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Bonfire Night Celebrations

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Guy Fawkes story

Carl William Brown — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 13:24:18 +0000

Guy Fawkes Story

Guy Fawkes story and the Gunpowder plot, an easy article for students of English that explains the origin of the story with its celebrations and customs.

A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.
Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes is not dead, he is living inside our minds and our souls with his ideas and our hopes.
Carl William Brown

Remember, remember, the 5th of November The Gunpowder Treason and plot; I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot.
Folk song

Guy Fawkes (1570-1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, English Gunpowder plot conspirator, the only son of Edward Fawkes of York, a member of a Yorkshire family and advocate of the archbishop of York’s consistory court, was baptized at St. Michael le Belfrey at York on April 16, 1570.

His parents being Protestants, Fawkes was educated at the free school at York. Soon after his father’s death his mother remarried. Fawkes’s stepfather was connected with many Roman Catholic families and was probably a Roman Catholic himself, and Fawkes became a zealous adherent of the old faith. In 1593 he went to Flanders and enlisted in the Spanish army, assisting at the capture of Calais by the Spanish in 1596 and gaining some military reputation.

The Gunpowder Plot

In 1604 Thomas Winter, at the instance of Robert Catesby, in whose mind the Gunpowder plot had now taken definite shape, introduced himself to Fawkes in Flanders, and as a “confident gentleman,” “best able for this business,” brought him on to England as assistant in the conspiracy. Shortly afterward he was initiated into the plot, after taking an oath of secrecy, meeting Catesby, Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy and John Wright at a house behind St. Clement’s.

Since he was unknown in London, and because of his exceptional courage, coolness and probably his military experience, Fawkes was entrusted with the actual accomplishment of the design; when the house adjoining the parliament house was hired in Percy’s name, he took charge of it as Percy’s servant, under the name of John Johnson.

The first meeting of the five central conspirators had took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour’s confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig a tunnel from beneath Whynniard’s house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found. He acted sentinel while the others worked at the mine in Dec. 1604, and on the discovery and hiring of the adjoining cellar, beneath the house of lords, he arranged in it the barrels of gunpowder, which he covered with firewood and coals and with iron bars to increase the force of the explosion.

The Gunpowder Plot conspirators

When all was ready in May 1605, Fawkes was dispatched to Flanders to acquaint Sir William Stanley (who had betrayed the city of Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587) and the intriguer Hugh Owen with the plot. He returned in August and brought fresh gunpowder into the cellars to replace any spoiled by damp. A slow match was prepared which would give him a quarter of an hour in which to escape from the explosion.

The plot however failed because it was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, on 26 October 1605. During a search of the House of Lords at about midnight on 4 November 1605, Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder, enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble and arrested.

Most of the conspirators fled from London when they learned of the plot’s discovery, trying to enlist support along the way. Several made a stand against the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men at Holbeche House; in the ensuing battle, Catesby was one of those shot and killed. At their trial on 27 January 1606, eight of the survivors, including Fawkes, were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Fawkes behaved with the utmost fortitude when arrested. He refused stubbornly to give information concerning his accomplices on Nov. 8 he gave a narrative of the plot, but it was not till the yth when the fugitive cons irators had been taken at to his he that torture wrug from him their names. His signature to his confession of this date, in only of his Christian Name and written in a faint and trembling hand, is probably a ghastly testimony to the severity of the torture which James had ordered to be applied if he would not otherwise confess.

He was tried, together with Robert and Thomas Winter, John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Robert Keyes and Thomas Bates, before a special commission in Westminster hall on Jan. 27, 1606. Fawkes suffered death in company with Thomas Winter, John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Robert Keyes on the 31st, being drawn on a hurdle from the Tower to the parliament house, opposite which he was executed. He made a short speech on the scaffold, expressing his repentance, and mounted the ladder last and with assistance, being weak from torture and illness.

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Guy Fawkes Day

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Quotes about mobbing, power and management.

Carl William Brown — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 11:32:32 +0000

Quotes about mobbing

Quotes about mobbing, power and management. Some ideas about power, management, school and the practice of bullying and mobbing some collegues at work place or on the Internet. There are also some quotes that can suggest the ways you can protect yourself.

Be circumspect how you offend schollers, for knowe, a serpent tooth bites not so ill, as dooth a schollers angrie quill.
John Florio

St. Michael’s Shield of Truth Prayer. St. Michael, you are our defender and safeguard against evil. Place your Shield of Truth over us and defend us in the battle which Satan wages against truth. Help us to seethe righteous path of Holy Love.Clarify our choices between good and evil by placing us always behind your Shield of Truth. Amen.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I realized that bullying never has to do with you. It’s the bully who’s insecure.
Shay Mitchell

I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn’t know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself.
Jackie Chan

Wisdom overcomes fortune.
Decimus Junius Juvenalis

Cyberbullying is poised to turn into the biggest online concern, already affecting up to 35% of all children.
Dr. Martyn Wild

Never underestimate the enemy, above all if he is a stupid one.
Carl William Brown

Once I was adviced never to trust a pretty face. Well, and what should I do when a meet a shithead?
Carl William Brown

Do not do what you would undo if caught.
Leah Arendt

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words, he epitomized the history of the human race.
Bertrand Russell

