All Quotes

"Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines."

"While man is growing, life is in decrease; And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb. Our birth is nothing but our death begun."

"That life is long which answers life's great end."

"The man of wisdom is the man of years."

"Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow."

"Revere thyself, and yet thyself despise."

"Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall."

"Ambition! powerful source of good and ill!"

"Much learning shows how little mortals know; Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy."

"And all may do what has by man been done."

"The man that blushes is not quite a brute."

"What ardently we wish we soon believe."

"Truth never was indebted to a lie."

"Prayer ardent opens heaven."

"The house of laughter makes a house of woe."

"A man of pleasure is a man of pains."

"To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain."

"Final Ruin fiercely drives Her plowshare o'er creation."

"'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand,— Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man."

"An undevout astronomer is mad."

"The course of Nature is the art of God."

"Born Originals - how comes it to pass that we die Copies?"

"There is something in Poetry beyond Prose-reason; there are Mysteries in it not to be explained, but admired; which render mere Prose-men Infidels to their Divinity."

"For Rules, like Crutches, are a needful Aid to the Lame, tho' an impediment to the Strong."

"By all means use some time to be alone."

"The future... seems to me no unified dream but a mince pie, long in the baking, never quite done."

"They only babble who practise not reflection."

"Tomorrow is a satire on today, And shows its weakness."

"The wheel that squeaks the loudest Is the one that gets the grease."

"I honestly beleave it iz better tew know nothing than two know what ain't so."

"The lion and the lamb may, possibly, sumtime lay down in this world together for a fu minnits, but when the lion kums tew git up, the lamb will be missing."

"It iz comparitively eazy tew repent ov the sins that we hav committed, but tew repent ov thoze which we intend to commit, is asking tew mutch ov enny man, now days."

"Tew bring up a child in the wa he should go—travel that wa yourself."

"Don't mistake vivacity for wit, thare iz about az mutch difference az thare iz between lightning and a lightning bug."

"Most people when they cum tew yu for advice cum tew hav their own opinyuns strengthened, not correkted."

"As in a game ov cards, so in the game ov life, we must play what is dealt tew us, and the glory consists, not so mutch in winning, as in playing a poor hand well."

"A secret ceases to be a secret if it is once confided—it is like a dollar bill, once broken, it is never a dollar again."

"Love is like the measles; we can't have it bad but once, and the later in life we have it the tougher it goes with us."

"Put an Englishman into the garden of Eden, and he would find fault with the whole blasted concern; put a Yankee in, and he would see where he could alter it to advantage; put an Irishman in, and he would want to boss the thing; put a Dutchman in, and he would proceed to plant it."

"Better make a weak man your enemy than your friend."

"Nature never makes blunders; when she makes a fool she means it."

"I don't care how much a man talks, if he only says it in a few words."

"As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand."

"Poverty is the stepmother of genius."

"Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, But four times he who gets his blow in fust"

"When a man gits tew talking about himself, he seldum fails tew be eloquent, and often reaches the sublime."

""Familiarity breeds kontempt." This only applies tew men, not tew hot bukwheat slapkakes, well buttered and sugared."

"Dangers are sum like a kold bath, very dangerous while you stand stripped on the bank, but often not only harmless, but invigorating, if you pitch into them."

"I don't beleave in fighting; i am solemly aginst it; but if a man gits teu fighting, i am also solemly aginst hiz gitting licked. After a fight iz once opened, all the virtew thare iz in it iz tew lick the other party."

"I don't beleaf in bad luck being sot for a man, like a trap, but i hav known lots ov folks, who if thare waz enny fust rate bad luck lieing around loose, would be sure tew git one foot in it enny how."