Incense/history

Famous quotes containing the words incense and/or history:

“You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern English religion.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)

“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)