curse

I see America as a black curse upon the world. I see a long night settling in and that mushroom which has poisoned the world withering at the roots.

—Miller, Henry Valentine

Greatness, with private men Esteem'd a blessing, is to me a curse; And we, whom, for our high births, they conclude The happy freemen, are the only slaves. Happy the golden mean!

—Massinger, Philip

Ye have heard that it hath been said,Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hatethineenemy.But Isayuntoyou,Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to themthat hate you, and pray for them whichdespitefully use you, and persecute you.

—Bible (NewTestament)

   Round and round the circle Completing the charm So the knot be unknotted The cross be uncrossed The crooked be made straight And the curse be ended.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

Wesit†and lookout attheboysintheir happy play†we kneel still with one little cheek wistfully pressed against the pane†and we go and stand before the glass.We see the complexion we were not to spoil, and the white frock† Then the curse begins to act upon us. It finishes its work when we are grown women, who no more look out wistfullyat a more healthy life; we are contented.We fit our sphere as a Chinese woman's foot fits her shoe, exactly, as though God made bothöand yet he knows nothing of either.

—Iron

And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him,Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

—Bible (Old Testament)

[This] much curse I must send you, in the behalf of all poets, that while you live, you live in love, and never get favour for lacking skill of a sonnet, and, when you die, your memorydie fromthe earth for want of an epigraph.

—Sidney, Sir Philip

She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces through the room, She saw the water-lily bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She looked down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; 'The curse is come upon me', cried The Lady of Shalott.

—Tennyson

Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

—Bible (Old Testament)

See, the curse of children! In life they keep us frequently in tears, And in the cold grave leave us in pale fears.

—Webster,John

This barbarous feeling of nationality†has become the curse of Europe.

—Senghor, Le¤  opold Se¤  dar

The curse of hell upon the sleek upstart That got the Captain finally on his back And took the red red vitals of his heart And made the kites to whet their beaks clack clack.

—Ransom,John Crowe

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

—Pound, Ezra Loomis

The curse of Scottish literature is the lack of a whole language, which finally means the lack of a whole mind.

—Muir, Edwin

Curse on his virtues! they've undone his country. Such popular humanity is treason.

—Addison,Joseph

The only man I knew who could make a curse sound like a caress.

—Foot, Michael Mackintosh

Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines, the slimy, the belly-wriggling invertebrates, the miserable sodding rotters, the flaming sods, the snivelling, dribbling, dithering, palsied, pulse-less lot that make up England today.

—Lawrence, D(avid) H(erbert)

Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.But put forththinehand now, and touchhisboneand his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

—Bible (Old Testament)

My curse upon your whunstane hearts, Ye Enbrugh Gentry! The tythe o' what ye waste at cartes Wad stow'd his pantry!

—Burns, Robert

The mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild unexplored country is also great† The effect of travel ona manwhoseheart isintheright place isthatthemind is made more self-reliant: it becomes more confident of its own resourcesöthere isgreater presence of mind† The sweat of one's brow is no longer a curse when one works for God: it proves a tonic to the system, and actually a blessing. No one can trulyappreciate the charm of repose unless he has undergone severe exertion.

—Livingstone, Dr David

Fond Pride of Dress is sure an Empty Curse; E'er Fancy you consult, consult your Purse.

—Franklin, Benjamin

The perpetual hunger to be beautifuland thatthirsttobe loved which is the real curse of Eve.

—Rhys,Jean pseudonym of  Ellen Gwendolen Rees Williams

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of thegreat and dreadfuldayof the L: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth a curse.

—Bible (Old Testament)

   And now the curse has come upon us, because I have personally met in the streets of Ireland persons who are clearly out of Synge's plays. They talk and dress like that, and damn the drink they'll swally but the mug of porter in the long nights after Samhain.

—Cruise

Will there never come a season Which shall rid us of the curse Of a prose which knows no reason And an unmelodious verse† When there stands a muzzled stripling, Mute, beside a muzzled bore: When the Rudyards cease from kipling And the Haggards Ride no more.

—Stephen,J(ames) K(enneth)

May the hard hand of a vexatious need Oppress and grind you; till at last you find The curse of disobedience all your portion.

—Otway,Thomas