Memorial Day
shaky old soldiers
report for duty
Tag: duty
Quotable 198
The duty of a writer – the revolutionary duty, if you like – is that of writing well.
– Gabriel García Márquez
Fiction: Two Prisoners on the Eve of Battle
“Drink up, lads!” the king yelled. “Tonight we feast, and tomorrow we storm the castle!”
A cheer rose from manly throats eager to dine and drink.
But not from Thomas. He casually wandered away from the roast beeves and the hogsheads of ale.
He went off into the woods, alone. When he came to a little clearing, he sat on the ground and rested against a stout tree.
“There must be more to life than storming castle after castle on the say-so of a mad king,” he muttered.
“Couldn’t agree more,” said an unexpected voice.
Thomas looked up and saw a man emerge from behind a tree. The man was adjusting his lower garments, making it easy to guess what chore of nature he had been tending to.
“Who’s there?” Thomas asked.
“Nobody important. Just the son of the mad king who keeps ordering us to storm castles.”
Continue reading “Fiction: Two Prisoners on the Eve of Battle”
Quotable 29
Ours is a useful trade, a worthy calling; that with all its lightness and frivolity it has one serious purpose, one aim, one specialty, and it is constant to it — the deriding of shams, the exposure of pretentious falsities, the laughing of stupid superstitions out of existence; and that whoso is by instinct engaged in this sort of warfare is the natural enemy of royalties, nobilities, privileges and all kindred swindles, and the natural friend of human rights and human liberties.
– Samuel L. Clemens
Quotable 14
When an honest writer discovers an imposition it is his simple duty to strip it bare and hurl it down from its place of honor, no matter who suffers by it; any other course would render him unworthy of the public confidence.
– Mark Twain