Ransom

Ransom

Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.

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Famous quotes containing the word ransom:

    “The image cannot be dispossessed of a primordial freshness, which idea can never claim. An idea is derivative and tamed. The image is in the natural or wild state, and it has to be discovered there, not put there, obeying its own law and none of ours. We think we can lay hold of image and take it captive, but the docile captive is not the real image but only the idea, which is the image with its character beaten out of it.”
    —John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)

    “The horn, the hounds, the lank mares coursing by
    Under quaint archetypes of chivalry;
    And the fox, lovely ritualist, in flight
    Offering his unearthly ghost to quarry;”
    —John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)

    “The twentieth-century artist who uses symbols is alienated because the system of symbols is a private one. After you have dealt with the symbols you are still private, you are still lonely, because you are not sure anyone will understand it except yourself. The ransom of privacy is that you are alone.”
    —Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)