There was a shepherd the other day up at Findon Fair who had come from the east by Lewes with sheep, and who had in his eyes that reminiscence of hor… - Hilaire Belloc

It is in the irony of Providence that the more man comes to control the material world about him, the more does he lose control over the effects of his action; and it is when he is remaking the world most speedily that he knows least whither he is driving.

Torture will give a dozen pence or more
To keep a drab from bawling at his door.
The public taste is quite a different thing—
Torture is positively paid to sing.

"Then did I conceive yet another stupendous thing. 'Bid them,' said I to the sultan, 'take the notes as money. Cease to repay. Write, not "I will on delivery of this paper pay a piece of gold," but, "this is a piece of gold."'

"He did as I told him. The next day the vizier came to me with the story of an insolent fellow to whom fifty such notes had been offered as payment for a camel for the war and who had sent back, not a camel, but another piece of paper on which was written 'This is a camel.'

"'Cut off his head!' said I.

"It was done, and the warning sufficed. The paper was taken and the war proceeded.