"Procrustean bed" Quotes from Famous Books
... authors—but like all half measures, it has bred less good than evil. If we could silence a free press, and the very free tongues of modern society; if we could clip the busy, imaginative, craving mind of youth on the Procrustean bed of use and wont, the method might succeed; but we can do neither—the young will read and will hear; and the consequence is, a general complaint that the minds of young women are outgrowing their mothers' guidance, that they are reading ... — Literary and General Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley |