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. . . FIFTY see: "AGE" for related links The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest . . . You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down. --T.S. Eliot (18881965) Anglo-American poet, critic, and dramatist. "Time" [23 October 1950] After a man is 50, you can fool him by saying he is smart, but you can't fool him by saying he's pretty. --E.W. House Quoted in "Today's Health" [1954]. The best years are the forties; after fifty a man begins to deteriorate, but in the forties he is at the maximum of his villainy. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (18801956) American journalist and literary critic. Attributed in Evan Esar _20,000 Quips & Quotes_ [1995]. [Upon turning 50:] I spit on the grave of my awful forties. --James Thurber (18941961) American humorist and cartoonist. Letter to Herman & Dorothy Miller [9 December 1944]. In Harrison Kinney (ed.) _The Thurber Letters: The Wit, Wisdom and Surprising Life of James Thurber_ [2002]. That vague, crepuscular time, the time of regrets that resemble hopes, of hopes that resemble regrets, when youth has passed, but old age has not yet arrived. --Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (18181883) Russian novelist, poet, and playwright. _Fathers and Sons_, ch. 7 [1862] - A man is a fool if he drinks before he reaches the age of 50, and a fool if he doesn't afterward. --Frank Lloyd Wright (18671959) American architect. Quoted in "N.Y. Times" [22 June 1958]. & note: There's no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty, and then he's a damn fool if he doesn't. --William Faulkner (18971962) American novelist. Quoted in James M. Webb and A. Wigfall Green _William Faulkner of Oxford_ [1965]. -  ;void(0)) FIGHT . . see: "DUELS" see: "STRUGGLE" see: "WAR" We ourselves saw these women, who were there fighting in front of all the Indian men as women captains ... so courageously that the Indian men did not dare turn their backs, and anyone who did they killed with clubs right there before us ... These women are very white and tall and have hair very long and braided and they are very robust and go about naked [but] with their privy parts covered. --Gaspar de Carvajal (15001584) Spanish Dominican missionary. In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 332 [2004]. Cohan & Major note: Carvajal dubbed these ladies 'Amazons', thereby earning for himself some derision and for the great river a name that stuck. If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. --Winston Churchill (18741965) British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [19401945, 19511955]. _The Second World War_, vol I "The Gathering Storm" [1948] Let sleeping dogs lie - who wants to rouse 'em? --Charles Dickens (18121870) English novelist. _David Copperfield_, ch. 39 [1850] Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight. --Phyllis Diller (b. 1917) American comedian. _Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints_ [1966] A knock-down argument. --John Dryden (16311700) English poet, critic, and dramatist. _Amphitryon_, I, i, [1690] Strength of numbers is the delight of the timid. The valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone. --Mohandas K. Gandhi (18691948) Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule. _Young India_ [17 June 1926] - He who fights and runs away, May live to fight another day. But he who is in battle slain, Can never rise to fight again. --Oliver Goldsmith (17281774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist. Attributed in _The American Publishers' Circular and Literary Gazette_ [15 August 1863]. Also attributed to a James Ray of Whitehaven in "Notes and Queries" Third Series - Volume Seventh [January-June 1865]. & see: Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray, My legs are longer, though, to run away. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, III, ii [15951596] & note: The man who runs may fight again. --Menander (343?291 B.C.) Greek dramatist. _Monostikoi_ - Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills. --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ [1973] [As his ship was sinking (23 September 1779), having been asked whether he had lowered his flag:] I have not yet begun to fight. --John Paul Jones (17471792) American admiral. In Mrs Reginald De Koven _Life and Letters of John Paul Jones_ [1914]. I have no high opinion of human beings: they are always going to fight and do nasty things to each other. They are always going to be part animal, governed by their emotions and subconscious drives rather than by reason. --George Frost Kennan (19042005) Ambassador to the USSR in 1952, and to Yugoslavia from 1961 to 1963 and chief architect of the U.S. Cold War policy of containment and deterrence against communism. In an interview with George Urban published in "Encounter" magazine, September, 1976. Though I've belted you an' flayed you, By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! --Rudyard Kipling (18651936) English writer and poet. _Ballads and Barrack Room Ballads_, "Gunga Din" st. 5, [1892, 1893] Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882) American poet. In Samuel Longfellow (ed.) _Final Memorials of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_, ch. XIX "Table-Talk" [1887]. Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become one himself. When you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks back into you. --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (18441900) German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture. _Beyond Good and Evil_, pt. 4 [1885-1886] [When surrounded by the enemy during the Korean War:] They're on our right, they're on our left, they're in front of us, they're behind us; they can't get away from us this time. --Lester Burwell "Chesty" Puller (18981971) The most decorated Marine in American history. Attributed in William A. Cohen _Wisdom of the Generals: From Adversity to Success_ [2001]. People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes. --Abigail Van Buren (b. 1918) American advice columnist. "Dear Abby" [7 March 1974] - By a sudden and adroit movement I placed my left eye against his fist. --anon. In Blanche McDonald & Leslie Weldemar Nelson _Successful Classroom Control_ [1955]. He threw my coat out of doors and I happened to be in it at the time. --ibid. And thrusting my nose firmly between his teeth, I threw him heavily to the ground on top of me. --ibid. - News item [10 August 2006] Police in Toledo, Ohio, have rescued dozens of Australian wombats from a man who was trying unsuccessfully to train them to fight. 'The (expletive) who sold them to me said they were vicious killers . . . I paid 300 bucks for a pair of eucalyptus-leaf eating retards who just stare at each other with a dull glare,' the man said. - - There once were two cats of Kilkenny, Each thought there was one cat too many; So they fought and they fit, And they scratched and they bit, Till, excepting their nails and the tips of their tails, Instead of two cats there weren't any. --anon. ^ HOW THE FIGHT STARTED I rear-ended a car this morning. So there we were alongside the road and the driver slowly gets out of the car. . . And you know how you just get so stressed and life-stuff seems to get funny? Well, I could not believe it. He was a DWARF! He storms over to my car, looks up at me and says, '' I AM NOT HAPPY!'' So, I look down at him and say, ''Well, then which one are you?'' ...... And that's when the fight started! ^ ----- affray [uh-FRAY], noun: A tumultuous assault or quarrel; a brawl. Synonyms: wrangle, scuffle, fracas, brawl, uproar, melee, Similar: tussle, skirmish, tumult, strife agon [AH-gahn; ah-GOHN], noun: A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work. brannigan [BRAN-i-guhn], noun: 1. A carouse. 2. A squabble; a brawl. donnybrook [DON-ee-brook], noun: 1. A brawl; a free-for-all. 2. A heated quarrel or dispute. _New York Times_ [7 April 1991] A donnybrook is so called after Donnybrook, Ireland, a suburb of Dublin that once held an annual fair known for its brawls. fracas (noun) 1. A noisy disturbance or quarrel. Syn.: brawl, affray, fray, commotion, altercation Related: fight, disturbance, melee, uproar, disorder, dispute melee [MAY-lay; may-LAY], noun: 1. A fight or hand-to-hand struggle in which the combatants are mingled in one confused mass. 2. A confused conflict or mingling. pugnacious [puhg-NAY-shuhs], adjective: Inclined to fight; combative; quarrelsome. . . see: "BLAME" see: "FAULT" There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault. --Miguel de Cervantes (15471616) Spanish novelist. _Don Quixote de la Mancha_, pt. 1, bk. 2, ch. 4 [1605] Those see nothing but faults that seek for nothing else. --Thomas Fuller (16541734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732] By those who look close to the ground dirt will be seen. I hope I see things from a greater distance. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Quoted in Washington Irving _The Crayon Miscellany_, p. 229 [1885]. To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult. --Plutarch (A.D. 46?119?) Greek philosopher and biographer. Attributed in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 173 [1891]. If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. --Cardinal de Richelieu (15851642) French Cardinal, Duke, and politician. In Ιdouard Fournier _L'Esprit dans l'Histoire: Recherches et Curiositιs sur les Mots Historiques_ [1857]. These men (chronic fault-finders) should consider that it is their envy which deforms everything, and that the ugliness is not in the object, but in the eye. --Sir Richard Steele (16721729) Irish-born essayist and dramatist. "The Tattler" # 227 [21 September 1710] - There is so much good in the worst of us, And so much bad in the best of us, That it ill behooves any of us To find fault with the rest of us. --anon. ----- captious [KAP-shuhs], adj. 1. Marked by a disposition to find fault or raise objections. 2. Calculated to entrap or confuse, as in an argument. cavil [KAV-uhl], intransitive verb: To raise trivial or frivolous objections; to find fault without good reason. querulous (adj.) Tending to complain, inclined to complain or find fault. . . Fight fire with fire. --Phineas T. Barnum (18101891) American showman. _Struggles and Triumphs_ [1869] Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell. --Joan Crawford [Lucille Fay LeSueur] (19041977) American actress. Quoted in "Coronet" (mag.) [1944]. Leap out of the frying pan into the fire. --John Heywood (14971580) English playwright. In Dwight Edwards Marvin _The Antiquity of Proverbs_ p. 222 [1922]. Note: "Out of the smoke into the flame" was the Latin form and it predates the 4th century B.C.. - A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to 'persuade' them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars. . . see: "HOME & FAMILY" for related links How well I know what I mean to do When the long dark autumn-evenings come. --Robert Browning (18121889) English poet. "By the Fireside" [1855] ----- immolate [IM-uh-layt], transitive verb: 1. To sacrifice; to offer in sacrifice; to kill as a sacrificial victim. 