Category: Lit & Crit

“A rotten case abides no handling.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 4.1

“We see which way the stream of time doth run, and are enforc’d from our most quiet sphere by the rough torrent of occasion.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 4.1

“He that dies this year is quit for the next.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 3.2

“There is a history in all men’s lives, figuring the nature of the times deceas’d; the which observ’d, a man may prophesy, with a near aim, of the main chance of things as yet not come to life, which in their seeds and weak beginnings lie intreasured. Such things become the hatch and brood of time.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 3.1

“O thoughts of men accurst! Past, and to come, seems best; things present, worst.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 1.3

“In an early spring we see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, hope gives not so much warrant as despair that frost will bite them.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 1.3

“A good wit will make use of anything.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 1.2

“A man can no more separate age and covetousness than he can part young limbs and lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part 1.2

“Time in its irresistible and ceaseless flow carries along on its flood all created things, and drowns them in the depths of obscurity, no matter if they be quite unworthy of mention, or most noteworthy and important, and thus, as the tragedian says, ‘he brings from the darkness all things to the birth, and all things born envelops in the night.’ But the tale of history forms a very strong bulwark against the stream of time, and to some extent checks its irresistible flow, and, of all things done in it, as many as history has taken over, it secures and binds together, and does not allow them to slip away into the abyss of oblivion.” – Anna Comnena, Alexiad (trans. Elizabeth A. S. Dawes)

“Open your ears; for which of you will stop the vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks? I, from the orient to the drooping west, making the wind my post-horse, still unfold the acts commenced on this ball of earth. Upon my tongues continual slanders ride, the which in every language I pronounce, stuffing the ears of men with false reports. I speak of peace, while covert enmity, under the smile of safety, wounds the world: And who but Rumour, who but only I, make fearful musters and prepar’d defence; whilst the big year, swoln with some other grief, is thought with child by the stern tyrant war, and no such matter? Rumour is a pipe blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures; and of so easy and so plain a stop that the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the still-discordant wavering multitude, can play upon it.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Second Part Induction

“To die is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 5.4

“Thought’s the slave of life, and life time’s fool.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 5.4

“The time of life is very short! To spend that shortness basely were too long, if life did ride upon a dial’s point, still ending at the arrival of an hour.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 5.2

“Treason is but trusted like the fox, who, ne’er so tame, so cherish’d, and lock’d up, will have a wild trick of his ancestors.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 5.2

“Can honour set-to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word, honour? What is that honour? air. A trim reckoning!—Who hath it? he that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. Is it insensible, then? yea, to the dead.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 5.1

“Thou owest God a death.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 5.1

“Nothing can seem foul to those that win.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 5.1

“Whatever the shortages of equipment that may have remained in the Pacific by the fall of 1944, none was so serious as the shortage of troop labor to perform the thousand and one tasks involved in the operation of a supply line in territory where facilities were primitive and native labor either nonexistent or totally unskilled. The shortage of service troops in the Pacific was a chronic condition—one that began with the arrival of the first American troops and endured until the end of the war. It was a contributing factor to practically every other problem of Pacific logistics. The shortage of port battalions contributed to every instance of ship congestion, the shortage of Quartermaster troops to every instance of spoiled rations, that of Engineer construction battalions to every instance of failure to build airfields, roads, and other facilities on time. The inadequate supply of service troops imposed far more severe limitations on the pace of the Pacific advance than did the supply of combat units. As General Somervell wrote from the South Pacific in September 1943, it was not ‘a case of “frills”—but one of getting beans, shoes and bullets to the men who are fighting and to save those fighting from being laid out with pestilence,’ of building facilities at primitive bases which the Japanese did not have the resources or ability to match. ‘It would be a great mistake,’ he said, not to supply service troops ‘in full measure and make the most of this advantage.’” – Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton, “The War Against Japan, 1943-44,” Global Logistics and Strategy: 1943-1945

“Though the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 2.4

“If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work; but when they seldom come, they wish’d-for come, and nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 1.2

“Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, First Part 1.2

“The first Engineer units sent out were too lightly equipped; they did not have either adequate quantities of equipment or heavy enough equipment for clearing jungles and building in jungle terrain. The initial conception, in fact, was apparently that much of the construction work in the Pacific would be pick and shovel work. It soon became clear that one of the principal points of American superiority over the enemy lay in heavy construction equipment—bulldozers, cranes, rollers, graders, crushers, drilling equipment, power shovels, power saw mills, and so forth—that could do the work of many men.” – Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton, “The War Against Japan, 1943-44,” Global Logistics and Strategy: 1943-1945

“A light wife doth make a heavy husband.” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice 5.1

“The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark when neither is attended; and, I think, the nightingale, if she should sing by day, when every goose is cackling, would be thought no better a musician than the wren. How many things by season season’d are to their right praise and true perfection!” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice 5.1

“The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus: let no such man be trusted.” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice 5.1

“He is well paid that is well satisfied.” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice 4.1

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice 4.1

“Multiple handling and transshipment at several points took their toll in breakage, deterioration, and pilferage. Storage north of Australia or New Caledonia was usually inadequate, and deterioration in open storage in a tropical climate appallingly swift. Rations spoiled, canvas rotted, ammunition became unusable, and machinery rusted. ‘There has been considerable wastage in all types of supplies . . . ,’ wrote Somervell from the South Pacific in September 1943. ‘This loss has been particularly high in ammunition and rations. No one really knows how much food has been spoiled. It is certain, however, that as much as 50 percent of some types of ammunition has gone to waste and hundreds of thousands if not millions of rations have been lost.’ In June 1943 an observer thought at least 40 percent of the rations in SWPA [Southwest Pacific Area] spoiled or unconsumable.” – Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton, “The War Against Japan, 1943-44,” Global Logistics and Strategy: 1943-1945

“In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt but, being season’d with a gracious voice, obscures the show of evil? In religion, what damned error but some sober brow will bless it, and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice 3.2

“Who shall go about to cozen fortune, and be honourable without the stamp of merit! Let none presume to wear an undeserved dignity. O, that estates, degrees, and offices, were not deriv’d corruptly! and that clear honour were purchas’d by the merit of the wearer! How many then should cover that stand bare! How many be commanded that command! How much low peasantry would then be glean’d from the true seed of honour! and how much honour pick’d from the chaff and ruin of the times, to be new varnish’d!” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice 2.9