Famous quotes containing the words short and/or verses:
“Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)