Quotes May 6

The only thing worse than having a family, I discovered, is not having a family. - - Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture What's Left of It, p 25

MACBETH         Cure her of that.
                Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
                Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
                Raze out the written troubles of the brain
                And with some sweet oblivious antidote
                Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
                Which weighs upon the heart?
The Doctor      "Therein the patient Must minister to himself" (Shakespeare, 5.3.57-58).

All things within this fading world hath end,
Adversity doth still our joys attend;
No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet,
But with death's parting blow is sure to meet.
The sentence past is most irrevocable,
A common thing, yet oh, inevitable.
How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend.
How soon't may be thy lot to lose thy friend,
We both are ignorant, yet love bids me
These farewell lines to recommend to thee,
That when that knot's untied that mae us one,
I may seem thine, who in effect am none.
And if I see not half my days that's due,
What nature would, God grant to yours and you;
The many faults that well you know
I have Let be interred in my oblivious grave;
If any worth or virtue were in me,
Let that live freshly in thy memory
And when thou feel'st no grief, as I no harms,
Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms.
And when thy loss shall be repaid with gains
Look to my little babes, my dear remains.
And if thou love thyself, or loved'st me,
These O protect from step-dame's injury.
And if chance to thine eyes shall bring this verse,
With some sad sighs honour my absent hearse;
And kiss this paper for thy love's dear sake,
Who with salt tears this last farewell did take.
Before the Birth of One of Her Children, Anne Bradstreet