All Quotes

"O may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence; live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge men's search To vaster issues."

"So to live is heaven: To make undying music in the world, Breathing a beauteous order that controls With growing sway the growing life of man."

"This is life to come, — Which martyred men have made more glorious For us who strive to follow. May I reach That purest heaven, — be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world."

"Creeds of terror."

"A serious ape whom none take seriously, Obliged in this fool's world to earn his nuts By hard buffoonery."

"His smile is sweetened by his gravity."

"Certain winds will make men's temper bad."

"Sad as a wasted passion."

"Knightly love is blent with reverence As heavenly air is blent with heavenly blue."

"Inclination snatches arguments To make indulgence seem judicious choice."

"Perhaps the wind Wails so in winter for the summers dead, And all sad sounds are nature's funeral cries For what has been and is not."

"When Cain was driven from Jehovah's land He wandered eastward, seeking some far strand Ruled by kind gods who asked no offerings Save pure field-fruits, as aromatic things, To feed the subtler sense of frames divine That lived on fragrance for their food and [wine]]: Wild joyous gods, who winked at faults and folly, And could be pitiful and melancholy. He never had a doubt that such gods were; He looked within, and saw them mirrored there."

"There comes a night when all too late The mind shall long to prompt the achieving hand, The eager thought behind closed portals stand, And the last wishes to the mute lips press Buried ere death in silent helplessness."

"While the arm is strong to strike and heave, Let soul and arm give shape that will abide..."

"Lamech's sons were heroes of their race: Jubal, the eldest, bore upon his face The look of that calm river-god, the Nile, Mildly secure in power that needs not guile."

"Jubal had a frame Fashioned to finer senses, which became A yearning for some hidden soul of things, Some outward touch complete on inner springs That vaguely moving bred a lonely pain, A want that did but stronger grow with gain Of all good else, as spirits might be sad For lack of speech to tell us they are glad."

"Each day he wrought and better than he planned, Shape breeding shape beneath his restless hand. (The soul without still helps the soul within, And its deft magic ends what we begin.) Nay, in his dreams his hammer he would wield And seem to see a myriad types revealed, Then spring with wondering triumphant cry, And, lest the inspiring vision should go by, Would rush to labor with that plastic zeal Which all the passion of our life can steal For force to work with. Each day saw the birth Of various forms, which, flung upon the earth, Seemed harmless toys to cheat the exacting hour, But were as seeds instinct with hidden power."

"Then, as the metal shapes more various grew, And, hurled upon each other, resonance drew, Each gave new tones, the revelations dim Of some external soul that spoke for him: The hollow vessel's clang, the clash, the boom, Like light that makes wide spiritual room And skyey spaces in the spaceless thought, To Jubal such enlarged passion brought, That love, hope, rage, and all experience, Were fused in vaster being, fetching thence Concords and discords, cadences and cries That seemed from some world-shrouded soul-to rise, Some rapture more intense, some mightier rage, Some living sea that burst the bounds of man's brief age."

"Jubal sat lonely, all around was dim, Yet his face glowed with light revealed to him"

"With the smile that was childlike and bland."

"We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor."

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

"Virtue always meets reward, But quicker when it wears a sword;"

"Ah Sin was his name."

"It is good news, worthy of all acceptation; and yet not too good to be true."

"It is not fit the public trusts should be lodged in the hands of any, till they are first proved and found fit for the business they are to be entrusted with."

"Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it."

"Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces."

"The way to preserve the peace of the church is to preserve the purity of it."

"An active faith can give thanks for a promise even though it be not yet performed, knowing that God's bonds are as good as ready money."

"The sentences in the book of providence are sometimes long, and you must read a great way before you understand their meaning."

"In all God's providences, it is good to compare His word and His works together; for we shall find a beautiful harmony between them, and that they mutually illustrate each other."

"I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed."

"Nay, but weigh well what you presume to swear! Oaths are of dreadful Weight—and, if they're false, Draw down Damnation."

"When Anger rushes, unrestrain'd, to Action, Like a hot Steed, it stumbles in its way! The Man of Thought wounds deepest, and strikes safely."

"He lives to build, not boast, a generous race; No tenth transmitter of a foolish face."

"May see thee now, though late, redeem thy name, And glorify what else is damn'd to fame."

"Well, no offense: Thar ain't no sense In gittin' riled."

"Howbeit, though no scholar, I am not one of those who misuse the English speech, and, being foolishly led by the hasty custom of scriveners and printers to write the letters "T" and "H" joined together, which resembleth a "Y," do incontinently jump to the conclusion the THE is pronounced "Ye,"--the like of which I never heard in all England."

"Later, when we were forced to accept the fact that finding gold was really the primary object of a gold-mining company, we still remained there"

"And then, for an old man like me, it's not exactly right, This kind o' playing soldier with no enemy in sight."

"And he says that the mountains are fairer For once being held in your thought;"

"Don't be too quick To break bad habits: better stick, Like the Mission folk, to your arsenic."

"There is peace in the swamp, though the quiet is Death,"

"But, when the goddess' work is done, The woman's still remains."

"Each lost day has its patron saint!"

"Which I wish to remark,— And my language is plain,— That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar."

"No man is born unto himself alone; Who lives unto himself, he lives to none."

"The way to bliss lies not on beds of down, And he that has no cross deserves no crown."

"Shine Son of glory, and my sinnes are gone Like twinkling Starres before the rising Sunne."