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VENICE --- VERBOSE
VERIFY --- VERMONT --- VICE
VICE-PRESIDENT --- VICTIMS --- VICTORY

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VENICE

see "PLACES" for related links


STREETS FLOODED. PLEASE ADVISE.
--Robert Benchley (1889—1945)
American humorist and newspaper columnist.
(Telegraphed message on arriving in Venice.)
Quoted in Robert E. Drennan (ed.) _The Algonquin Wits_[1968].

As we sailed further on, we found before our eyes
the famous, great, wealthy and noble city of Venice,
the mistress of the Mediterranean, standing in
wondrous fashion in the midst of the waters with
lofty towers, great churches, splendid houses and
palaces. We were astonished to see such weighty and
such tall structures with their foundations in the
water. Presently we sailed in to the city, and went
along the Grand Canal as far as the Rialto where on
each side of us we saw buildings of wonderful height
and beauty.
--Felix Fabri (c. 1441—1502)
Dominican theologian.
_The Wanderings of B. Felix Fabri_ [1480-1483; 1892 trans.],
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 300.

-

The spring came in Venice.

There were flowers all the day long everywhere, and music all the
night; the swallows and the doves were happy in the cloudless air;
the sweet sea wind only blew softly enough to lift the hair of the
women standing on the wet marble stairs to meet the boats of fish
and of fruit.

It was the city of Desdemona, of Stradella, of Giorgione, of
Consuelo. Signa lived in it as in a dream; this silence enfolded
him like sleep — sleep filled with the stir of birds' wings, the
sound of waves, the sigh of the wind in the casements full of
lilies, the murmurs of amorous whispers.

"Am I awake?" he would say to himself in this wonderful trance of
slumberous delight, when all the air was full of his own melodies,
and all the people's eyes turned after him.

--Ouida [Maria Louise de la Ramιe] (1839—1908)
English novelist.
_Signa_

-

You Venetians, it is certain, are very wrong to
disturb the peace of other states rather than to rest
content with the most splendid state of Italy, which
you already possess. If you knew how you are
universally hated, your hair would stand on end ...
do you believe that these powers in Italy, now in
league together, are truly friends among themselves?
Of course they are not, it is only necessity, and the
fear which they feel of you and your power, that has
bound them in this way ... You are alone, with all
the world against you, not only in Italy but beyond
the Alps too. Know then that your enemies do not
sleep. Take good counsel, for, by God, you need
Galeazzo Sforza.
--Galeazzo Sforza (1444—1476)
Duke of Milan.
To Giovanni Gonnella, secretary of the Venetian republic, in M.J.
Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 299.

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VERBOSE

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see "COMMUNICATION" for related links


This report, by its very length, defends itself
against the risk of being read.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].

I have always revered not crude verbosity but holy simplicity.
--Saint Jerome (c.340—420?)
Translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin.
Letter 57.



VERIFY

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see: "FACTS"
see: "TRUST"


You will find it a very good practice always to
verify your references, sir.
--Martin Joseph Routh (1755—1854)
English classicist.
As quoted in J. W. Burgon's
_Memoir of Dr. Routh, Quarterly Review_ [July 1878].



Click picture to ZOOM
VERMONT

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see "PLACES" for related links


Vermont is a country unto itself. Indeed for fourteen
years after the declaration of independence, the
State refused to join the Union and remained an
independent republic.
--Pearl S. Buck (1892—1973)
American author noted for her novels of life in China;
winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_Pearl Buck's America_ [1971]

-

One New Year's Eve I was at a party in a farmhouse
on a hill above a small Vermont village. By midnight
the snow had stopped and the moon had come out.
It was one degree below zero.

Almost everyone at the party had gone outside to
look at the new snow. All around was a silence so
total that the world seemed not merely cleansed but
newly created. Nowhere was there the sound of a car
in that hushed world, or so much as a dog barking.
The clear moonlight revealed no mess either. Men
live in Vermont: no doubt there were beer cans and
even abandoned refrigerators within easy walking
distance. They were nullified by the snow.

