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Batch the first

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To start us off, possibly the wisest thing ever said, said by possibly the most ... interesting mortal ever:

 

'DO NOT FRET AT ANYTHING ... I WISH I NEVER HAD.'

Horatio Nelson. 1758 - 1805. Letter to Thomas Troubridge.

Quoted in 'Nelson: the Essential Hero'. Ernle Bradford. 1977. p194.

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'THE ENGLISH SELDOM GET MUCH BY NEGOTIATION, EXCEPT THE BEING LAUGHED AT, WHICH WE HAVE BEEN; AND I DON'T LIKE IT.'

Horatio Nelson, regarding a parley with the piratic Bey of Tunis, 1793.

Quoted in 'Nelson' by Carola Oman. 1947.

 

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'SLEEP IS GOOD, DEATH IS BETTER, BUT OF COURSE, THE BEST THING WOULD BE NEVER TO HAVE BEEN BORN AT ALL'

Heinrich Heine. 1797 - 1856. 'Morphine'.

( actually, a smash and grab raid from Sophocles - 'Not to be born is past all prizing best.' )

 

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'I might have to operate on the basis that the Unseen permeates everything, but society functions well enough - if a little colourlessly - without it.'

The Reverend Merrily Watkins speaking in Phil Rickman's 'The Cure of Souls'. 2001. p481.

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'WHY YOU NO RISTEN ? STUPPIT IRRIOT !'

Benny Hill, as the indomitable Chinese visitor to England, 'Chow Mein'. 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.

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