An absolute and unlimited right over any object of property would be the right to commit nearly every crime.If Ihad sucha right over thestick Iamaboutto cut, I might employ it as a mace to knock down the passengers, or I might convert it into a sceptre as an emblem of royalty, or into an idol to offend the national religion.

-Bentham,Jeremy
Principles of the Civil Code, pt.1, ch.13, final note. Collected in John Bowring (ed)  Works (1838^43), vol.1.

Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I canonlycomparetoa stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
Quoted in Hawker Instructions toYoung Sportsmen (1859). The attribution is doubtful, and Swift has also been credited with the remark.

   When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold, Our father Adamsat under theTree and scratched with a stick in the mould; And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart, Till the Devilwhispered behind theleaves,'It'spretty, but is it Art?'

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  'The Conundrum of the Workshops'.

Quand l'eau courbe un ba"  ton, ma raison la redresse. When water curves a stick, my reason straightens it out.

-La Fontaine,Jean de
  Fables, pt.7, no.18,'Un animal dans la lune'.

I have a suspicion it's inevitable, but give me my stick. I'll face it.

-Leacock, Stephen Butler
  On being asked what he thought about death, following a serious throat operation, quoted in  John Stevens's introduction to My Remarkable Uncle (1965 edn).

What would father say when he found out? For he was bound to find out sooner or later. He always did.'Buried. You two girls had me buried!' She heard his stick thumping.Oh, what would they say? What possible excuse could they make? It sounded such an appallingly heartless thing to do. Such a wicked advantageto take of a person because he happened to be helpless at the moment.

-Beauchamp
  The Garden Party and Other Stories,'The Daughters of the Late Colonel'.

The final event to himself has been, that as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.

-Paine,Thomas
  Of Edmund Burke. Letters to theAddressers on the late Proclamation.

There is a homely adage that runs,'Speak softlyand carry a big stick, and you will go far.' If the American nation will speak softlyand yet build, and keep at a pitch of the highest training, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.

-Roosevelt,Theodore
Vice-presidential speech, Sep.

An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress.

-Yeats,W(illiam) B(utler)
  'Sailing to Byzantium', stanza 8. Collected in TheTower (1928).