General Excellence

Famous quotes containing the words general and/or excellence:

    Towards him they bend
    With awful reverence prone; and as a God
    Extoll him equal to the highest in Heav’n:
    Nor fail’d they to express how much they prais’d,
    That for the general safety he despis’d
    His own: for neither do the Spirits damn’d
    Loose all thir vertue; lest bad men should boast
    Thir specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
    Or close ambition varnisht o’er with zeal.
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    Sir Walter Raleigh might well be studied, if only for the excellence of his style, for he is remarkable in the midst of so many masters. There is a natural emphasis in his style, like a man’s tread, and a breathing space between the sentences, which the best of modern writing does not furnish. His chapters are like English parks, or say rather like a Western forest, where the larger growth keeps down the underwood, and one may ride on horseback through the openings.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)