Often, the right path is the one that may be hardest for you to follow. But the hard path is also the one that will make you grow as a human being.
Karen Mueller Coombs

If bullies actually believe that somebody loves them and believes in them, they will love themselves, they will become better people, and many will even become saviors to the bullied.
Dan Pearce

Unless and until our society recognizes cyberbullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue.
Anna Maria Chávez

Every thought we think is creating our future.
Louise L. Hay

You must try to make the most of all that comes but also don’t forget to learn a lot of all that goes.
Carl William Brown

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Martin Luther King Jr

I have come to regard the law courts not as a cathedral but rather as a casino.
Richard Ingrams

Courage is the most important of virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.
Maya Angelou

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy

One man can make a difference, and every man should try.
John F. Kennedy

We’re just honest working men that have been pushed so far and so hard that we can’t keep it up any longer.
Frances O’Rourke

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell

We explain when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you do not stoop to their level. Our motto is when they go low, you go high.
Michelle Obama

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
George Orwell

Power is not a means; it is an end… The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
George Orwell

Nemo me impune lacessit. (No one harms me with impunity.)
Motto – Order of the Thistle

“If everyone is in agreement to condemn someone accused, release him, for he must be innocent.”.
Talmudic Principle

It isn’t the rebels who cause the troubles of the world, it’s the troubles that cause the rebels.
Carl Oglesby

Management doesn’t seem to understand the importance of the human factor.
King Charles III

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
Albert Einstein

He who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world.
Thomas Hughes

Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.
Elie Wiesel

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel

I would rather be a little nobody than to be an evil somebody.
Abraham Lincoln

People say sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can never hurt you, but that’s not true. Words can hurt. They hurt me. Things were said to me that I still haven’t forgotten.
Demi Lovato

Cyberbullies can hide behind a mask of namelessness online and do not need direct physical admittance to their victims to do unimaginable harm.
Anna Maria Chávez

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time
when we fail to protest.
Elie Wiesel

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Steven Biko

If you’re insulting people on the internet, you must be ugly on the inside.
Phil Lester

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Desmond Tutu

What if the kid you bullied at school, grew up, and turned out to be the only surgeon who could save your life?
Lynette Mather

We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.
Cesar Chavez

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will.
You do your worst–and we will do our best.
Sir Winston Churchill

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with
the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
William Hazlitt

The superior person understands rightness; the inferior person understands profit.
Confucius

Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.
Leonardo da Vinci

People might not get all that they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all that they get.
Frederick Douglass

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Frederick Douglass

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
Peter Drucker

Never undervalue the enemies, especially if they are stupid. Carl William Brown

We must always seek to ally ourselves with that part of the enemy that knows what is right.
Mahatma Gandhi

There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s needs, but not for everyone’s greed.
Mahatma Gandhi

In the old days all you needed was a handshake. Nowadays you need forty lawyers.
Jimmy Hoffa

The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Rosa Parks

If you let a bully come in your front yard, he’ll be on your porch the next day and the day after that
he’ll rape your wife in your own bed.
Lyndon Baines Johnson

Goods produced under conditions which do not meet a rudimentary standard to decency should be
regarded as contraband and not allowed to pollute the channels of international commerce.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live.
William Shakespear

“Be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
William Shakespeare

All truth passes through 3 stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer

There is no readier way for a man to bring his own worth into question than by endeavoring to detract from the worth of other men.”
John Tillotson

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essense of inhumanity.
George Bernard Shaw

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.
Seneca

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.
Napoleon Hill

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott

The weak have one weapon: the errors of those who think they are strong.
Georges Bidault

Beware of him that is slow to anger; for when it is long coming, it is the stronger when it comes,
and the longer kept. Abused patience turns to fury.
Francis Quarles

Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse.
Lily Tomlin

Long is the way And hard, that out of hell leads up to light.
John Milton

What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.
Lao Tzu

Life is too important to be taken seriously.
Oscar Wilde

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Martin Luther King Jr

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
Joseph Addison

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
Louis D. Brandeis

Quotes and ideas on vacation

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Sea quotes and aphorisms

Carl William Brown — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 14:32:47 +0000

Sea quotes and aphorisms

Sea quotes and aphorisms, ideas, thoughts, short reflections and meditations about the sea, the ocean and the metaphors about the sea, life, travel and troubles.

The ocean moans over dead men’s bones.
Thomas B. Aldrich

A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man, who has no gills.
Ambrose Bierce

Roll on, deep and dark blue ocean, roll. Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore.
Lord Byron

Sea waves sound reminds me of the beating of my mother’s heart filtered by the amniotic fluid in her placenta. It is an association that, however, cannot calm my anguish for her passing.
Carl William Brown

Praise the sea; on shore remain.
John Florio

He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.
George Herbert

Where there is a sea there are pirates.
Greek Proverb

Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality.
Friedrich Nietzsche

If you can’t change the wind, you must adjust your sails.
Sea proverb

The rougher the seas, the smoother we sail. Ahoy!

If the ocean can calm itself, so can you. We are both salt water mixed with air.
Nayyirah Waheed

The Mediterranean has the color of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet, you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing reflection has taken on a tint of rose or gray.
Vincent Van Gogh

The ocean, whose tides respond, like women’s menses, to the pull of the moon, the ocean which corresponds to the amniotic fluid in which human life begins, the ocean on whose surface vessels (personified as female) can ride but in whose depth sailors meet their death and monsters conceal themselves… it is unstable and threatening as the earth is not; it spawns new life daily, yet swallows up lives; it is changeable like the moon, unregulated, yet indestructible and eternal.
Adrienne Rich

There is hope from the sea, but none from the grave.
Irish Proverb

Quotes about the sea

Wide sea, that one continuous murmur breeds along the pebbled shore of memory!
John Keats

In high seas or in low seas, I’m gonna be your friend… I’m gonna be your friend. In high tide or in low tide, I’ll be by your side… I’ll be by your side.
Bob Marley

The ocean makes me feel really small and it makes me put my whole life into perspective.
Beyoncé

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.
Dave Barry

The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.
Vincent van Gogh

The ridiculous modern bourgeoisie is more interested in a seaside vacation, in the garden of their own house, or in the various optional extras to be mounted on their car than in the real fate of humanity.
Carl William Brown

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.
Samuel Johnson

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.
John Masefield

The sea complains upon a thousand shores.
Alexander Smith

The ocean is a mighty harmonist.
William Wordsworth

The only cure for seasickness is to sit on the shady side of a church in the country.
Author Unknown

Those who live by the sea can hardly form a single thought of which the sea would not be part.
Hermann Broch

The sea – this truth must be confessed – has no generosity. No display of manly qualities — courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness – has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.
Joseph Conrad

The sea is mother-death and she is a mighty female, the one who wins, the one who sucks us all up.
Anne Sexton

Sea quotes and aphorisms

Theory is a great net that goes fishing in the sea of experience, what is fished, is fished. Especially today, where the waters are very polluted and fish are scarce.
Carl William Brown

The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.
Joseph Conrad

To me, the sea is like a person – like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.
Gertrude Ederle

There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath…
Herman Melville

I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
Le Testament d’Orphée

There are veins in the hills where jewels hide And gold lies buried deep; There are harbor-towns where the great ships ride And fame and fortune sleep; But land and sea though we tireless rove And follow each trail to the end Whatever the wealth of our treasure-trove The best we shall find is a friend.
John J. Moment

I must down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life To the gulls way and the whales way where the winds like a whetted knife; And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long tricks o
John Masefield

The abode of God too is wherever is earth and sea and air and sky and virtue. Why further do we seek the Gods of heaven? Whatever thou dost behold and whatever thou dost touch that is Jupiter.
Lucan

They went to sea in a sieve they did; In a sieve they went to sea; In spite of all their friends could say.
Edward Lear

In fact the belief in the spherical earth had currency more than a century before Columbus famous voyage. For which cause men may well perceive that the land and the sea are of round shape and form for the portion of the firmament that shows itself in one country does not show itself in another country. And men may well prove by experience and subtle exercise of wit that if a man should find routes by ship that would go to search the world men might go by ship all about the world and around and beneath it….
Sir John Mandeville

Man is so stupid that he despises the companions who sail with him in the stormy sea of troubles of his own existence, while he admires in amazement those who make him sink.
Carl William Brown

Touch the earth love the earth honour the earth her plains her valleys her hills and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places.
Henry Beston

Old England is our home and Englishmen are we; Our tongue is known in every clime our flag in every sea.
Mary Howitt

A perfect life is like that of a ship of war which has its own place in the fleet and can share in its strength and discipline but can also go forth alone in the solitude of the infinite sea. We ought to belong to society to have our place in it and yet be capable of a complete individual existence outside of it.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton

… and so castles made of sand slip into the sea eventually.
Jimi Hendrix

Interest in global circumnavigation is older than Christianity itself. In fact if the following quotation is to be credited some attempts at circumnavigation predated the birth of Christ: As for the rest of the distance around the inhabited earth which has not been visited by us up to the present time (because of the fact that the navigators who sailed in opposite directions never met) it is not of very great extent if we reckon from the parallel distances that have been traversed by us… For those who undertook circumnavigation and turned back without having achieved their purpose say that they were made to turn back not because of any continent that stood in their way and hindered their further advance inasmuch as the sea still continued open as before but because of their destitution and loneliness.
Strabo

We must plant the sea and herd its animals. Using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about farming replacing hunting.
Jacques Yves Cousteau

Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage the very least as feeling her care and the greatest as not exempted from her power.
Richard Hooker

The surging sea of human life forever onward rolls And bears to the eternal shore its daily freight of souls; Tbough bravely sails our bark today pale Death sits at the prow And few shall know we ever lived a hundred years from
Mary A. Ford

The old wooden shed Stranded in a sea of wheat Waiting for harvest.
Daniel Denault

Bernard Loomers father was a sea captain. He was acquainted with his small place in an uncontrollable nature. In a talk in 1974 Loomer described his fathers instructions about the uses of a baseball glove. The father had just overheard his sons sandlot
William Dean

Sea and ocean quotes

Over the glittering rattled ladders of shale the birds cross tangential to the sea at night. Hour upon hour you can sense the undulation of wings. If you lift your cheek quite carefully you can feel the kiss and the wisp of air stirred by the inaudible glide.
Jan Haag