To be outdoors on such a night is to experience
that awe which modern man is said to have lost
the capacity for, but which he has really just
ceased to look for in the right places.

--Noel Perrin
_Vermont: In All Weathers_

-



VICE

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see: "GAMBLING"
see: "HABITS"
see "CRIME & PUNISHMENT" for other related links
see "IMMORALITY" for other related links


You will become as small as your controlling desire;
as great as your dominant aspiration.
--James Lane Allen (1849—1925)
American novelist and short story writer.

There are two types of people in this world: good and
bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy
the waking hours much more.
--Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (1935— )
American actor, screenwriter, and director.

Prosperity doth best discover vice, but
adversity doth best discover virtue.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ [1625] "Of Adversity"

I'm as pure as the driven slush.
--Tallulah Bankhead (1903—1968)
American actress.
Quoted in "Saturday Evening Post" [12 April 1947].

Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight;
and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask
of some virtue.
--Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (1694—1773)
British writer and politician.
Letter to his son [22 February 1748].

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad
will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are
three things that never stand still.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think_ [1820]

My main problem is reconciling my gross habits with my net income.
--Errol Flynn (1909—1959)
Tasmanian-born motion-picture actor.
Quoted in "N.Y. Times" [6 March 1955].

-

Vice knows she's ugly, so puts on her mask.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.


Be at war with your vices, at peace with your
neighbors, and let every new year find you a
better person.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.

-

If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking, and loving,
you don't actually live longer; it just seems longer.
--Clement Freud (1924—2009)
German-born English broadcaster and politician.
Quoted in "Observer" (London) [27 December 1964].

Some faults are so closely allied to qualities that
it is difficult to weed out the vice without eradicating
the virtue.
--attributed to Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.

If they chased every man or woman out of this town who
has shacked up with somebody else, or got drunk, there'd
be no government.
--Barry Goldwater (1909—1998)
American conservative politician.
Quoted in "Time" (mag) [13 March 1989].

Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between
virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses, let
us count our spoons.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] "14 July 1763"

^

James Joyce (1882—1941)
Irish novelist.

In his impoverished youth, Joyce once applied
for a job in a bank. 'Do you smoke?' asked the
bank manager.

'No,' replied his would-be employee.

'Do you drink?'

'No.'

'Do you go with girls?'

'No.'

The manager was unimpressed with this display
of virtue. 'Away with you!' he cried. 'You'd probably
rob the bank.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

The same vices that are gross and insupportable
in others we do not notice in ourselves.
--Jean de La Bruyθre (1645—1696)
French essayist and moralist.

When our vices quit us, we flatter ourselves with
the belief that it is we who quit them.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_ [1678]

It has been my experience that folks who
have no vices have very few virtues.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

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 (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.

Don't smoke too much, drink too much, eat
too much or work too much. We're all on the
road to the grave — but there's no reason to
be in the passing lane.
--Robert Orben (1927— )
American magician and comedy writer.

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Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
_Essay on Man_ [1733], epistle II, l. 217


Vices and virtues are of a strange nature,
for the more we have, the fewer we think
we have.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.

-

Vices that are familiar we pardon, and
only new ones do we reprehend.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.

In our ideals we unwittingly reveal our vices.
--Jean Rostand (1894—1977)
French biologist and philosopher.
Attributed in Larry Chang _Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia
of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing_, p. 734 [2006].

Of all the vices drinking is the most
incompatible with greatness.
--Sir Walter Scott (1771—1832)
Scottish novelist and poet.
Quoted in "Manford's Magazine" Vol XXXIV [1890]

Every one is a moon, and has a dark
side which he never shows to anybody.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897],
ch. 66 epigraph: "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"

Never support two weaknesses at the same time. It's
your combination sinners — your lecherous liars and
your miserly drunkards — who dishonor the vices and
bring them into bad repute.
--Thornton Wilder (1897—1975)
American novelist and dramatist.
_The Matchmaker_, act 3 [1954]

All the things I really like to do are either
immoral, illegal, or fattening.
--Alexander Woollcott (1887—1943)
American dramatic and literary critic.
Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [December 1933].

