What is semblance?

Famous quotes containing the word semblance:

    “A man,” said Oliver Cromwell, “never rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going.” Dreams and drunkenness, the use of opium and alcohol are the semblance and counterfeit of this oracular genius, and hence their dangerous attraction for men. For the like reason they ask the aid of wild passions, as in gaming and war, to ape in some manner these flames and generosities of the heart.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie
    Thy Soul’s immensity;
    Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep
    Thy heritage, thou Eye among the blind,
    That, deaf and silent, read’st the eternal deep,
    Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,—
    William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

    Civilisation is hooped together, brought
    Under a rule, under the semblance of peace
    By manifold illusion....
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)