Horace Smith

"In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desart knows: — "I am great ," saith the stone, "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows "The wonders of my hand." — The City's gone, — Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon.We wonder, — and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place."

"Thinking is but an idle waste of thought, And nought is everything and everything is nought."

"In the name of the Prophet—figs."

"And thou hast walked about (how strange a story!) In Thebes's streets three thousand years ago, When the Memnonium was in all its glory."

"Vanity—like laudanum, and other poisonous medicines, is beneficial in small, though injurious in large quantities. No man, who is not pleased with himself, even in a personal sense, can please others."

"Is it not odd that the only truly generous person I ever knew who had money enough to be generous with should be a stockbroker? He writes poetry and pastoral dramas and yet knows how to make money, and does make it, and is still generous."