L’éternité. Cest la mer mêlee Au soleil [Eternity. It is the sea mingled with the sun.]
Arthur Rimbaud

The time has come the Walrus said To talk of many things: Of shoesand shipsand sealing-wax Of cabbages and kings And why the sea is boiling hot And whether pigs have wings.
Lewis Carroll

Shermans buzzin along to de sea Like Moses ridin on a bumblebee.
Stephen Vincent Benet

I am once more seated under my own vine and fig tree … and hope to spend the remainder of my days in peaceful retirement making political pursuits yield to the more rational amusement of cultivating the earth.
George Washington

If the sea And the sun Can bleach a bone Til its whiter Than a gull Cleaner than foam Oh how bright My soul Can emerge Purged On the beach Of Christs water And light. And How calm And warm His sand.
Carol Lynn Pearson

Literature feeds on itself, which is why sometimes some writers get indigestion and vomit a sea of nonsense.
Carl William Brown

To the pilot of a deep sea submersible upon finding out what would happen if the craft sprung a leak while submerged. Ill trust you to make sure that doesnt happen.
Dan Rather

How can we fret and stew sub specie aeternitatis – under the calm gaze of ancient Tao? The salt of the sea is in our blood; the calcium of the rocks is in our bones; the genes of ten thousand generations of stalwart progenitors are in our cells. The sun shines and we smile. The winds rage and we bend before them. The blossoms open and we rejoice. Earth is our long home.
Stewart W. Holmes

Power? Its like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it there is nothing there.
Harold Macmillan

O beautiful for spacious skies For amber waves of grain For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
Katharine Lee Bates

Suddenly from behind the rim of the moon in long slow-motion moments of immense majesty there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel a light delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth … home.
Edgar Mitchell

Esoteric science premises the existence of the Great Unmanifest which may be conceived as a sea of limitless but latent force which underlies all things and whence all things derive their substance and draw their life.
Dion Fortune

Though they go mad they shall be sane Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again Though lovers be lost Love shall not. And Death Shall Have No Dominion.
Dylan Thomas

To cleave that sea [the Aegean] in the gentle autumnal season murmuring the name of each islet is to my mind the joy most apt to transport the heart of man into paradise.
Nikos Kazantzakis

A gull rides the waves as if Made for the sea A swallow will sail high in the air. Oh let my soul rise let it Soar far and free; Or mount on the high winds of care.
Clara Edmunds-Hemingway

The trumpet! the trumpet! the dead have all heard; Lo the depths of the stone-covered charnels are stirred: From the sea from the land from the south and the north. The vast generations of man are come forth.
Henry H. Milman

Fear not to swear; the winds carry the perjuries of lovers without effect over land and sea thanks to Jupiter. The father of the gods himself has denied effect to what foolish lovers in their eagerness have sworn.
Tibullus

Glory to those who have explored the sea of darkness and what there was to explore. Their folly represents the highest degree of intellect.
Carl William Brown

We watch the liner in the distance glide Out from the sheltered waters of the bay Into the arms of ocean’s vastness won. Enfolded in infinity of tide We lose it and the last faint smoke line gray Merges into the sunset and is gone. Vanished from sight and lost art thou at sea Swallowed in oceans blue immensity? Ah no. Though trackless be the deep and wide Thy pilot shall bring thee triumphantly Into the harbor on the other side.
Edith E. McGee

Sea life quotes and aphorisms

The sea is God’s thoughts spread out.
Charles Morgan

The Three Ships As I went up the mountain-side The sea below me glitterd wide And Eastward far away I spied On Christmas Day on Christmas Day The three great ships that take the tide On Christmas Day in the morning. Ye have heard the song how thes
Alfred Noyes

Twisting inland the sea fog takes awhile in the apple trees.
Michael McClintock

The use of the sea and air is common to all; neither can a title to the ocean belong to any people or private persons forasmuch as neither nature nor public use and custom permit any possession thereof.
Queen Elizabeth I

Cease rude Boreas blustering railer! List ye landsmen all to me; Messmates hear a brother sailor Sing the dangers of the sea.
George A. Stevens

The hills have been high for man’s mounting The woods have been dense for his axe The stars have been thick for his counting The sands have been wide for his tracks. The sea has been deep for his diving The poles have been broad for his sway But bravely he’s proved in his striving That Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Eliza Cook

A wet sheet and a flowing sea A wind that follows fast And fills the white and rustling sail And bends the gallant mast. And bends the gallant mast my boys While like the eagle free Away the good ship flies and leaves Old England on the lee.
Allan Cunningham

The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue the fresh the ever free!
Bryan W. Procter

The sea of mass media stupidity with socials has become an ocean of imbecility.
Carl William Brown

What fairy-like music steals over the sea Entrancing our senses with charmed melody?
Mrs. C. B. Wilson

I am obsessed with the edges of things like stone at the edge of the sea when foam breaks into sky or your hand dissolves into my.
Stanley Cooperman

We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!
Humphrey Gilbert

Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog so the captain re
Frank Koch

