"Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise." -Francis Bacon

"She seldom committed herself to emotion, which was bad for her health, or to statement of opinion, for this would have meant having one." -Patrick White, The Tree of Man

"Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity." -Hippocrates, late 5th century BCE

"Young, we love, grasp, consume. Old, we savour. And the taste sends us wild." -Vera Newsom

"The cruel girls we loved Are over forty, Their subtle daughters Have stolen their beauty; And with a blue stare Of cool surprise They mock their anxious mothers With their mother's eyes." -David Campbell

"I am old, she said, as if she had bought her way out of any further responsibility." -Patrick White, The Aunt's Story

"Australians swallow more syllables than any other single item of consumption." -Sir Hermann Black, SMH, 1982

"Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your hearts." -Katherine, in Henry VIII, III.i #shakespeare

"’Tis not too late to-morrow to be brave." -Dr. John Armstrong, 1744

"It doesn't matter much - nothing does." -Henry Lawson, The Union Buries Its Dead

"Twinkle, twinkle little stars On a million motor-cars, Along the Harbour Bridge so high, Like a coathanger in the sky." -Dorothy Auchterlonie, Kaleidoscope

"Now there are fields of corn where Troy once stood." -Ovid, Heroides

"Miss Austen being, as you say, without ‘sentiment’, without poetry, maybe is sensible, real (more real than true), but she cannot be great." -Charlotte Brontë

"You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other." -John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1813

"We have the lesson that they died to teach; We hear their voices in the wind and rain. God of our fathers! Let our honour reach So high that we may touch their hands again." -Robert Crawford, At Gallipoli, 1924

"The street was Australia: sandy, makeshift, innocent." -Randolph Stow, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea

I understand that the King asked for this poem by ⁦Malcolm Guite⁩ to be read at the Royal Carol Service. It deserves to be read everywhere this Christmas.

"Prisoner, God has given you good abilities, instead of which you go about the country stealing ducks." -William Arabin, British judge, early 19th c.

It is not a good thing for one party to control the whole mainland. Not for democracy, nor for free transmission of ideas. This is the Coalition’s fault for ignoring the sensible centre. They must think about whether they want to represent Australians or just special interests.