Oracle



In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination.

Quotes

 * The oracle-glass was maddeningly literal, capable of answering only the question one asked, rather than that which one wanted answered.
 * Michael Swanwick, King Dragon (2003). Reprinted in David G. Hartwell (ed.), Year’s Best Fantasy 4 (p. 6)

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

 * Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 572.


 * Ibis redibis non morieris in bello.
 * Thou shalt go thou shalt return never in battle shalt thou perish.
 * Utterance of the Oracle which through absence of punctuation and position of word "non" may be interpreted favorably or the reverse.


 * A Delphic sword.
 * Aristotle, Politica, I, 2 (referring to the ambiguous Delphic Oracles).


 * The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving.
 * John Milton, Hymn on Christ's Nativity, line 173.


 * I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips let no dog bark!
 * William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act I, scene 1, line 93.