Birth Island

Famous quotes containing the words birth and/or island:

    Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
    Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
    The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
    And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
    The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
    No fairy tale nor witch hath power to charm,
    So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)