[1] The Greek (Homer), Italian (Rosa Calzecchi Onesti), German (Johann Heinrich Voss), Russian (Gnedich), and French (Paul Mazon) all refer to the same passage: "On this he turned and led the way from council,/ and all the rest, staff-bearing counselors,/ rose and obeyed their marshal. From the camp/ the troops were turning now, thick as bees/ that issue from some crevice in a rock face/ endlessly pouring forth, to make a cluster/ and swarm on blooms of summer here and there,/ glinting and droning, busy in bright air./ Like bees innumerable from ships and huts/ down the deep foreshore streamed those regiments/ toward the assembly ground—and Rumor blazed/ among them like a crier sent from Zeus. Turmoil grew in the great field as they entered/ and sat down, clangorous companies, the ground/ under them groaning, hubbub everywhere./ Now nine men, criers, shouted to compose them:/ 'Quiet! Quiet! Attention! Hear our captains!'/ Then all strove to their seats and hushed their din." As translated by Robert Fitzgerald. The Iliad (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1975), p. 38. — Ed.
Dicamus et labyrinthos, vel portentosissimum humani inpendii opus, sed non, ut existimari potest, falsum, [218]
Pliny
Natural History
36.19.84
Philosophy is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth.
Galileo
II Saggiatore
Others apart sat on a hill retir'd, In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
John Milton
Paradise Lost
It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much happiness they may find there.
Elise De Wolfe
The House in Good Taste
La maison, c'est la maison de famille, c'est pour y mettre les enfants et les hommes, pour les retenir dans un endroit fait pour eux, pour y contenir leur egarement, les distraire de cette humeur d'aventure, de fuite qui est la leur depuis les commencements des ages. 444
Marguerite Duras
Practicalities