Quotation Quandry

YatesOfYore · Site Admin Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 853

My mind can't quite remember enough of a certain quotation in order to look it up on Google, and I was hoping that you all could help me out.

I'm pretty sure it's Shakespeare and the gist of it is that someone is raging against something insubstantial and all their efforts are for naught.

BAH. I hate it when something is on the tip of my mind.
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Tinu. · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:32 pm Post subject:

I don't know the quote you're talking about, but you could check this site. It's a very long list of famous Shakespeare quotes. You can scan and see if something jogs your memory.
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Asa · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:01 pm Post subject:

Hmmm... well, it's not Shakespeare, but the only thing I could think of that matches the keywords "insubstantial" and "for naught" is the book of Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes, by King Solomon.

A sampler:

The words of Koheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, said Koheleth; vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has man in all his toil that he toils under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth endures forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and to its place it yearns and rises there. It goes to the south and goes around to the north; the will goes around and around, and the will returns to its circuits. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers flow, there they repeatedly go. All things are wearisome; no one can utter it; the eye shall not be sated from seeing, nor shall the ear be filled from hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. There is a thing of which [someone] will say, "See this, it is new." It has already been for ages which were before us. [But] there is no remembrance of former [generations], neither will the later ones that will be have any remembrance among those that will be afterwards.

...and this goes on for twelve chapters. Full text here.
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YatesOfYore · Site Admin Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 853

Hmmm... Still not it. (I wish I had time to go through all 100 pages of that Shakespeare page, but alas...

I think it has something to do with "wind" . Maybe it's not Shakespeare... I'm not being very helpful.

Thanks for the feedback!
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Tinu. · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:13 am Post subject:

"Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."
~Ecclesiastes 2:11

It's starting to sound like something from Ecclesiastes. Maybe if you looked up a different translation of what Asa suggested?
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Squeeself · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 258

Amiens:
"Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;"
As You Like It (II, vii, 174-176)

?

thespaceinvader · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 650 Location: Cardiff, UK

Slightly left-field, but it's not 'do not go gentle into that good night' is it?

Otherwise, based solely on the context, it sounds like it could well be something out of Hamlet. He does a lot of that...
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Kaden · Joined: 27 Jan 2010 Posts: 34 Location: Ohio

I thought of "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" too, just off of the word raging.

Or this seemed sort of like it fit.

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
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spellingmistax · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:08 pm Post subject:

Hamlet?

To be or not to be, that is the question weahter it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and aarrows of outragious fourtuine
or to take up arms aginst this sea of troubles and by oppisoing them end them

It has been a very long time since I studied this so I know I have gotten it wrong but you get the gist of it.
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Tenshi · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 2594 Location: Star Stuff

Sorry to interrupt, but I adore Hamlet. ^^;
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Asa · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:16 pm Post subject:

Link's not working, SpaceCase.

And yeah. By quoting the first few lines of Ecclesiastes, I was really referring to the whole thing, from chapter 1 to chapter 12.
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Self-styled Forum Grandmother, because I hand out nicknames and hugs whether you want them or not. ^_^

Keeper of the Library and the Gateway to Haven

Nem: "It's the sort of face you just know is getting ready to poke you with something sharp."
BS: "...then insist you eat a brownie."
__________________
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

thespaceinvader · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 650 Location: Cardiff, UK

Odd, seems fine to me.

However, it's an easy enough poem to find, if you google the title.
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Asa · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:05 pm Post subject:

Now it works.

^_^

Will Teh Lady find the answer to her quandary in our sundry responses...?
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Self-styled Forum Grandmother, because I hand out nicknames and hugs whether you want them or not. ^_^

Keeper of the Library and the Gateway to Haven

Nem: "It's the sort of face you just know is getting ready to poke you with something sharp."
BS: "...then insist you eat a brownie."
__________________
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.