Severed Alliance

Famous quotes containing the words severed and/or alliance:

    It was your severed image that grew sweeter,
    That floated, wing-stiff, focused in the sun
    Along uncertainty and gales of shame
    Blown out before I slept. Now you are one
    I dare not think alive: only a name
    That chimes occasionally, as a belief
    Long since embedded in the static past.
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can’t long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.
    Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)