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
--Henny Youngman (1906—1998)
English-born American stand-up comedian.
Quoted in "Rocky Mountain News" [15 July 1994].

-

It may be that your sole purpose in life is
simply to serve as a warning to others.
--anon.

-----

dissolute [DIS-uh-loot], adjective:
Loose in morals and conduct; marked by indulgence in
sensual pleasures or vices.
Ex.: I had heard talk that Tosca, for all the dissolute life
she led, was a pious person who frequented churches with
scrupulous regularity, yet in this conduct I had always
suspected a pose, an affectation.
--Paola Capriolo,
_Floria Tosca_, (Translated by Liz Heron)



VICE-PRESIDENT

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see "POLITICS" for related links


My country has in its Wisdom contrived for me the
most insignificant Office [the vice-presidency] that
ever the invention of Man contrived or his Imagination
conceived.
--John Adams (1735—1826)
First VP and second President of the United States.
In a letter to Abigail Adams [19 December 1793].

The Vie Presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit.
--John W. Gardner (1912—2002)
American administrator.
Attributed in "L.A. Times" [1 April 1962].

A spare tire on the automobile of government.
--John Nance Garner (1868—1967)
American Democratic politician.
Characterizing the office of Vice President [19 June 1934].

-

The Vice President of the United States is like a man
in a cataleptic state: he cannot speak; he cannot move;
he suffers no pain; and yet he is perfectly concious of
everthing that is going on about him.
--attributed to Thomas R. Marshall (1854—1925)
American politician and 28th vice-president
of the United States [1913—1921].


There were once two brothers. One ran away to sea.
The other was elected Vice President and neither
was heard of again.
--Thomas R. Marshall (1854—1925)
American politician and 28th vice-president
of the United States [1913—1921].
Quoted in Dick Gregory _Dick Gregory's Political Primer_ [1972].

-

Abraham Lincoln's first vice president, Hannibal
Hamlin, felt so unneeded and unwanted that he
went home to Maine and joined the Coast Guard.
And Thomas Jefferson, who followed John Adams
to the vice presidency and then the presidency,
initially saw the No. 2 job as a vacation from
a strenuous life. 'A more tranquil and unoffending
station could not have been found for me,' he
wrote.
--Siobhan McDonough, A.P. Writer

One word sums up probably the responsibility of
any vice-president, and that one word is "to be
prepared."
--Dan Quayle (1947— )
Vice-President of the United States [1989—1993].

-

The man with the best job in the country is the
Vice-President. All he has to do is get up every
morning and say "How's the President?"
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.


Will you please tell us what you do with all the
Vice Presidents a bank has? I guess that's to
get you more discouraged before you can see
the President. Why, the United States is the
biggest Business institution in the world and
they only have one Vice President and nobody
has ever found anything for him to do.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.
In a speech to the International Bankers Association [1922].

-

[T]he Vice President, as Mr. Dawes once said, has
only two duties: one is to preside over the Senate,
and the other one is to inquire about the President's
health.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].
Remarks to the Women's Patriotic Conference
on National Defense [26 January 1950].

I do not propose to be buried
until I am really dead.
--Daniel Webster (1782—1852)
American orator and politician.
Rejecting the offer of the Whig vice-presidential nomination in 1848.
In Marcus Cunliffe _The American Heritage History of the Presidency_ [1968].



VICTIMS

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see "BLAME"
see "CRIME & PUNISHMENT" for other related links


A victim act is a form of passive agression. It seeks
to achieve gratification not by honest work or a
contribution made out of one's experience or insight
or love, but by the manipulation of others through
silent (and not-so-silent) threat. The victim compels
others to come to his rescue or to behave as he wishes
by holding them hostage to the prospect of his own
futher illness/meltdown/mental dissolution, or simply
by threatening to make their lives so miserable that
they do what he wants. Casting yourself as a victim
is the antithesis of doing your work. Don't do it. If
you're doing it, stop.
--Steven Pressfield
_The War of Art_

Victimization status is the modern promised land of
absolution from personal responsibility.
--Dr. Laura Schlessinger (1947— )
American radio host.



