Frasi di Walter Scott

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“[Ferdinando II delle Due Sicilie] Ha ottenuto una forte diminuzione delle spese; ma poi si occupa di cose militari, e le forze armate inghiottono tutti i risparmi. Soltanto il Cielo sa se porterà mai a combattimento i suoi sudditi, perché questo non si può fare con la mera disciplina automatica. Gli attacchi epilettici cui va soggetto e l'enorme corpulenza, inducono molti a volgere lo sguardo verso suo fratello, il Principe Carlo. Ed è un peccato.”

“Il tetro e monotono rumoreggiare dei flutti che venivano incessantemente a scagliarsi contro la riva rocciosa al di sotto, era per l'orecchio ciò che il paesaggio era per l'occhio: un simbolo di invariabile e monotona malinconia, non esente da un certo orrore.”

“Ave Maria! Vergine dolce, | ascolta l'implorazione di una vergine, | da queste rocce aspre e selvagge | giunga fino a te la mia preghiera. || Noi domandiamo sicuri fino al mattino, | anche se gli uomini sono così cattivi. | O Vergine, guarda le pene di una vergine, | o madre, ascolta una fanciulla che ti supplica.”

“Noi costruiamo dei palazzi di neve e piangiamo vedendoli dissolvere.”

“Testi di alcune opere di Walter Scott sul Progetto Gutenberg”

“L'ora è giunta, ma non l'uomo.”

“Quella giovane donna [Jane Austen] aveva, secondo me, il miglior talento che io abbia mai incontrato per descrivere i coinvolgimenti, i sentimenti e i personaggi della vita quotidiana. Del grande babau io scrivo come nessun altro; ma mi è negato lo squisito tocco che rende interessanti cose e personaggi comuni attraverso la verità della descrizione e del sentimento.”

“La vendetta, caro signore, la vendetta, la quale, èur essendo un peccato da gentiluomo come il vino, le orge, con il loro et coetera, è altrettanto poco cristiano, e non altrettanto senza effusione di sangue. E' meglio scavalcare il recinto di un parco per appostare una dama od una donzella, che sparare contro un vecchio.”

“E' fin troppo veroche i nostri vizi ci seducono con la bellezza delle forme esteriori, come la bellezza dei demoni, che i superstiziosi ci rappresentano a congiurare ai danni del genere umano; non si riesce a vederne la innata laidezza finchè non li stringiamo fra le braccia.”

“True love's the gift which God has given To man alone beneath the heaven: It is not fantasy's hot fire, Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly; It liveth not in fierce desire, With dead desire it doth not die; It is the secret sympathy, The silver link, the silken tie, Which heart to heart, and mind to mind In body and in soul can bind.

Fonte: https://le-citazioni.it/community/translations/243231/#_=_”

“For ne'er
Was flattery lost on poet's ear:
A simple race! they waste their toil
For the vain tribute of a smile.”

“What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier?”

“The wind breath'd soft as lover's sigh,
And, oft renew'd, seem'd oft to die,
With breathless pause between,
O who, with speech of war and woes,
Would wish to break the soft repose
Of such enchanting scene!”

“Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and forever!”

“Come one, come all! this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I.”

“With head upraised, and look intent,
And eye and ear attentive bent,
And locks flung back, and lips apart,
Like monument of Grecian art,
In listening mood, she seemed to stand,
The guardian Naiad of the strand.”

“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.”

“O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood!”

“That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?”

“Women are but the toys which amuse our lighter hours-ambition is the serious business of life.”

“My foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor.”

“Scared out of his seven senses.”

“Lightly from fair to fair he flew,
And loved to plead, lament, and sue;
Suit lightly won, and short-lived pain,
For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.”

“A miss is as good as a mile.”

“The eye of the yeoman and peasant sought in vain the tall form of old Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, as, wrapped in his laced cloak, and with beard and whiskers duly composed, he moved slowly through the aisles, followed be the faithful mastiff, or bloodhound, which in old time had saved his master by his fidelity, and which regularly followed him to church. Bevis indeed, fell under the proverb which avers, ‘He is a good dog, which goes to church’; for, bating an occasional temptation to warble along with the accord, he behaved himself as decorously as any of the congregation, and returned much edified, perhaps, as most of them.”

“Call it not vain;—they do not err,
Who say, that when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies.”

“It is a strong castle, and strongly guarded; but there is no impossibility to brave men.”

“T is an old tale and often told;
But did my fate and wish agree,
Ne'er had been read, in story old,
Of maiden true betray'd for gold,
That loved, or was avenged, like me.”

“Woman's faith and woman's trust,
Write the characters in dust.”

“Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,
Come saddle your horses, and call up your men;
Come open the West Port, and let me gang free,
And it's room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!”

“Thou and I are but the blind instruments of some irresistible fatality, that hurries us along, like goodly vessels driving before the storm, which are dashed against each other, and so perish.”

“England was merry England, when
Old Christmas brought his sports again.
‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale;
‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man’s heart through half the year.”

“When Prussia hurried to the field,
And snatch'd the spear, but left the shield.”

“Oh, poverty parts good company.”

“Where's the coward that would not dare
To fight for such a land?”

“Fat, fair, and forty.”

“As old as the hills.”

“Widowed wife and wedded maid.”

“Too much rest is rust.”