Miggy

“The cruel blow was in loving Cato, who refused to be loved”
― Colleen McCullough, The October Horse

“And yet,” said Servilia slowly, “when Silanus died something went out of the room. I didn’t see it go, I didn’t hear it. But it went, Caesar. The room was empty.”

“I suppose what went was an idea.”

“An idea?”

“Isn’t that what all of us are, an idea?”

“To ourselves, or to others?”

“To both, though not necessarily the same idea.”
― Colleen McCullough, Caesar's Women

“Listen to the great Pompeius, who was consul before he so much as qualified to stand as a mere tribune of the plebs! Who do you think you are? What, you don’t even know? Then allow me to tell you! An unconstitutional, unprincipled, un-Roman lump of arrogance and fancy, that’s what you are! As to who—you’re a Gaul who thinks like a Gaul—a butcher who is the son of a butcher—a pander who sucks up to patricians to be let negotiate marriages far above him—a ponce who adores to dress up prettily to hear the crowd goo and gush—an eastern potentate who loves to live in palaces—a king who queens it—an orator who could send a rutting ram to sleep—a politician who has to employ competent politicians—a radical worse than the Brothers Gracchi—a general who hasn’t fought a battle in twenty years without at least twice as many troops as the enemy—a general who prances in and picks up the laurels after other and better men have done all the real work—a consul who had to have a book of instructions to know how to act—AND A MAN WHO EXECUTED ROMAN CITIZENS WITHOUT TRIAL”
― Colleen McCullough, Caesar's Women

“Was that a breeze?
It couldn't have been, but I felt it all the same.
Within her gentle words there was a cooling breeze. It rose from a valley creek and penetrated the summer heat pent up in my chest.
I could only sit there, silent and incognizant of time and space, for as long as that breeze wafted through me.
Until the train's whistle sounded in the depths of the valley.
Until we pulled into Kagi.”
― Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, Taiwan Travelogue