My Small Boat

Here is a very bad aphorism for the purpose of illustrative quotation.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

The Anvil
England’s on the anvil — hear the hammers ring –
Clanging from the Severn to the Tyne!
Never was a blacksmith like our Norman King –
England’s being hammered, hammered, hammered into line.
England’s on the anvil! Heavy are the blows!
(But the work will be a marvel when it’s done.)
Little bits of Kingdoms cannot stand against their foes.
England’s [...]

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of ‘touching’ a man’s heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.

Sir. I bear a rhyme excelling
In mystic force and magic spelling.
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