From Finney Creek Mohair
>Lying there, I heard the gentle, drowsy tinkling if a goat-bell, and presently the herds wandered past us, pausing to stare with vacant yellow eyes, bleat sneeringly, and then move on.
_–Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals (1956)_
>A dirt and smelly nanny goats is invariably the victim of dirty and insanitary living quarters and of an owner who is too lazy to groom her.
_–David Le Roi, Goats (1987)_
>All goats are mischievous thieves, gate-crashers, and trespassers. Also they possess individual character, intelligence, and capacity for affection which can only be matched by the dog. Having once become acquainted with them I would as soon farm without a dog as without a goat.
_–David Mackenzie, Farmer in the Western Isles (1954)_
>One has fear in front of a goat, in back of a mule, and on every side of a fool.
_–Edgar Watson Howe_
>If you’re short of trouble, take a goat.
_–Finnish saying_
>Bring me a bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.
_–Johann Sebastian Bach_
>By candle-light a goat looks like a lady.
_–French Proverb_
>See how the mountain goat hangs from the summit of the cliff; you would expect it to fall; it is merely showing its contempt for the dogs.
_–Marcus Valerius Martial, Epigrams (bk. XIII, ep. 99)_
From Conner, Randy P. Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Lore. London: Cassell, 1997.
>In Western European ritual magic, such as that practiced by Aleister CROWLEY, both the anus and the opening of the penis/phallus — together suggesting anal intercourse — have been referred to as the “eye of the goat.”
>Of a she-goat as a sacrifice to the classical goddess APHRODITE, SAPPHO writes,
“For you, Aphrodite, I will burn
the savory fat of a white she-goat.
All this I will leave behind for you.”
>Sacred to Greek god PAN and DIONYSUS, ‘symbolic of lust, creativity, humor, intoxication, sure-footedness, and bedevilment.’
Stevenson, Burton. The Home Book of Quotations. 10th. Dodd Mead & Company, 1967.
>Like the goat, you’ll mourn for your beard.
_–AEschylus, Prometheus the Fire-Kindler. Frag. 117._
>And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel,… putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
_–Old Testament: Leviticus, xvi, 21. The word “Scapegoat” was employed in 1530 by Tindale as a translation of the Hebrew “Azazel.” (Vulgate: caper emissarius.)_
>Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.
_–J. R. Lowell, The Present Crisis. St. 5._
Knowles, Elizabeth. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. 6. Oxford University Press, USA, 2004.
>The pride of the peacock is the glory of God
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God
The nakedness of the woman is the work of God
_–William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-3), ‘Proverbs of Hell’_
From The Divine Comedy, “Purgatory. Canto XXVII.” by Dante Alighieri
>As the goats,
That late have skipt and wanton’d rapidly
Upon the craggy cliffs, ere they had ta’en
Their supper on the herb, now silent lie
And ruminate beneath the umbrage brown,
Upon his staff, and leaning watches them:
And as the swain, that lodges out all night
In quiet by his flock, lest beast of prey
Disperse them: even so all three abode,
I as a goat, and as the shepherds they,
Close pent on either side by shelving rock.
From The Odysseys of Homer. by Homer
>The Cyclops’ isle, nor yet far off doth lie.
Men’s want it suffer’d, but the men’s supplies
The goats made with their inarticulate cries.
Goats beyond number this small island breeds,
So tame, that no access disturbs their feeds,
No hunters, that the tops of mountains scale,
And rub through woods with toil, seek them at all.
From _Modern American Poetry_. Louis Untermeyer, Ed. 1919.
>If the roads are wet and muddy
We remain at home and study,—
For the Goat is very clever at a sum,—
And the Dog, instead of fighting,
Studies ornamental writing,
While the Cat is taking lessons on the drum.
_–Charles E. Carryl Robinson Cruesoe’s Story._
From Yale Book of American Verse. Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. 1912.
>O heart of Nature, beating still
With throbs her vernal passion taught her,—
Even here, as on the vine-clad hill,
Or by the Arethusan water!
New forms may fold the speech, new lands
Arise within these ocean portals,
But Music waves eternal wands,—
Enchantress of the souls of mortals!
>So thought I,—but among us trod
A man in blue, with legal baton,
And scoffed the vagrant demigod,
And pushed him from the step I sat on.
Doubting I mused upon the cry,
“Great Pan is dead!”—and all the people
Went on their ways:—and clear and high
The quarter sounded from the steeple.
_–Edmund Clarence Stedman, “Pan in Wall Street”_
From OED
>I think this devotion of your life to music has had the tendency..to make you intellectually an ass and morally a goat
_–Holland Lett. Joneses iii, 51. (1863)_
>When a covetous man doteth on his bags of gold..the drunkard on his wine, the lustful goat on his women..they banish all other objects
_–Traherne. Chr. Ethics vii. 90. (1675)_
>’I must discipline these idiots,’ Omolo said to himself…’I must beat them today, goats!’
_–Inside Kenya Today. Mar 37/2. (1972)_
>Where was the logic of the pact in blood with a goat-headed monstrosity?
_–A. Lillie. ‘Worship Satan Mod. France’ Pref. 17
>Turkish goat-bells and Albanian goat-bells are quite different.
–_Macm. Mag. Oct. 434/1 (1884)_
>It behoueth that in humane learning there be some Goat-like wits.
_–Carew. ‘Huarte’s Exam. Wits’ v.68 (1596)_
>The controuersie is not about goats woolle (as the prouerbe saeth) neither light and trifling maters.
_–J. Udall. ‘Demonstr. Discipl.’ (Arb.) 11. (1588)_
>The diuell..dooth most properlie and commonlie transforme himselfe into a gote.
_–R. Scott. ‘Discov. Witchr.’ v.i.89. (1584)_
>The damned goates he doth despise; Poynts out his lambs, whose sinfull dyes hee purgde with bloody streame
_–Sir W. Mure. ‘Spiritual Hymme.’ 326. (1628)_
>Leading a jet-black goat white-horned, white-hooved
_–Tennyson. ‘OEnone.’ (1833)_
>After that I wente to the gheet in to the wode, there herde I the kyddes blete.
_–Caxton. ‘Reynard’ (Arb.) 34. (1481)_
>Hgs angels..sal first departe {th}e gude fra {th} ille, Als {th}e hird {th}e shepe dus fra {th}e gayte.
_–Hampole. ‘Pr. Consc.’ 6134. (1340)_
