All Quotes

"Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat, The mist in my face. . . . . . . . No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, The heroes of old; Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears"

"It's wiser being good than bad; It's safer being meek than fierce; It's fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That after Last returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched; That what began best can't end worst, Nor what God blessed once prove accurst."

"But how carve way i' the life that lies before, If bent on groaning ever for the past?"

"Better have failed in the high aim, as I, Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed,— As, God be thanked! I do not."

""With this same key Shakespeare unlocked his heart" once more! Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!"

"God's justice, tardy though it prove perchance, Rests never on the track until it reach"

"Good, to forgive; Best, to forget! Living, we fret; Dying, we live."

"Can we love but on condition that the thing we love must die?"

"Sky—what a scowl of cloud Till, near and far, Ray on ray split the shroud: Splendid, a star!"

"Wanting is—what? Summer redundant, Blueness abundant, Where is the blot?"

"But little do or can the best of us: That little is achieved through Liberty."

"There is no truer truth obtainable By Man than comes of music."

"Love is energy of life."

"Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top."

"Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked."

"He concentrated on the special souls of men; seeking God in a series of personal interviews."

"He is called an optimist; but the word suggests a calculated contentment which was not in the least one of his vices. What he really was was a romantic. He offered the cosmos as an adventure rather than a scheme. He did not explain evil, far less explain it away: he enjoyed defying it. He was a troubadour even in theology and metaphysics: like the Jongleurs de Dieu of St. Francis. He may be said to have serenaded heaven with a guitar, and even, so to speak, tried to climb there with a rope ladder."

"If Browning were less difficult to read, he would surely be the dominant poet in this century. I feel the ecstasy with which he exclaims, “Oh, good gigantic smile o’ the brown old earth this autumn morning!" And how he sets my brain going when he says, because there is imperfection, there must be perfection; completeness must come of incompleteness; failure is an evidence of triumph for the fulness of the days. Yes, discord is, that harmony may be; pain destroys, that health may renew; perhaps I am deaf and blind that others likewise afflicted may see and hear with a more perfect sense! From Browning I learn that there is no lost good, and that makes it easier for me to go at life, right or wrong, do the best I know, and fear not. My heart responds proudly to his exhortation to pay gladly life's debt of pain, darkness and cold. Lift up your burden, it is God's gift, bear it nobly."

"To make a happy fireside clime To weans and wife,— That is the true pathos and sublime Of human life."

"Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure Thrill the deepest notes of woe."

"Gin a body meet a body Comin thro' the rye, Gin a body kiss a body, Need a body cry?"

"Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi' bickering brattle! I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, Wi' murd'ring pattle!"

"I'm truly sorry Man's dominion Has broken Nature's social union, An' justifies that ill opinion Which makes thee startle, At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, An' fellow-mortal!"

"The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley; And leave us naught but grief and pain For promised joy."

"O L--d thou kens what zeal I bear, When drinkers drink, and swearers swear, And singin' there, and dancin' here, Wi' great an' sma'; For I am keepet by thy fear, Free frae them a'. But yet—O L--d—confess I must— At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust... O L--d—yestreen thou kens—wi' Meg— Thy pardon I sincerely beg! O may 't ne'er be a living plague, To my dishonour! And I'll ne'er lift a lawless leg Again upon her."

"All in this mottie, misty clime, I backward mus'd on wasted time, How I had spent my youthfu' prime An' done nae-thing, But stringing blethers up to rhyme For fools to sing."

"When chill November's surly blast Made fields and forests bare."

"Nature's law, That man was made to mourn."

"Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn."

"O Death! the poor man's dearest friend, The kindest and the best!"

"Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire, That's a' the learning I desire."

"For thus the royal mandate ran, When first the human race began, "The social, friendly, honest man, Whate'er he be, 'Tis he fulfills great Nature's plan, And none but he!""

"On ev'ry hand it will allowed be, He's just—nae better than he should be."

"The cold in clime are cold in blood, Their love can scarce deserve the name."

"I die — but first I have possessed, And come what may, I have been blessed."

"She was a form of life and light That seen, became a part of sight, And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye, The morning-star of memory! Yes, love indeed is light from heaven; A spark of that immortal fire With angels shared, by Alla given, To lift from earth our low desire."

"The fatal facility of the octosyllabic verse."

"Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried."

"O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, 22 Survey our empire, and behold our home! These are our realms, no limit to their sway,— Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey."

"She walks the waters like a thing of life, And seems to dare the elements to strife."

"The power of thought,—the magic of the mind!"

"Such hath it been — shall be — beneath the sun The many still must labour for the one!"

"There was a laughing devil in his sneer."

"Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!"

"Farewell! For in that word, that fatal word,—howe'er We promise, hope, believe,—there breathes despair."

"No words suffice the secret soul to show, For truth denies all eloquence to woe."

"He left a corsair's name to other times, Linked with one virtue, and a thousand crimes."

"She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies."

"Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? It doth; but actions are our epochs: mine Have made my days and nights imperishable Endless, and all alike, as sands on the shore Innumerable atoms; and one desert Barren and cold, on which the wild waves break, But nothing rests, save carcases and wrecks, Rocks, and the salt-surf weeds of bitterness."

"Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom, On thee shall press no ponderous tomb; But on thy turf shall roses rear Their leaves, the earliest of the year; And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom. And oft by yon blue gushing stream Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head, And feed deep thought with many a dream, And lingering pause and lightly tread; Fond wretch! as if her step disturb'd the dead! Away; we know that tears are vain, That death nor heeds nor hears distress; Will this unteach us to complain? Or make one mourner weep the less? And thou—who tell'st me to forget, Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet."