«How intoxicating is the triumph of beauty, and how right it is to name it queen of the universe! How many courtiers, how many slaves, have submitted to it! But alas! Why must it be that what flatters our senses almost always deceives our souls?»

«I cannot say that I am descended from the bastards of Oliver Cromwell, or his courtiers, or from the Puritans who punish their horses for breaking the Sabbath, or from those who persecuted Quakers and burned the witches»

«He brings a gust of acrid provincial air to the ancient office. He is an angry young prophet rather than a smooth courtier. His verse is angular, savage, robust and very good.»

«And they always find in archeology ?a series of small walls.? Every time, a series of small walls. Everywhere you go. ?We?ve found a series of small walls, we?re very excited? I think this proves they had walls in olden days. They were very small, and? a series of small wall people.? And then someone comes along, very learned, with glasses, ?Of course, the king and queen entertained here? 1,500 courtiers, and there were soldiers, 20,000 soldiers in this room, and elephants dancing hopscotch over there? A mad fiddler in this room, playing the banjo, buttocks and aqueducts into a heater?? And you?re just watching, and going, ?You?re making this up, mate! You?re just pointing at a series of small walls, going, ?there, there? Tutankhamen playing banjo in there?? Don?t know if it?s true.?»

«FASHION, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.A king there was who lost an eye In some excess of passion; And straight his courtiers all did try To follow the new fashion.Each dropped one eyelid when before The throne he ventured, thinking'Twould please the king. That monarch swore He'd slay them all for winking.What should they do? They were not hot To hazard such disaster; They dared not close an eye --dared not See better than their master.Seeing them lacrymose and glum, A leech consoled the weepers: He spread small rags with liquid gum And covered half their peepers.The court all wore the stuff, the flame Of royal anger dying. That's how court-plaster got its name Unless I'm greatly lying. --Naramy Oof»

«The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly.»

«The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death.»

«Those kings, who do not conspire against each other... they sit amongst their courtiers in the court of 1000 pillars.»