Now a whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

-Aristotle
c.330  BC   Poetics, ch.7, referring to tragedy.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Genesis1:1^2.

The fear of the L is the beginning of wisdom.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDPsalms111:10.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St  John1:1^3.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

-Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Gloria.

Now thisisnotthe end.It isnot eventhebeginningofthe end.But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

-Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer
  Speech at the Mansion House, London,10 Nov, referring to the Battle of Egypt.

Onthis day with high hopesand brave hearts, inmassive numbers, the American people have voted to make a new beginning.

-Clinton, Bill (William)
  Accepting victory in the election, 3 Nov.

I mean, after all; you have to consider that we're only made out of dust. That's admittedly not much to go on and we shouldn't forget that. But even considering, I mean, it's sort of a bad beginning, we're not doing too bad. So I personally have faith that even in this lousy situation we're faced with we can make it.You get me?

-Dick, Philip K(indred)
  The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, closing words.

War, he sung, is toil and trouble; Honour but an empty bubble. Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying, If the world be worth thy winning, Think, oh think, it worth enjoying.

-Dryden,John
  Alexander's Feast, l.97^102.

Polyphiloprogenitive The sapient sutlers of the Lord Drift across the window-panes In the beginning was the Word.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  'Mr Eliot's Sunday Morning Service'.

   Or say that the end precedes the beginning, And the end and the beginning were always there before the beginning and after the end. And all is always now.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'Burnt Norton', pt.5.

In my beginning is my end.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'East Coker', pt.1.

And so each venture Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate With shabby equipment always deteriorating In the general mess of imprecision of feeling, Undisciplined squads of emotion.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'East Coker', pt.5.

What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'Little Gidding', pt.5.

Drawing is onlya necessary evil, proportions are easily determined: colour isthe goal, the beginning and end of art.

-Heinse,Wilhelm
  Ardinghello.

We ought to define a man's income as the maximum value which he can consume during a week, and still expect to be as well off at the end of the week as he was at the beginning.

-Hicks, SirJohn Richard
  Value and Capital (2nd edn).

Our composition must be more accurate in the beginning and end thaninthemidst, and intheendmore than in the beginning; for through the midst the stream bears us.

-Jonson, Ben
Timber: or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter (published 1640).

Far too many relied on the classic formula of a beginning, a muddle, and an end. Larwood

-Larkin, Philip Arthur
  On judging the Booker Prize entries for1977, in New Fiction, no.15,  Jan.

En ma fin git mon commencement. In my end is my beginning.

-Mary, Queen of Scots
Embroidered motto, quoted in  Antonia Fraser Mary Queen of Scots (1969), ch.21,'My Norfolk'.

Since then they have pulled our ploughs and borne our loads. But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts. Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.

-Muir, Edwin
  One Foot in Eden,'The Horses'.