2. To kill or destroy, often by fire. inglenook (noun) ['ing-gl-nUk] The corner of a large open fireplace with space on either side of the hearth or built-in stove. In medieval times, fires were located in the middle of the room and the smoke wandered freely up through the thatched roof. Later on, the fire (ingle) was moved to a side wall and a smoke cover was added. Walls were next added on either side of the hearth, to form a room within a room. People could walk in and out of an inglenook fireplace or sit on the ingle- benches in its inglenooks to keep warm. ;void(0)) FISH / FISHING . . see: "ANIMALS" see: "ENTERTAINMENT, HOBBIES, & LEISURE ACTIVITIES" see: "FOOD & DRINK" see: "OCEANS" see: "OYSTERS" see: "WHALES" Like a fish out of water. --according to William George Smith (ed.) in _The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs_ [1936] the quote is "attrib. to St. Athanasius: not later than AD 373." The most serious doubt that has been thrown on the authenticity of the biblical miracles is the fact that most of the witnesses in regard to them were fishermen. --Arthur Binstead (18611914) British journalist. _Pitcher's Proverbs_ [1909] There are 350 varieties of shark, not counting loan and pool. --L.M. [Louis Malcolm] Boyd (19272007) American newspaper columnist. Quoted in Robert Byrne _1911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said_, p. 384 [1988]. ^ Calvin Coolidge became an enthusiastic angler, but his skill did not match his keenness. Asked how many trout there were in one of his favorite fishing places, Coolidge replied that there were estimated to be about forty-five thousand. Then he added, "I haven't caught them all yet, but I've intimidated them." --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. --Irina Dunn (b. 1948) Australian educator and journalist. Graffito scribbled on two bathroom doors [1970]. I have other fish to fry. --John Evelyn (16201706) English writer, gardener and diarist. _Memoirs_ [1660] (First found in "Memoirs," but undoubtedly of earlier origin.) The biggest fish he ever caught were those that got away. --Eugene Field (18501895) American journalist and writer of children's verse. "Our Biggest Fish" It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait. --Thomas Fuller (16541734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732] Summertime And the livin' is easy, Fish are jumpin', And the cotton is high. Oh, your daddy's rich, And your ma is good lookin', So hush, little baby, Don' yo' cry. --lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward, "Summertime" [song from the 1935 play "Porgy and Bess".] (Music by George Gershwin.) - THE FISHING CURE There's nothing that builds up a toil-weary soul Like a day on a stream, Back on the banks of the old fishing hole Where a fellow can dream. There's nothing so good for a man as to flee From the city and lie Full length in the shade of a whispering tree And gaze at the sky. Out there where the strife and the greed are forgot And the struggle for pelf, A man can get rid of each taint and each spot And clean up himself; He can be what he wanted to be when a boy, If only in dreams; And revel once more in the depths of a joy That's as real as it seems. The things that he hates never follow him there The jar of the street, The rivalries petty, the struggling unfair For the open is sweet. In purity's realm he can rest and be clean, Be he humble or great, And as peaceful his soul may become as the scene That his eyes contemplate. It is good for the world that men hunger to go To the banks of a stream, And weary of sham and of pomp and of show They have somewhere to dream. For this life would be dreary and sordid and base Did they not now and then Seek refreshment and calm in God's wide, open space And come back to be men. --Edgar Guest (18811959) American poet. _A Heap O' Livin'_ [1916] - Fish got to swim and birds got to fly, I got to love one man till I die Can't help lovin' dat man of mine. --Oscar Hammerstein II (18951960) American songwriter. "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" [song from the 1927 play "Showboat".] (Music by Jerome Kern.) - Anglers boast of the innocence of their pastime; yet it puts fellow-creatures to the torture. They pique themselves on their meditative faculties; and yet their only excuse is a want of thought. --anon. in "The Indicator" [17 November 1819]. This periodical was edited by [James Henry] Leigh Hunt (17841859) who may have been the author of the quote. We really cannot see what equanimity there is in jerking a lacerated carp out of the water by the jaws, merely because it has not the power of making a noise; for we presume that the most philosophic of anglers would hardly delight in catching shrieking fish. --anon. in "The Indicator" [31 May 1820]. This periodical was edited by [James Henry] Leigh Hunt (17841859) who may have been the author of the quote. - Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous almost of pedantic veracity, that the experienced angler is seen. --Jerome K Jerome (18591927) English novelist and playwright. _Three Men in a Boat_, ch. XVII [1889] Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Attributed, in Hawker _Instructions to Young Sportsmen [1859]; also attributed to Jonathan Swift in "The Indicator" [27 October 1819] (ODTQ). Fish and visitors smell in three days. --John Lyly (1554?1606) English prose stylist and playwright. _Euphues and His England_ [1580] - Fish, to taste right, must swim three times in water, in butter, and in wine. --Polish proverb If you give a person a fish, they'll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they'll fish for a lifetime. --Dan Quayle (b. 1947) Vice-President of the United States [1989-93]. Quoted in "New York Times" [14 October 1992]. Fish must swim thrice once is the water, a second time in the sauce, and a third time in wine in the stomach. --John Ray (16271705) English naturalist and botanist. _A Collection of English Proverbs_ [1678] Bait the hook well! This fish will bite. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Much Ado About Nothing_, II, iii [15981599] ^ Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] [18351910] American humorist, writer, and lecturer. Mark Twain loved to brag about his hunting and fishing exploits. He once spent three weeks fishing in the Maine woods, regardless of the fact it was the state's closed season for fishing. Relaxing in the lounge car of the train on his return journey to New York, his catch iced down in the baggage car, he looked for someone to whom he could relate the story of his successful holiday. The stranger to whom he began to boast of his sizable catch appeared at first unresponsive, then positively grim. 'By the way, who are you, sir?' inquired Twain airily. 'I'm the state game warden,' was the unwelcome response. 'Who are you?' Twain nearly swallowed his cigar. 'Well, to be perfectly truthful, warden,' he said hastily, 'I'm the biggest damn liar in the whole United States.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] In other localities, certain places in the streams are much better than others; but at Niagara one place is just as good as another, for the reason that the fish do not bite anywhere. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _A Day at Niagara_ (short story) ^ There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot. --attributed to Steven Wright (b. 1955) American writer and actor. - If an eel lunges out, And it bites off your snout, That's a Moray . . . --anon. (Parody of 1952 song "That's Amore".) - Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, 'Dam!' ;void(0)) FLAG . . see: "PATRIOTISM" I have a great respect for the flag, (but) if the government . . . passed a law saying that I had to pledge allegiance to the flag, I don't think I would do it. I've always felt that I lived in a country . . . where if I wanted to worship God as a Baptist I could do so. If I were an atheist, I could be one. If I wanted to be a Catholic but was born a Jew, there's no condemnation . . . from a government authority. --Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American Democratic statesman, President [19771981]. Speech at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia [14 September 1988]. Flag burning? I think about the time June and I went to Viet Nam in 1969 and saw the burning flesh. Whether the war was right or not, a lot of people sacrificed their lives. I cherish all the freedom we have, including the freedom to burn flags. But I also have the freedom to bear arms, and if you burn my flag, I'll shoot you. --Johnny Cash (19322003) American country singer and songwriter. (In Raymond Obstfeld's _Twang: The Ultimate Book of Country Music Quotations_ [1997], "Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer".) - [. . .] You're a grand old flag, You're a high-flying flag, And forever in peace may you wave. You're the emblem of The land I love, The home of the free and the brave. Ev'ry heart beats true Under Red, White and Blue, Where there's never a boast or brag. But should auld acquaintance be forgot, Keep your eye on the grand old flag. [ . . . ] --George M. Cohan (18781942) American songwriter, dramatist, and producer. You're a Grand Old Flag" [1906 song], from the musical _George Washington Jr._. - The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure but because the flag involved is our own. . . . To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds. --Robert H. Jackson (18921954) U.S. Supreme Court Justice [19411954] Chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. Opinion, "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette [1943]. It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the man whose people have been here many generations. --Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. (18501924) Republican U.S. senator [18931924]. "What the Flag Means" [1915] If you have a weak candidate and a weak platform, wrap yourself up in the American flag and talk about the Constitution. --attributed to Matthew Stanley Quay (18331904) American politician. Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. --George Frederick Root (18201895) American musician and music publisher. "The Battle Cry of Freedom" [1863] A Star for every State, and a State for every Star. --Robert Charles Winthrop (18091894) American lawyer, philanthropist, and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849. Speech at Boston Common [27 August 1862]. -- Don't tread on me. --Motto of the first official American flag; first raised by Lieutenant John Paul Jones in Commodore Esek Hopkin's flagship "Alfred" [3 December 1775]. ----- vexillology [vek-sil-AHL-uh-jee], noun: The study of flags. end page | FACE - FAME | FAILURE | FAMILIARITY - FANTASY | FARMING - FATHERS | FAULT/FAULTS - FEELINGS | FEMINISTS - FIFTIES (THE) | FIFTY - FLAG | FLATTERY - FOLLOWERS | FOOD & DRINK - PAGE 1 (A-O) | FOOD & DRINK - PAGE 2 (P-Z) | FOOLS / FOOLISH | FOOTBALL - FORESIGHT | FOREST - FRAUDS | FREE - FREEDOM OF THOUGHT | FREEDOM | FREUD - FRIENDS | FRUGAL - FUTURE | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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