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:

    And the chieftain’s head, with grinning sockets, and varnished—
    Is it hung on the sky with a hideous epitaphy?
    No, the woman keeps the trophy.
    —John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)

    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)

    For I could tell you a story which is true;
    I know a lady with a terrible tongue,
    Blear eyes fallen from blue,
    All her perfections tarnished—and yet it is not long
    Since she was lovelier than any of you.
    —John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)