Double Negatives

Famous quotes containing the words double and/or negatives:

    “You spotted snakes with double tongue,
    Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen.
    Newts and blindworms, do no wrong,
    Come not near our Fairy Queen.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “‘Tis not such lines as almost crack the stage
    When Bajazet begins to rage;
    Nor a tall met’phor in the bombast way,
    Nor the dry chips of short-lunged Seneca.
    Nor upon all things to obtrude
    And force some odd similitude.
    What is it then, which like the power divine
    We only can by negatives define?”
    —Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)