Prison/history

Famous quotes containing the words prison and/or history:

    But neither milk-white rose nor red
    May bloom in prison air;
    The shard, the pebble, and the flint,
    Are what they give us there:
    For flowers have been known to heal
    A common man’s despair.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    I believe that history has shape, order, and meaning; that exceptional men, as much as economic forces, produce change; and that passé abstractions like beauty, nobility, and greatness have a shifting but continuing validity.
    Camille Paglia (b. 1947)