THE CUNNING MAN Quote #1

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From Chapter Six: "Then [the doctor] proceeded to tell my parents what he had discovered, while I was still in the room, standing by my mother's chair. I was, he said, 'delicate' and must be treated accordingly ... this was of utmost importance to my future, because whoever declares a child to be 'delicate' thereby crowns and anoints a tyrant."

- Robertson Davies, The Cunning Man

THE CORAL ISLAND Quote #1

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The opening paragraph:"Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, my boyhood, and in man's estate, I have been a rover; not a mere rambler among the woody glens and upon the hill-tops of my own native land, but an enthusiastic rover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world." - R. M. Ballantyne The Coral Island

FLY BY NIGHT Quote #4

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My favorite image:"Mosca saw ... a woman in a tattered black cambric shawl who had spread across her lap a dozen pigtails, all crudely severed. ... Mosca guessed that she must be one of the notorious scissor women, who would snip the locks off unguarded children to sell to wigmakers. The pigtails lay like fat, silken ropes, their sad little ribbons still attached." - Frances Hardinge Fly by Night, ch. XVII

(more quotations here)

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: "B"

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From Brewer's Dictionary:Beastly drunk - An ancient notion that men in their cups exhibited seven kinds of drunkards: (1) The Ape-drunk who leaps and sings; (2) The Lion-drunk who is quarrelsome; (3) The Swine-drunk who is sleepy and puking; (4) The Sheep-drunk, wise in his own conceit, but unable to speak; (5) The Martin-drunk who drinks himself sober again; (6) The Goat-drunk who is lascivious; and (7) the Fox-drunk, who is crafty, like a Dutchman in his cups.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: "A"

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From Brewer's Dictionary: Athenian Bee, The - PLATO, a native of Athens, was so called from the tradition that a swarm of bees alighted on his mouth when he was in his cradle, so that thereafter his words flowed with the sweetness of honey. See also ATTIC BEE.

Attic bee, The - Sophocles, the Athenian tragic poet, so called from the sweetness of his compositions.[1. I had no idea that "Attic" meant "of Athens"]