VICTORY

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see: "COMPETITION"
see "WAR & PEACE" for other related links


You are permitted, in time of great danger, to walk
with the devil until you have crossed the bridge.
--Bulgarian Proverb

-

I would say to the House, as I said to those who have
joined this Government: "I have nothing to offer but
blood, toil, tears and sweat. "... You ask, what is
our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory,
victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror,
victory, however long and hard the road may be;
for without victory, there is no survival.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
--Speech in House of Commons [13 May 1940].


In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In
victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
_The Second World War_, vol. I [1948]


The problems of victory are more agreeable
than the problems of defeat, but they are no
less difficult.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].


No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till
victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].

-

Victory has a hundred fathers, but no one wants to recognize defeat as his own.
--Count Galeazzo Ciano (1903—1944)
Italian politician.
Diary [9 September 1942].

Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning;
but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's
sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many
victories worse than a defeat.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Scenes of Clerical Life_ [1857] (Published anonymously in Blackwood's Magazine)

God is always with the strongest battalions.
--Frederick II [Frederick the Great] (1712—1786)
King of Prussia [1740—1786].
Letter to Duchess Louise Dorothea von Gotha [8 May 1760].

Victory is always possible for the person
who refuses to stop fighting.
--Napoleon Hill (1883—1970)
American journalist, lawyer, and author of self-help books.

The troops returning home are worried. 'We've lost the peace,'
men tell you. 'We can't make it stick.' ... Friend and foe alike,
look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they
are disappointed in you as an American. ... Never has American
prestige in Europe been lower....Instead of coming in with a bold
plan of relief and reconstruction we came in full of evasions and
apologies.... A great many Europeans feel that the cure has
been worse than the disease. The taste of victory had gone
sour in the mouth of every thoughtful American I met.
--Life Magazine [7 January 1946]

Philippides [or Pheidippides] ... brought the news
of the victory from Marathon and addressed the
magistrates in session when they were anxious to
know how the battle had ended; 'Rejoice, we've
won,' he said and then he died breathing his last
breath with those words.
--Lucian (c. 120—c. 180)
Greek rhetorician, pamphleteer, and satirist.
_A Slip of Tongue in Greeting_,
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004].

No victor believes in chance.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_The Gay Science_ (Die frφhliche Wissenschaft), bk. 3 [1882]

We have met the enemy and they are ours...
--Oliver Hazard Perry (1785—1819)
American naval officer.
Announcing American victory over the British at the
naval battle of Lake Erie [10 September 1813].

Another such victory over the Romans, and
we are undone.
--Pyrrhus (c. 318—272 BC)
King of Epirus.
Referring to the dearly bought victory at Asculum
in 280 BC, hence the phrase "pyrrhic victory."
Quoted in Plutarch _Parallel Lives_.

The gods are on the side of the stronger.
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 17

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.
--Television catchphrase
"Wide World of Sports" [American TV show 1961—1998]

-----

quash [KWOSH], transitive verb:
1. (Law) To abate, annul, overthrow, or make void;
as, "to quash an indictment."
2. To crush; to subdue; to suppress or extinguish
summarily and completely; as, "to quash a rebellion."


end page



| UGLY - UNICORNS | UNHAPPINESS | UNIONS - USELESS | VACATION - VENGENCE | VENICE - VICTORY | VIGILANCE - VIRGINITY | VIRTUE - VULGARITY | WAGES - WAR & PEACE | WAR (THE CIVIL) - WAR (THE REVOLUTIONARY) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WAR (VIETNAM) | WAR (WORLD WAR I) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WASHINGTON (D.C.) - WEAK/WEAKNESS | WEALTH - WEASELS | WEATHER - WELLS (H.G.) | WEST (THE OLD/WILD) - WILDE (OSCAR) | WILL - WINNING | WINTER - WISDOM | WISHING - WIVES | WOMEN - WOMEN'S LIB | WOMEN'S RIGHTS - WORDS | WORK - WORLD | WORLD TRADE CENTER & PENTAGON DISASTER, 11 SEPTEMB | WORRY - WRONG | WRITING | YESTERDAY - ZOOS |
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