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52cf330
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How can you have boundaries if you fly? Those ants of yours--and the humans too--would have to stop fighting in the end, if they took to the air." "I like fighting," said the Wart. "It is knightly." "Because you're a baby."
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T.H. White |
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a89c4a4
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Gawaine and Gareth took turns with the fat ass, one of them whacking it while the other rode bareback.
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T.H. White |
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920c017
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He did not himself believe in the supernatural, but the thing happened, and he proposed to tell it as simply as possible. It was stupid of him to say that it shook his faith in mundane affairs, for it was just as mundane as anything else. Indeed the really frightening part about it was the horribly tangible atmosphere in which it took place. None of the outlines wavered in the least. The creature would have been less remarkable if it had be..
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troll
mundane
supernatural
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T.H. White |
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1965caf
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I suppose the best way to tell the story is simply to narrate it, without an effort to carry belief. The thing did not require belief. It was not a feeling of horror in one's bones, or a misty outline, or anything that needed to be given actuality by an act of faith. It was as solid as a wardrobe. You don't have to believe in wardrobes. They are there, with corners. (The Troll)
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real
horror
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T.H. White |
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1562474
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Do you think that they, with their Battles, Famine, Black Death and Serfdom, were less enlightened than we are, with our Wars, Blockade, Influenza, and Conscription.
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T.H. White |
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309504e
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An ordinary fellow, who did not spend half his life torturing himself by trying to discover what was right so as to conquer his inclination towards what was wrong, might have cut the knot which brought their ruin.
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T.H. White |
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52c6c31
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The best cure for grief is learning"."
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T.H. White |
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6d71356
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The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--..
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T.H. White |
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866c3f8
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And in the winter, which was confined by statute to two months, the snow lay evenly, three feet thick, but never turned into slush.
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T.H. White |
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97cbc77
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The increasingly cynical court thought Arthur, "hypocritical, as all decent men must be if you assume decency cannot exist."
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hypocrisy
decency
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T.H. White |
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7a9d9ca
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True warfare is rarer in Nature than cannibalism.
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T.H. White |
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3778961
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There would be a day--there must be a day--when he would come back to Gramarye with a new Round Table which had no corners, just as the world had none--a table without boundaries between the nations who would sit to feast there. The hope of making it would lie in culture. If people could be persuaded to read and write, not just to eat and make love, there was still a chance that they might come to reason. BUT
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T.H. White |
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b1db9ff
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I have been thinking," said Arthur, "about Might and Right. I don't think things ought to be done because you are able to do them. I think they should be done because you ought to do them."
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T.H. White |
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a80542f
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Wherever they went and wherever they slept, the east wind whistled in the reeds, and the geese went over high in the starlight, honking at the stars.
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T.H. White |
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94404d1
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The author says people are guilty of "wrecking the present because the future was bound to be a wreck."
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pessimism
sin
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T.H. White |
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9a8dde4
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For in those days love was ruled by a different convention to ours. In those days it was chivalrous, adult, long, religious, almost platonic. It was not a matter about which you could make accusations lightly. It was not, as we take it to be nowadays, begun and ended in a long week-end.
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T.H. White |
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344ebfd
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The plain of Bedegraine was a forest of pavilions. They looked like old-fashioned bathing tents, and were every colour of the rainbow. ... There were heraldic devices worked or stamped on the sides ... Then there were pennons floating from the tops of the tents, and sheaves of spears leaning against them. The more sporting barons had shields or huge copper basins outside their front doors, and all you had to do was to give a thump on one of..
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humour
chivalry
knights
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T.H. White |
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1e721b3
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My father always used to tell one of his dreams, because it somehow seemed of a piece with what was to follow. He believed that it was a consequence of the thing's presence in the next room. My father dreamed of blood. It was the vividness of the dreams that was impressive, their minute detail and horrible reality. The blood came through the keyhole of a locked door which communicated with the next room. I suppose the two rooms had original..
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dream
keyhole
troll
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T.H. White |
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1182b65
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Everything not forbidden is compulsory.
