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a419c19 "They're Lares. House gods." "House gods," Percy said. "Like...smaller than real gods, but larger than apartment gods?" house-gods lares real-gods son-of-neptune mythology rome Rick Riordan
25137be "Look," Percy continued, "I know I'm new here. I know you guys don't like to mention the massacre in the nineteen eighties-" "He mentioned it!" one of the ghosts whimpered." son-of-neptune rick-riordan rome Rick Riordan
016ff9a The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. worship magistrate roman-empire useful organized-religion rome Edward Gibbon
5a3ade7 It wasn't easy looking dignified wearing a bed sheet and a purple cape. half jupiter camp greek neptune son jackson percy rome Rick Riordan
f9a8fee I like France, where everybody thinks he's Napoleon--down here everybody thinks he's Christ. rome F. Scott Fitzgerald
ac93f57 Planning is for the world's great cities, for Paris, London, and Rome, for cities dedicated, at some level, to culture. Detroit, on the other hand, was an American city and therefore dedicated to money, and so design had given way to expediency. money detroit urban-planning design london paris rome Jeffrey Eugenides
dda9065 All the great groups that stood about the Cross represent in one way or another the great historical truth of the time; that the world could not save itself. Man could do no more. Rome and Jerusalem and Athens and everything else were going down like a sea turned into a slow cataract. Externally indeed the ancient world was still at its strongest; it is always at that moment that the inmost weakness begins. But in order to understand that weakness we must repeat what has been said more than once; that it was not the weakness of a thing originally weak. It was emphatically the strength of the world that was turned to weakness and the wisdom of the world that was turned to folly. In this story of Good Friday it is the best things in the world that are at their worst. That is what really shows us the world at its worst. It was, for instance, the priests of a true monotheism and the soldiers of an international civilisation. Rome, the legend, founded upon fallen Troy and triumphant over fallen Carthage, had stood for a heroism which was the nearest that any pagan ever came to chivalry. Rome had defended the household gods and the human decencies against the ogres of Africa and the hermaphrodite monstrosities of Greece. But in the lightning flash of this incident, we see great Rome, the imperial republic, going downward under her Lucretian doom. Scepticism has eaten away even the confident sanity of the conquerors of the world. He who is enthroned to say what is justice can only ask: 'What is truth?' So in that drama which decided the whole fate of antiquity, one of the central figures is fixed in what seems the reverse of his true role. Rome was almost another name for responsibility. Yet he stands for ever as a sort of rocking statue of the irresponsible. Man could do no more. Even the practical had become the impracticable. Standing between the pillars of his own judgement-seat, a Roman had washed his hands of the world. humanity rome G.K. Chesterton
d85dcbb Cicero smiled at us. 'The art of life is to deal with problems as they arise, rather than destory one's spirit by worrying about them too far in advance. Especially tonight. life rome Robert Harris
7e6b675 There's a power struggle going on across Europe these days. A few cities are competing against each other to see who shall emerge as the great 21st century European metropolis. Will it be London? Paris? Berlin? Zurich? Maybe Brussels, center of the young union? They all strive to outdo one another culturally, architecturally, politically, fiscally. But Rome, it should be said, has not bothered to join the race for status. Rome doesn't compete. Rome just watches all the fussing and striving, completely unfazed. I am inspired by the regal self-assurance of this city, so grounded and rounded, so amused and monumental, knowing she is held securely in the palm of history. I would like to be like Rome when I am an old lady. life old rome Elizabeth Gilbert
bdcaf1e Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone. humanity religion classical rome Gustave Flaubert
576d1ac Mankind in the aggregate I have found to be brutish, ignorant and unkind, whether those qualities were covered by the coarse tunic of the peasant of the white and purple toga of a senator. And yet in the weakest of men, in moments when they are alone and themselves, I have found veins of strength like gold in decaying rock; in the cruelest of men, flashes of tenderness and compassion; and in the vainest of men, moments of simplicity and grace. morality politics john-edward-williams roman-empire caesar historical-fiction ethics rome John Williams
7c516d5 Rome was mud and smoky skies; the rank smell of the Tiber and the exotically spiced cooking fires of a hundred different nationalities. Rome was white marble and gilding and heady perfumes; the blare of trumpets and the shrieking of market-women and the eternal, sub-aural hum of more people, speaking more languages than Gaius had ever imagined existed, crammed together on seven hills whose contours had long ago disappeared beneath this encrustation if humanity. Rome was the pulsing heart of the world. history visceral-imagery italy language rome Marion Zimmer Bradley
fe1b286 Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to produce these books? Is it possible that ascertained the mechanical principles of 'Virtual Velocity,' the laws of falling bodies and of all motion; that ascertained the true position of the earth and accounted for all celestial phenomena; that discovered his three laws--discoveries of such importance that the 8th of May, 1618, may be called the birth-day of modern science; that gave to the world the Method of Fluxions, the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and the Decomposition of Light; that , , , and , almost completed the science of mathematics; that all the discoveries in optics, hydrostatics, pneumatics and chemistry, the experiments, discoveries, and inventions of , , and , of , and and of all the pioneers of progress--that all this was accomplished by uninspired men, while the writer of the Pentateuch was directed and inspired by an infinite God? Is it possible that the codes of China, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome were made by man, and that the laws recorded in the Pentateuch were alone given by God? Is it possible that and , , and , and , and all the poets of the world, and all their wondrous tragedies and songs are but the work of men, while no intelligence except the infinite God could be the author of the Pentateuch? Is it possible that of all the books that crowd the libraries of the world, the books of science, fiction, history and song, that all save only one, have been produced by man? Is it possible that of all these, the bible only is the work of God? discoveries progress tragedy libraries poets shakespeare india light writer fiction books inspiration bible science songs intelligence alessandro-volta benjamin-franklin beranger bonaventura-cavalieri bonaventura-francesco-cavalieri burns cavalieri chemistry china copernicus descartes euclid experiments franklin fulton galileo galileo-galilei galvani gottfried-leibniz gottfried-von-leibniz gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz gottfried-wilhelm-von-leibniz greece hydrostatics inventions isaac-newton james-watt johann-von-goethe johannes-kepler kepler laws-of-motion leibniz luigi-aloisio-galvani luigi-galvani math mathematics morse newton nicolaus-copernicus optics pentateuch pierre-jean-de-béranger pioneers pneumatics rene-descartes richard-trevithick robert-burns robert-fulton rome samuel-finley-breese-morse samuel-morse schiller the-bible theory-of-gravity theory-of-universal-gravitation trevethick volta watt Æschylus johann-wolfgang-von-goethe goethe egypt william-shakespeare Robert G. Ingersoll
4df1415 rwm l ttnfs m` 'Hd .rwm ttfrj `l~ lhrj wlmrj mn dwn 'yW t'thWr , wk'nh tqwl : mhm f`ltm , 'bq~ 'n rwm . novel rome Elizabeth Gilbert
63f3b4e [H]e could see the island of Manhattan off to the left. The towers were jammed together so tightly, he could feel the mass and stupendous weight.Just think of the millions, from all over the globe, who yearned to be on that island, in those towers, in those narrow streets! There it was, the Rome, the Paris, the London of the twentieth century, the city of ambition, the dense magnetic rock, the irresistible destination of all those who insist on being where things are happening-and he was among the victors! dreams buildings density towers victor skyscrapers island manhattan new-york-city power paris rome new-york Tom Wolfe
30acb86 The fervor and single-mindedness of this deification probably have no precedent in history. It's not like Duvalier or Assad passing the torch to the son and heir. It surpasses anything I have read about the Roman or Babylonian or even Pharaonic excesses. An estimated $2.68 was spent on ceremonies and monuments in the aftermath of Kim Il Sung's death. The concept is not that his son is his successor, but that his son is his . North Korea has an equivalent of Mount Fuji--a mountain sacred to all Koreans. It's called Mount Paekdu, a beautiful peak with a deep blue lake, on the Chinese border. Here, according to the new mythology, Kim Jong Il was born on February 16, 1942. His birth was attended by a double rainbow and by songs of praise (in human voice) uttered by the local birds. In fact, in February 1942 his father and mother were hiding under Stalin's protection in the dank Russian city of Khabarovsk, but as with all miraculous births it's considered best not to allow the facts to get in the way of a good story. religion ancient-egypt ancient-rome babylon baekdu-mountain bashar-al-assad dynasties francois-duvalier hafez-al-assad haiti jean-claude-duvalier joseph-stalin khabarovsk kim-il-sung kim-jong-il kim-jong-suk miraculous-births mount-fuji north-korea reincarnation syria mythology atheism russia china rome egypt Christopher Hitchens
