Fallen/books

Famous quotes containing the words fallen and/or books:

    Although crowds gathered once if she but showed her face,
    And even old men’s eyes grew dim, this hand alone,
    Like some last courtier at a gypsy camping-place
    Babbling of fallen majesty, records what’s gone.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    A transition from an author’s books to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendor, grandeur, and magnificence; but, when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke.
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)