No one attaches a transcendent meaning to the "errors" of comedy, much less of farce. Mistaken identities, misunderstandings about... what some character said or meant, mistakes about bedroom doors--these help to complicate the plot and are all part of the fun. On the level of farce, Oedipus was mistaken about the identity of his parents, he misunderstood the true significance of what the oracle said, and he went into the wrong bedroom.... The difference in tragedy is that the errors are fatal and that, although they can be dissipated at the end, their consequences cannot.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... if there are no waving flags and marching songs at the barricades as Walter marches out with his little battalion, it is not b...ecause the battle lacks nobility. On the contrary, he has picked up in his way, still imperfect and wobbly in his small view of human destiny.... He becomes, in spite of those who are too intrigued with despair and hatred of man to see it, King Oedipus refusing to tear out his eyes, but attacking the oracle instead. He is that last Jewish patriot manning his rifle at Warsaw.... He is Anne Frank, still believing in people; he is the nine small heroes of Little Rock; he is Michelangelo creating David and Beethoven bursting forth with the Ninth Symphony. He is all these things because he has finally reached out in his tiny moment and caught that sweet essence which is human dignity, and it shines like the old star-touched dream that is in his eyes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I imagine, on the benches of an assembly, the most intrepid of thinkers, a brilliant mind, one of those men who, when they ascend ...the tribune, feel it beneath them like the tripod of the oracle, suddenly grow in stature and become colossal, surpass by a head the massive appearances that mask reality, and see clearly the future over the high, frowning wall of the present.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Farewell, false love, the oracle of lies, A mortal foe and enemy to rest;... An envious boy, from whom all cares arise, A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed; A way of error, a temple full of treason, In all effects contrary unto reason.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He carries his English weather in his heart wherever he goes, and it becomes a cool spot in the desert, and a steady and sane orac...le amongst all the delirium of mankind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion Upon the beached verge of the salt flood,... Who once a day with his embossed froth The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come, And let my grave-stone be your oracle.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I know of one who deserves to be called the Tree-hater, and, perhaps, to leave this for a new patronymic to his children. You woul...d think that he had been warned by an oracle that he would be killed by the fall of a tree, and so was resolved to anticipate them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a ser...pent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »