Motive Steam

Famous quotes containing the words motive and/or steam:

    If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men’s failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal’s natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle?
    William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)

    Wisely watch for the sight
    Of the supernova burgeoning over the barn,
    Lampshine blurred in the steam of beasts, the spirit’s right
    Oasis, light incarnate.
    Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)