dd7499a Rome wasn't deconstructed in a day. rome Edward St. Aubyn
b81f076 In Rome it seems as if there were so many things which are more wanted in the world than pictures. want rome George Eliot
ec1d517 It was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline that good soldier should dread his own officers far more than the enemy gibbon soldier rome Edward Gibbon
425c1e6 There are many churches in my name and in the name of my apostles. The greatest and holiest is named after Peter; it is a place of great splendor in Rome. Nowhere can be found more gold. jesus gospel rome Norman Mailer
1d816ca it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the the inferior ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and pleasure, which fortune has placed beyond their reach. The virtue of the primitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance. rome Edward Gibbon
7bb86e1 In February 1912, ancient China came to an end when the last of three millennia of Chinese emperors abdicated. Imagine twentieth-century Italy coming to terms with the fall of the Roman empire or Egypt with the last pharaoh abdicating in 1912. For China, the last century has been a period of transition - dramatic change and perpetual revolution. world-history civilization modernity rome egypt Mark Kurlansky
9c452ac This revolutionary idea of Western citizenship--replete with ever more rights and responsibilities--would provide superb manpower for growing legions and a legal framework that would guarantee that the men who fought felt that they themselves in a formal and contractual sense had ratified the conditions of their own battle service. The ancient Western world would soon come to define itself by culture rather than by race, skin color, or language. That idea alone would eventually bring enormous advantages to its armies on the battlefield. (p. 122) war politics contract-for-service voluteer-army consent western-culture soldiers warfare civilization government rome Victor Davis Hanson
548365c The danger we face does not come from religion. It comes from a growing intellectual bankruptcy that is one of the symptoms of a dying culture. In ancient Rome, as the republic disintegrated and the Caesars were deified, as the Roman Senate became little more than an echo chamber of the emperor, the population's attention was diverted by a series of frontier wars and violent and elaborate spectacles in the arena. The excitement of entertainment consumed ancient Rome's emotional and intellectual life. It poisoned civic and political discourse. Social critics no longer had a form in which to speak. They were answered with ridicule and rage. It was not prerogative of the citizen to think. politics religion memes intellect rome Chris Hedges
453a1e0 "Rome took all the vanity out of me, for after seeing the wonders there, I felt too insignificant to live, and gave up all my foolish hopes in despair." "Why should you, with so much energy and talent?" "That's just why, because talent isn't genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing. I won't be a common-place dauber, so I don't intend to try anymore." 19th-century-literature american-literature amy-march louisa-may-alcott quotes-about-art little-women classic-literature art rome Louisa May Alcott
2ccd69c More than once have I thought, Why does crime, even when as powerful as Caesar, and assured of being beyond punishment, strive always for the appearances of truth, justice, and virtue? Why does it take the trouble? I consider that to murder a brother, a mother, a wife, is a thing worthy of some petty Asiatic king, not a Roman Caesar; but if that position were mine, I should not write justifying letters to the Senate. But Nero writes. Nero is looking for appearances, for Nero is a coward. But Tiberius was not a coward; still he justified every step he took. Why is this? What a marvellous, involuntary homage paid to virtue by evil! And knowest thou what strikes me? This, that it is done because transgression is ugly and virtue is beautiful. Therefore a man of genuine aesthetic feeling is also a virtuous man. Hence I am virtuous. insightful rome evil Henryk Sienkiewicz
d2c965b If Rome, was a city of vulgar living, had been depressing after Greece, London, a city of the drab dead, was fifty times worse. london rome John Fowles
646f098 As a famous historian once said, in all its history, Rome deigned to fear two people; one was Hannibal, the other was a woman. rome egypt Karen Essex
a61b497 I would like to be like Rome when I am an old lady. feminism old-lady maturity rome Elizabeth Gilbert
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