Phantastes Quotes & Sayings

This wretched Inn, where we scarce stay to bait,
We call our Dwelling-Place:
We call one Step a Race:
But angels in their full enlightened state,
Angels, who Live, and know what 'tis to Be,
Who all the nonsense of our language see
Who speak things, and our words, their ill-drawn pictures, scorn,
When we, by a foolish figure, say,
Behold an old man dead! then they
Speak properly, and cry, Behold a man-child born! — Abraham Cowley

My soul was like a summer evening, after a heavy fall of rain, when the drops are yet glistening on the trees in the last rays of the down-going sun, and the wind of the twilight has begun to blow. — George MacDonald

I might here find the magic word of power to banish the demon and set me free, so that I should no longer be a man beside myself. — George MacDonald

I knew now, that it is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, and not the being loved by each other, that originates and perfects and assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any soul beloved ... — George MacDonald

Hundreds of hopeless waves rushed constantly shorewards, falling exhausted upon a beach of great loose stones, that seemed to stretch miles and miles in both directions. There was nothing for the eye but mingling shades of gray; nothing for the ear but the rush of the coming, the roar of the breaking, and the moan of the retreating wave. — George MacDonald

Twilight-kind, oppressing the heart as with a condensed atmosphere of dreamy undefined love and longing. — George MacDonald

Even a magnificent city such as Florence becomes more intriguing if there is a demon at work in the alleys. — Chris Bohjalian

And Summer, dear Summer, hath years of June,
With large white clouds, and cool showers at noon;
And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,
Till a burst of tears is the heart's relief. — George MacDonald

Ah, let a man beware, when his wishes, fulfilled, rain down upon him, and his happiness is unbounded. — George MacDonald

I keep thinking you already know. I keep thinking I've sent you letters that were only ever written in my mind. — Iain Thomas

As far as being an actor is concerned, you have to have passion. If you're not bringing the passion of the character into the room with you, you might as well not come into the room at all. — Zachary Levi

TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. — Howard Zinn

I forced my way to the brink, stepped into the boat, pushed it, with the help of the tree-branches, out into the stream, lay down in the bottom, and let my boat and me float whither the stream would carry us. — George MacDonald

[T]wo of you can be no match for the three giants, I will find you, if I can, a third brother, who will take on himself the third share of the fight, and the preparation ... I will show him to you in a glass, and, when he comes, you will know him at once. If he will share your endeavors, you must teach him all you know, and he will repay you well, in present song, and in future deeds.'
She opened the door of a curious old cabinet that stood in the room. On the inside of this door was an oval convex mirror ... we at length saw reflected the place where we stood, and the old dame seated in her chair ... at the feet of the dame lay a young man ... weeping.
'Surely this youth will not serve our ends,' said I, 'for he weeps.'
The old woman smiled. 'Past tears are present strength,'said she. — George MacDonald

When the whole world starts behaving like a big family, protecting and caring each other, the world will become a good place to live! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

No matter how slinky your lingerie, a sticker between the brows will always kill the mood. — Rosen Trevithick

Thy beauty filleth the very air,
Never saw I a woman so fair. — George MacDonald

And we had met at last in this same cave of greenery, while the summer night hung round us heavy with love, and the odours that crept through the silence from the sleeping woods were the only signs of an outer world that invaded our solitude. — George MacDonald

Save the sugar for some other girl. This one's had it up to here with people in general. — Katherine McIntyre

Unhappiness can be like a virus spreading from one person, to the next person, to the next one and so on. When someone is mean or rude to you, do not let their unhappiness infect your own life. If you are the unhappy one, please quarantine yourself so you do not infect others! — Jennifer O'Neill

Saying, ain't doing. — John Williams

While we shall negotiate freely, we shall not negotiate freedom. — John F. Kennedy

A ghost grew out of the shadowy air,
And sat in the midst of her moony hair.

In her gleamy hair she sat and wept;
In the dreamful moon they lay and slept;

The shadows above, and the bodies below,
Lay and slept in the moonbeams slow.

And she sang, like the moan of an autumn wind
Over the stubble left behind. — George MacDonald

The young man knows the rules but the old man knows the exceptions. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Sweet sounds can go where kisses may not enter. — George MacDonald

If only
you could have witnessed how
much I have changed: sit alone
in a disused theatre and feel what
I have felt, see how the world has
transformed me, like the metamorphosis
of a caterpillar. — Kiera Woodhull

It was evening. The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy beams yet illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above the world. I arose, I reached the cloud; and, throwing myself upon it, floated with it in sight of the sinking sun. He sank, and the cloud grew gray; but the grayness touched not my heart. It carried its rose-hue within; for now I could love without needing to be loved again. — George MacDonald

Or, if needing years to wake thee
From thy slumbrous solitudes,
Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee
To the friendly, sleeping woods.

Sweeter dreams are in the forest,
Round thee storms would never rave;
And when need of rest is sorest,
Glide thou then into thy cave. — George MacDonald

There is a lot of rubbish written about toilet humour - people saying it is childish and pretending it is beneath them - but there is no doubting the effectiveness of a really good willy gag. — Adrian Edmondson

From Eden's bowers the full-fed rivers flow,
To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:
Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields.
To guide the wanderers to the happy fields. — George MacDonald

Then I remembered that night is the fairies' day, and the moon their sun; and I thought - Everything sleeps and dreams now: when the night comes, it will be different. — George MacDonald