No life can be barren which hears the whisper of the wind in the branches or the voice of the sea as it breaks upon the shore; and no soul can lack happiness looking up to the midnight stars.
William Winter

Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing Onward the sailors cry: Carry the lad thats born to be king Over the sea to Skye.
Harold Edwin Boulton

The sea – this truth must be confessed – has no generosity. No display of manly qualities – courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness – has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.
Joseph Conrad

The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it… “Beware of me,” it says, “but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hate to be near the sea and to hear it roaring and raging like a wild beast in its den. It puts me in mind of the everlasting efforts of the human mind, struggling to be free, and ending just where it began.
William Hazlitt

The sea is a desert of waves, A wilderness of water.
Langston Hughes

Sea aphorisms and quotes

We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected on the deep.
William James

Ocean separates lands, not souls.
Munia Khan

I will find comfort in the rhythm of the sea.
Charlotte Eriksson

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Quotes and aphorisms on proverbs

The post Sea quotes and aphorisms first appeared on The World of English.

100 famous proverbs

Carl William Brown — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 18:26:37 +0000

100 most used English proverbs

100 famous proverbs, a list of 100 most used and famous proverbs, with a large introduction on their use, starting from John Florio up to our days, edited for the World of English blog by Carl William Brown, a sincere literary avenger. (Find out more about him on Amazon).

Chinese people visit this blog very often, but I earn neither a cent from China. Call it under-consumption core, call it frugality, call it “proudly stingy”, but you could at least offer me a coffee.

Proverbs where largely collected and used by my old friend John Florio, but of course they were created and employed much earlier from a lot of other different writers all around the world. John Florio was a teacher, an interpreter, a grammarian, a translator, a lexicographer, a writer, a journalist, and a poet. I wrote something about him in my book on William Shakespeare’s genial aphorisms, so if you want to find out more you can download it for free. He was the son of an Italian Protestant exile, Florio (1553-1625) and became one of the most cultured and educated man in Elizabethan England during Shakespeare’s time.

Florio made the development of modern English language his primary mission. Firstly, he became tutor of Italian language to John Lyly and Stephen Gosson and many other writers, then with the accession of James I John Florio obtained a promotion and began a new life at court first becoming reader in Italian to Queen Anne and a year later Gentleman Extraordinary and Groom of the Privy Chamber to the King. In addition to his attendance on the Queen, John Florio was also tutor in Italian and French to Prince Henry at court. He probably supplemented his income also by serving as a minor cog in Sir Francis Walsingham’s vast machinery of state espionage. His dictionary, which by its 1611 edition contained over 70,000 entries, therefore more than the Italian dictionary of The Crusca Accademy published in 1612, catered for both the potential visitor to Italy and the reader who wished to read Italian books, now being imported to England in large numbers.

When we quote John Lyly we have to remember “Euphuism” that is a peculiar mannered style of English prose and it takes its name from a prose romance by this author. It consists of a preciously ornate and sophisticated style, employing a deliberate excess of literary devices such as antitheses, alliterations, repetitions and rhetorical questions. Classical learning and remote knowledge of all kinds are displayed. Euphuism was fashionable in the 1580s, especially in the Elizabethan court. Contents “Euphues” is the Greek for “graceful, witty”. John Lyly published the works Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and his England (1580). Both works illustrated the intellectual fashions and favourite themes of Renaissance society – in a highly artificial and mannered style. The plots are unimportant, existing merely as structural elements on which to display conversations, discourses and letters mostly concerning the subject of love. Its essential features had already appeared in such works as George Pettie’s A Petite Pallace of Pettie his pleasure (1576), in sermon literature, and Latin tracts. Lyly perfected the distinctive rhetorical devices on which the style was based.

Florio probably knew Shakespeare; literary London was a small circle, they shared patrons in the Earls of Pembroke and Southampton and Love’s labour’s lost and The tempest both contain passages indicating a familiarity with some of Florio’s other published works. That Shakespeare shared the contemporary interest in all Italian things is suggested by the large number of his plays which are set wholly or partly in Italy, but that Shakespeare was in fact Florio, a theory first advanced in 1927 by the Italian journalist Santi Paladino in a fascist literary magazine, L’impero, is, to say the least, unlikely for many reasons; but the dispute and the research on this field is gathering always more interesting facts and information all around the world, even though as William would say, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” Anyway this is a real mistery, as the life of the great national bard of England.

Giovanni Florio, known as John Florio, is anyway recognized as the most important humanist in Renaissance’s England, the author who translated Michel de Montaigne’s Essais into English. When he arrived in London at 18 years old, John Florio found a job as dyer for the Venetian merchant Gaspare Gatti. His passion for literature and writing lead him, seven years later his arrival in London, to publish his first work, First Fruits, a bilingual language lesson manual structured in dramatic dialogues, where he showed that he was able to combine his love for literature, proverbs and poetry, with language teaching, explaining in this way mankind’s debt to literature and to great writers.

This work is particularly interesting as an expression of Florio’s observations and opinions on various aspects of London life at the time, making this book one of the most interesting of the Elizabethan language lesson textbooks. So, with First Fruits, John Florio left the job as dyer and officially began a new career as a language teacher, writer and translator, while having contacts at the same time with actors, writers, theatre businessmen and court men. In his own words we can read: “Firste Fruites which yeelde familiar speech, merie prouerbes, wittie sentences, and golden sayings. Also a perfect induction to the Italian, and English tongues, as in the table appeareth. The like heretofore, neuer by any man published (1578).

