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• Power has destroyed many people - not really. Power doesn't destroy anyone. People apply it poorly and it can ruin their lives. Power is like fire. Fire is neither good nor bad. It's how you use it.

  Frederick Lenz

  Fire, People, Use

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• Just trust your instincts. There's an old saying in golf, you've studied the swing many times, and you practice and practice, but when you stand over the ball, you just have to trust your swing. And you trust it. And if you don't trust it, you'll ruin it; your brain will take over.

  Clint Eastwood

  Golf, Swings, Practice

  "Letters From Iwo Jima - Clint Eastwood interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• If you try to deliver a funny line in a funny way, it comes out as wacky and you ruin the scene.

  Bill Burr

  Trying, Lines, Way

  Source: chicagoist.com

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• Sometimes too much tolerance can kill you. If you are tolerant of people poisoning themselves to death they will drag you down. They will ruin your life by being intentional obstacles to your dreams.

  Ted Nugent

  Dream, People, Tolerance

  "Ted Nugent Exclusive All Access Interview Motor City Madman Shutup & Jam". Interview with Mark Capuano, music.allaccess.com. July 22, 2014.

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• My brothers went to work at 12 and put themselves through school and brought the family out of ruin into food and clothing.

  Mel Brooks

  Brother, School, Clothings

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