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T.H. White |
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891b903
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I am writing a treatise just now" said the badger, coughing diffidently to show that he was absolutely set on explaining it, "which is to point out why Man has become the master of the animals. Perhaps you would like to hear it? It's for my doctor's degree you know," he added hastily, before Wart could protest. He got few chances of reading his treatise to anybody, so he could not bear to let the opportunity slip by."
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academia-humor
graduate-school
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T.H. White |
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adbfa5d
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We have invented a moral sense which is rotting now that we can't give it employment, and when a moral sense begins to rot, it is worse than when you had none. I suppose that all endeavors which are directed to a purely worldly end, as my precious civilization was, contain within themselves the germs of their own corruption.
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spiritual-warfare
pride
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T.H. White |
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ba0ab0b
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Man had gone on, through age after age, avenging wrong with wrong, slaughter with slaughter. Nobody was the better for it, since both sides always suffered, yet everybody was inextricable. The present war might be attributed to Mordred, or to himself. But also it was due to a million Thrashers, to Lancelot, Guenever, Gawaine, everybody. Those who lived by the sword were forced to die by it. It was as if everything would lead to sorrow, so l..
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T.H. White |
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79ab00b
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The best example I know, of this astonishingly stupid attitude towards sport, is that of Franz Ferdinand. His, however, was an achievement with the gun. He used to shoot at Konopist with no less than seven weapons and four loaders, and he once killed more than 4,000 birds, himself, in one day. [ of statistics and quite beside the point: a Yorkshireman once drank 52 1/2 pints of beer in one hour.] Now why did Franz Ferdinand do this? Even i..
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pheasant
gunpowder
sarajevo
gun
shooting
game
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T.H. White |
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f39c8b2
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Thank God for the aged And for age itself, and illness and the grave. When we are old and ill, and particularly in the coffin, It is no trouble to behave.
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T.H. White |
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3dc5e72
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He could do what all men wanted to, that is, fly
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T.H. White |
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db7e764
|
Nobody can be saved from anything, unless they save themselves.
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T.H. White |
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6a1f31c
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He had conquered murder, to be faced with war. There were no Laws for that.
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T.H. White |
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f3c1eea
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The only way I can keep clear of force is by justice. Far from being willing to execute his enemies, a real king must be willing to execute his friends.
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favoritism
justice
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T.H. White |
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d4e270a
|
The best thing for being sad . . . is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and w..
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T.H. White |
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55c82e3
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People will do the basest things on account of their so-called honor.
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reputation
pride
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T.H. White |
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dc5b5e4
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So little time to pass?" said Merlyn, and a big tear ran down to the end of his nose."
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T.H. White |
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c0c477a
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Merlyn always said that sportsmanship was the curse of the world, and so it is.
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T.H. White |
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ecedd2a
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I never could stomach these nationalists," he exclaimed. "The destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees."
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T.H. White |
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451561e
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Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you.
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T.H. White |
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5ef045b
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when a moral sense begins to rot it is worse than when you had none.
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T.H. White |
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eadc7dd
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in going to sleep he had learned to vanquish light, and now the light could not rewake him.
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T.H. White |
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60cb7e7
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In the course of a long experience of the human race, I have learned that you can never make them understand anything, unless you rub it in.
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T.H. White |
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af51f6a
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he began to see why Merlyn had always clowned on purpose. It had been a means of helping people to learn in a happy way.
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T.H. White |
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e17913c
|
although they are often ready to play the buffoon to amuse you, such conduct is the prerogative of the truly wise.
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T.H. White |
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df8db6c
|
How condescending, how splendidly democratic of Sir Lancelot, to laugh, as if he were an ordinary man! Perhaps he eats and drinks as well, or even sleeps at night.
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T.H. White |
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41b412d
|
all endeavours which are directed to a purely worldly end, as my famous Civilization was, contain within themselves the germs of their own corruption.
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T.H. White |
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fc41256
|
He may even have felt that God needed him more than Guenever did.
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T.H. White |
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913f442
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No, I'm not." "Yes, you are." "No, I'm not." "Yes, you are." "I said Pax Non." "You said Pax." "No, I didn't." "Yes, you did." "No, I didn't." "Yes, you did."
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T.H. White |
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321d54b
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it seems, in tragedy, that innocence is not enough.
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T.H. White |