Staff/rods

Famous quotes containing the words staff and/or rods:

    For the first fourteen years for a rod they do whine,
    For the next as a pearl in the world they do shine,
    For the next trim beauty beginneth to swerve,
    For the next matrons or drudges they serve,
    For the next doth crave a staff for a stay,
    For the next a bier to fetch them away.
    Thomas Tusser (c. 1520–1580)

    The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)