Second Fruits publication appeared 13 years later the first one and even contains dialogues about sonnets and poems themes that other language lesson books never dared to include, and of course proverbs, in fact he wrote: “To use them (proverbs) is a grace, to understand them a good, but to gather them a paine to me, though game to thee. I, but for all that I must not scope without some new flout: now would I were by thee to give thee another, and surely I would give thee bread for cake. Farewell if thou meane well; els fare as ill, as thou wishest me to fare.” It is true that proverbs were a usual feature of most Elizabethan language teaching books, and they were also employed in drama writing and theatre playings, but in no manual did they play such an important part as in the Second Fruits.

The proverbs of the book are, in fact, intertwined with those published in a corollary work by Florio, the Giardino di Ricreatione: six thousands Italian proverbs, without their English translations, one of the most important of the earlier collections of this kind. “Proverbs are the pith, the properties, the proofes, the purities, the elegancies, as the commonest so the commendablest phrases of a language.” Florio endeavored particularly “to finde matter to declare those Italian wordes & phrases, that never yett saw Albions cliffes.” Yet, the proverbs used in the Second Fruits seem to have been especially selected as those which could be transported from the Italian to the English without strain or loss of meaning. But in this book Florio also devoted an entire chapter to a discussion of “newes”, “devices”, “tales”, written reports, printed “letters”, rumors, and scandal; so we can say that The Second Fruits might also be considered as one of the earliest pieces of journalism written in England.

100 famous proverbs and sayings

Talking about the use of proverbs in language teaching nowadays, we can say that they play a great part in gaining cultural knowledge, metaphorical understanding and communicative competence. Proverbs are a part of every language as well as every culture. They have been used to spread knowledge, wisdom and truths about life from ancient times up until now. They have been considered an important part of the fostering of children, as they signal moral values and exhort common behaviour. Proverbs belong to the traditional verbal folklore genres and the wisdom of proverbs has been guidance for people worldwide in their social interaction throughout the ages. Proverbs are concise, easy to remember and useful in every situation in life due to their content of everyday experiences.

Since a proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation, many scholars think that they should be used in teaching as didactic tools because of their content of educational wisdom. When it comes to foreign language learning, proverbs play a role in the teaching as a part of cultural and metaphorical learning. Linguists also claim that the use of proverbs in the teaching of English as a second or foreign language is important for the learners’ ability to communicate effectively.

What’s more proverbs “stick in the mind”, “build up vocabulary”, “illustrate admirably the phraseology and idiomatic expressions of the foreign tongue”, “contribute gradually to a surer feeling for the foreign tongue” and proverbs “consume very little time”. It was also said that proverbs are not only melodic and witty, possessed with rhythm and imagery; proverbs also reflect “patterns of thought”. As proverbs are universal, there are analogous proverbs in different nations that have related cultural patterns. Proverbs are therefore useful in the students’ discussions of cultural ideas when they compare the proverbs equivalents in different languages.

But as the experience shows the incorporation of proverbs in the foreign language classroom is rare. When proverbs are included, they are often used as time fillers and not integrated into a context. The proverbs that are used are often randomly picked from dictionaries, which often include archaic proverbs and new proverbs might therefore be missed. The suitability of proverbs in teaching is due to their form; they are pithy and easy to learn, they often rhyme and contain repetition figures like alliteration and assonance. Some scholars propose the use of proverbs in a range of areas within language teaching: grammar and syntax, phonetics, vocabulary development, culture, reading, speaking and writing. They state that proverbs, besides being an important part of culture, also are an important tool for effective communication and for the comprehension of different spoken and written discourses.

Obviously proverbs change with time and culture. Some old proverbs are not in use any longer because they reflect a culture that no longer exists, e.g. Let the cobbler stick to his last, which has vanished more or less, because the profession of the cobbler nowadays is rare. However, new proverbs that reflect the contemporary society are created instead, e.g. Garbage in, garbage out, a proverb created due to our computerized time. Old proverbs are also used as so called anti-proverbs today, i.e. “parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom”. One example is Nobody is perfect, which as an anti-proverb is changed to No body is perfect.

Anyway working with proverbs and sayings during the lessons not only helps to diversify educational process and to make it brighter and interesting. Moreover it helps to solve a number of very important educational problems: proverbs in the classroom can improve students’ learning experiences, their language skills, and their understanding of themselves and the world in general.

This happens because proverbs provide opportunities for students to learn a lot of different things about each other and their shared values, human experiences and cultures, the world of linguistic rhetoric figures, since they are full of metaphors, rhymes, puns, irony, humor, definitions, and so on, all seasoned with a strong moral wisdom and an old and proved useful common sense. That’s why now I report in this quite dense article a list of the most used and famous English proverbs, selected by my large collection, that can naturally be used for language teaching and thinking learning as well.

