Citações e outros (ar)roubos

"Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groan'd for and would die,
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,
Alike betwitched by the charm of looks,
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new-beloved any where:
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet."

William Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet" (Prologue Act II).

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Dublin July. 7. 88

A Problem Proposed to the Author of the "Essai Philosophique concernant L'Entendement".

A Man, being born blind, and having a globe and a cube, nigh of the same bignes, committed into his hands, and being taught or told, which is called the globe, and which the cube, so as easily to distinguish them by his touch or feeling; then both being taken from him, and laid on a table, let us suppose his sight restored to him; whether he could, by his sight, and before he touch them, know which is the globe and which the cube? Or whether he could know by his sight, before he stretch'd out his hand, whether he could not reach them, tho they were removed 20 or 1000 feet from him?

If the learned and ingenious author of the forementiond treatise think this problem worth his consideration and answer, he may at any time direct it to one that much esteems him, and is,

His Humble Servant,

William Molyneux
High Ormonds Gate in Dublin. Ireland

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"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings. And if the civilized man's pursuits are no worthier than the savage's, if he is employed the greater part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former?"

Henry D. Thoreau, "Walden" (Lembrado pela Fernandinha Ribeiro no seu blog "Apfelsaft")