What are shields?

Famous quotes containing the word shields:

“No other man-made device since the shields and lances of the ancient knights fulfills a man’s ego like an automobile.”
—Sir William Rootes (1894–1964)

“A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudist—nothing shields him from the world’s gaze except his bare skin. A writer, writing away, can always fix himself up to make himself more presentable, but a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)

“Your cloak hides the sinner,
your cloak shields the lover,
colour of wine,
cyclamen,
red rhododendron.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)