A very famous proverb on youth

1. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

2. A little learning is a dangerous thing.

3. A rolling stone gather no moss.

4. A stitch in time saves nine.

5. All is well that ends well.

6. All good roads lead to Rome.

7. Beauty is only skin deep.

8. Birds of a feather flock together.

9. A cat has nine lives.

10. The early bird catches the worm.

11. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

12. Every dog has its day.

13. First come first served.

14. Honesty is the best policy.

15. Actions speak louder than words.

16. Haste makes waste.

17. It is no use crying over spilt milk.

18. Necessity is the mother of invention.

19. No news is good news.

20. Out of sight, out of mind.

21. Rome was not build in a day.

22. Practice makes perfect.

23. Spare the rod, spoil the child.

24. The pen is mightier than the sword.

25. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

26. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

27. Among the blind a one-eyed man is the king.

28. Cash is the king.

29. Strike while the iron is hot.

30. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

31. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

32. Still waters run deep.

33. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

34. Many hands make light work.

35. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

36. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

37. Make hay while the sun shines.

38. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

39. Better late than never.

40. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

41. Ignorance is bliss.

42. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

43. The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.

44. If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

45. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

46. It takes two to tango.

47. It’s the tip of the iceberg.

48. Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it.

49. Curiosity killed the cat.

50. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Proverbs and living wisdom

51. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

52. Money doesn’t grow on trees.

53. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

54. The cat is out of the bag.

55. You made your bed, now you have to lie in it.

56. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

57. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

58. Always put your best foot forward.

59. Look before you leap.

60. Be good and if you can’t be good, be careful.

61. Easy come, easy go.

62. Between the devil and the deep blue sea.

63. Don’t make a mountain out of an anthill.

64. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

65. After the feast comes the reckoning.

66. All that glitters is not gold.

67. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

68. Bad news travels fast.

69. Barking dogs seldom bite.

70. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

71. Beggars can’t be choosers.

72. The best things in life are free.

73. Better a live coward than a dead hero.

74. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

75. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

76. Blood is thicker than water.

77. Charity begins at home.

78. Clothes do not make the man.

79. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today.

80. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

81. Familiarity breeds contempt.

82. The first step is always the hardest.

83. A friend who shares is a friend who cares.

84. He who hesitates is lost.

85. He who laughs last, laughs best.

86. If you can’t beat them, join them.

87. In unity there is strength.

88. A leopard cannot change its spots.

89. Love is blind.

90. Love makes the world go round.

91. Abundance, like want, ruins many.

92. Laws catch flies, but let hornets go free

93. A man without money is no man at all.

94. Art has no enemy but ignorance.

95. If you cannot bite, never show your teeth.

96. Look not a gift horse in the mouth.

97. A good name is sooner lost than won.

98. A heavy purse makes a light heart.

99. A hungry man is an angry man.

100. A Joke never gains an enemy but often loses a friend.

Italian proverbs and sayings

English and world proverbs

Famous English Sayings

Dictionary of English World proverbs

English quotes and aphorisms

Environment questions and answers

The post 100 famous proverbs first appeared on The World of English.

Environment questions

Carl William Brown — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 06:46:12 +0000

Environmental issues questions

Environment Questions and answers about global warming, energy saving, pollution, climate change, weather events, water, rubbish, transport and eco-activism

1) What’s the difference between climate and weather?

The climate is the pattern of weather a place experiences over a long period of time. There are many different kinds of climate. Hot, dry climates like the Mediterranean climate in summer, or the humid tropical climate we find around the equator with heavy rainfall, or the polar ice climate, where snow and ice are permanent features. The weather is what happens every day, rain, snow, sun, etc.

2) Why is plastic so dangerous for our environment?

The modern plastic era began in 1907 with the invention of Bakelite. Synthetic plastic quickly replaced natural material and made our lives more convenient, but it comes from oil or natural gas and this is harming the environment. Plastic is unbreakable, it is more durable than other materials and therefore it lasts much longer, but for this reason it is also very difficult to decompose and it can pollute our planet for hundreds of years. Today we are producing millions of tons of plastic (300) per year, and 10% of this eventually gets into oceans. That’s why we need to create and follow every creative recycling programs we can find and also big companies are looking for solutions to solve the plastic problem.

3) Do you know one of the best way to avoid problems associated with recycling?

The best way to avoid problems associated with recycling is to precycle – find new uses for old things you don’t need anymore. There are many websites that show you how you can transform plastic bottles or milk cartons into interesting art projects.

4) What are the main risks of the global warming?

Warmer weather is increasing the risk of long droughts and severe forest fires as it is happening in Australia opr some American states, but at the same time more flooding due to climate changes is the greatest risk for some other countries, like the UK for example.

5) What is in your own opinion an effective way to avoid climate change.

I agree with most scientists who think that a global climate change policy is the best way avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Climate change problems

6) Do you know who is Greta Thunberg and how she started her protest in order to increase climate change awareness?

She is a young Swedish environmental activist who has gained international recognition for promoting the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis arising from climate change. Thunberg is known for her youth and her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticizes world leaders for their failure to take sufficient action to address the climate crisis. Thunberg’s activism started after convincing her parents to adopt several lifestyle choices to reduce their own carbon footprint. In August 2018, at age 15, she started spending her school days outside the Swedish parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate).

7) How have humans impacted the greenhouse effect?

