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Those who lived by the sword were forced to die by it.
T. H. White -
I will tell you something else, King, which may be a surprise for you. It will not happen for hundreds of years, but both of us are to come back.
T. H. White
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We cannot build the future by avenging the past.
T. H. White -
He did not like the grown-ups who talked down to him, but the ones who went on talking in their usual way, leaving him to leap along in their wake, jumping at meanings, guessing, clutching at known words, and chuckling at complicated jokes as they suddenly dawned. He had the glee of the porpoise then, pouring and leaping through strange seas.
T. H. White -
...All endeavours which are directed to a purely worldly end...contain within themselves the germs of their own corruption.
T. H. White -
There were thousands of brown books in leather bindings, some chained to the book-shelves and others propped against each other as if they had had too much to drink and did not really trust themselves. These gave out a smell of must and solid brownness which was most secure.
T. H. White -
I am an anarchist, like any other sensible person. ~ Merlyn
T. H. White -
It is the bad people who need to have principles to restrain them.
T. H. White
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If it takes a million years for a fish to become a reptile, has Man, in our few hundred, altered out of recognition?
T. H. White -
Believe me, the so-called primitive races who worshipped animals as gods were not so daft as people choose to pretend. At least they were humble. Why should not God have come to the earth as an earth-worm? There are a great many more worms than men, and they do a great deal more good.
T. H. White -
Middle-aged people can balance between believing in God and breaking all the commandments without difficulty.
T. H. White -
The word "feral" has a kind of magic potency which allied itself to two other words, "ferocious" and "free." To revert to a feral state!
T. H. White -
The bravest people are the ones who don’t mind looking like cowards.
T. H. White -
It seems, in tragedy, that innocence is not enough.
T. H. White
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It is a pity that there are no big creatures to prey on humanity. If there were enough dragons and rocs, perhaps mankind would turn its might against them. Unfortunately man is preyed upon by microbes, which are too small to be appreciated.
T. H. White -
Jenny, all my life I have wanted to do miracles. I have wanted to be holy. I suppose it was ambition or pride or some other unworthy thing. It was not enough for me to conquer the world--I wanted to conquer heaven too.
T. H. White -
It is so fatally easy to make young children believe that they are horrible.
T. H. White -
Only fools want to be great.
T. H. White -
Kings can only use their best tools.
T. H. White -
[Kay] was not at all an unpleasant person really, but clever, quick, proud, passionate and ambitious. He was one of those people who would be neither a follower nor a leader, but only an aspiring heart, impatient in the failing body which imprisoned it.
T. H. White
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The fate of this man or that man was less than a drop, although it was a sparkling one, in the great blue motion of the sunlit sea.
T. H. White -
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 only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.
T. H. White -
You run a grave risk, my boy," said the magician, "of being turned into a piece of bread, and toasted.
T. H. White -
Is there anything more terrible than perpetual motion, than doing and doing and doing, without a reason, without a consciousness, without a change, without an end?
T. H. White