Sedulia's Quotations

Nancy Mitford: French intellectuals view England from afar

Charles-Edouard began taking Grace [his English wife] to see his relations....at 6.30 every day they would put themselves into a little lift which shook and quavered up to the drawing-room of some old aunt or cousin of the family. These lifts, these drawing-rooms and these old ladies differed very little from each other....Their knowledge of England was quite astonishing, very much like the knowledge some astronomer might have of the moon after regarding it for many a long night through a telescope.

  --Nancy Mitford (1904-1973), The Blessing (pub. 1951, but still true)

Madrigal: Beauty's self she is, when all her robes are gone

Madrigal

My love in her attire doth show her wit,
it doth so well become her:
for every season she hath dressings fit,
for winter, spring, and summer.
No beauty she doth miss,
when all her robes are on:
but beauty's self she is,
when all her robes are gone.

        --Anonymous, published in Poetical Rhapsody, 1602 (ed Francis Davison)

French general Paul Vanuxen: In strategy, two solutions: the right one and that of the military academy

In matters of strategy, there are always two solutions: the right one and that of the Military Academy.

      --French General Paul Vanuxen [I have not been able to find the source for this quotation.]

En matière de stratégie, il y a toujours deux solutions : la bonne et celle de l'Ecole de Guerre.

 

Ted Stanger: Fonctionnaires are a taboo subject in the presidential race

The French feel secure for life thanks to the government. Born into this system, 75 % of young people want a job as a government employee. And the other 25 go to work in London.

        --American Ted Stanger, author of Sacrés Fonctionnaires which comes out on Thursday, 5 October; in an interview in Le Parisien 2 October, 2006.

Les français ont l'impression d'être sécurisés à vie grâce à l'administration. Nés dans ce système, les jeunes, à 75 %, veulent un boulot de fonctionnaire. Et les 25 autres vont travailler à Londres.