Humans have impacted the greenhouse effect by burning fossil fuels. This increases the number of greenhouse gases trapped in our atmosphere, which traps heat and contributes to global warming.

8) What causes climate change? causes of climate change?

As the post above makes clear, carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions gathering in the atmosphere seem to be the principal cause of man-made climate change.

9) What are some of the causes of global warming?

Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect – and things that we as humans are doing to exacerbate this effect. The more carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere , the more serious the greenhouse effect becomes. Things that cause more carbon dioxide to be released include the burning of fossil…

10) Can the human race take action to stop global warming?

First, we can look at physical possibilities. In this case, the answer is that the human race can take action to stop or reduce global warming. Almost all scientists believe that warming is being caused by human action. Therefore, human action could reduce warming.

Energy production and pollution

11) How is global warming a environmental issue?

Global warming is an environmental issue because it affects the natural environments of various parts of the world. It does so in ways that hurt humans directly and in ways that alter environmental conditions for nature. Global warming brings about changes in the environment in many places. There are many examples of how it does this. It can melt the polar ice caps…

12) Where do you stand on the Global Warming topic? How seriously do you think we should consider “global warming”?

In the political world, one of the main points of debate seems to be whether or not human beings are responsible for global warming…

13) What are the major global environmental issues?

There are several major global environmental issues. Perhaps the one with the greatest potential impact in terms of human suffering is the lack of clean safe drinking water. Population growth,…

14) How do pollution and global warming relate to each other?

There is a direct correlation to carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. Since the industrial revolution, the levels of carbon dioxide have been steadily rising.

15) What are the three Rs of the environment?

The 3 Rs of the environment are: reduce, reuse, recycle. They have been around for some time but many people have grown lax in following them. Perhaps the War Advertising Council said it best in 1944 as they promoted the conservation of gas, rubber, silk, and other scarce resources. Every year, Americans throw away 50 billion food and drink cans, 27 billion glass bottles and jars, and 65 million plastic and metal jar and can covers. More than 30% of our waste is packaging materials. Where does it all go? Some 85% of our garbage is sent to a dump, or landfill, although we are quickly running out of space.
Therefore we must learn how to:
Reduce. Purchase products that require less packaging or to limit the waste you are producing.
Reuse. Use a travel mug or reusable water bottle and avoid single-use bags.
Recycle. Paper, plastic, glass, magazines, electronics, and more can be processed into new products while using fewer natural resources and less energy. This is the 3 R’s mantra.

Save energy

In order to persuade and convince you to take some good actions here are some pragmatic information!

ENERGY

• Americans waste $300 billion per year just by not switching off lights and leaving computers, TVs and videorecorders on permanent stand-by.
• Turning down the heating by just one degree, or using one hour less heating a day, can reduce the fuel bill by 10%
• Insulation and double windows in a house can save up to one third of heating costs.

WATER

• Taking a bath uses three times as much water as taking a shower.
• We use about 155 litres of water each day on average, 70% more than 30 years ago.
• Leaving a water tap running can waste up to 10 litres of water a minute.
• In half an hour, a garden sprinkler uses as much water as a family of four in a day.

TRANSPORT

• Every day British people drive over five million miles on short car journeys under one mile.
• Short car journeys cause the worst pollution because the engine is cold and has to warm up.
• Driving at 80 km per hour uses 25% less fuel than at 110 kph.

RUBBISH

• The average family throws away 2 kilos of rubbish every day.
• Over 6 billion glass containers are used each year in Britain. Only 25% of them are recycled.
• Each ton of paper recycled saves 15 average-sized trees, as well as the animals they support.

The Artic glaciers 100 years ago and nowadays

And last but not least, let’s see the GWP of Methane Versus CO2. The GWP (Global warming potential) was invented to allow direct comparisons between different gases implicated in global warming. It measures how much energy one ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time compared to one ton of CO2.

If a gas has a higher GWP than CO2, it means it will warm the Earth more over that period than CO2 would.

Since CO2 is being used as the reference, it has a GWP of one. Methane has a GWP of between 28 and 36 over 100 years, according to the EPA, meaning it is significantly more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. It gets worse. The GWP of methane gets even higher over shorter periods of time due to the gas shorter life span. Over a period of 20 years, methane has a GWP of between 84 and 87. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, while CO2 lasts for longer than methane, methane “sets the pace for warming” in the short term.

If you are interested in climate and environment matters you can also read

Environment and climate debate

Climate change test

Global warming test

Global warming world data

Weather forcast and more

We are what we do

Free download – 20 climate connection challenges for classrooms across the world

What’s more don’t forget to pay a visit to the following website:

https://www.earthday.org/
The theme for Earth Day 2025 is OUR POWER, OUR PLANET, which focuses on uniting everyone around renewable energy with the goal of tripling clean electricity by 2030. You can participate by joining Earth Action Day through educating, advocating, and mobilizing your communities. Also, consider donating to support Earthday.org’s work.

https://www.un.org/en/observances/earth-day
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day through a resolution adopted in 2009. The Day recognizes the Earth and its ecosystems as humanity’s common home and the need to protect her to enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity.

https://www.un.org/en/climatechange
Climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can accelerate the speed of destruction of the planet.