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The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,
Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows
A harvest of barren regrets.
Topic: Ambition
Source: Lucile (pt. I, canto II, st. 8)
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'Tis more brave
To live, than to die.
Topic: Bravery
Source: Lucile (pt. I, canto VI, st. 11)
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To all facts there are laws,
The effect has its cause, and I mount to the cause.
Topic: Cause
Source: Lucile (pt. II, canto III, st. 8)
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As pure as a pearl,
And as perfect: a noble and innocent girl.
Topic: Chastity
Source: Lucile (pt. II, canto VI, st. 16)
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Oh, better no doubt is a dinner of herbs,
When season'd with love, which no rancour disturbs
And sweeten'd by all that is sweetest in life
Than turbot, bisque, ortolans, eaten in strife!
But if, out of humour, and hungry, alone
A man should sit down to dinner, each one
Of the dishes which the cook chooses to spoil
With a horrible mixture of garlic and oil,
The chances are ten against one, I must own,
He gets up as ill-tempered as when he sat down.
Topic: Cookery
Source: Lucile (pt. I, canto II, st. 27)
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The first wan cowslip, wet
With tears of the first morn.
Topic: Cowslips
Source: Ode to a Starling
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Through tall cowslips nodding near you,
Just to touch you as you pass.
Topic: Cowslips
Source: Song
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We are but as the instrument of Heaven.
Our work is not design, but destiny.
Topic: Destiny
Source: Clytemnestra (pt. XIX)
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We are what we must
And not what we would be. I know that one hour
Assures not another. The will and the power
Are diverse.
Topic: Destiny
Source: Lucile (pt. I, canto III, st. 19)
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Unseen hands delay
The coming of what oft seems close in ken,
And, contrary, the moment, when we say
"'Twill never come!" comes on us even then.
Topic: Destiny
Source: Thomas Munster to Martin Luther (l. 382)
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They only fall, that strive to move,
Or lose, that care to keep.
Topic: Destiny
Source: The Wanderer (bk. III, Futility, st. 6)
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The devil, my friends, is a woman just now.
'Tis a woman that reigns in Hell.
Topic: Devil
Source: News
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The things which must be, must be for the best,
God helps us do our duty and not shrink,
And trust His mercy humbly for the rest.
Topic: Duty
Source: Imperfection
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O hour, of all hours, the most blesse'd upon earth,
The bless'd hour of our dinners!
Topic: Eating
Source: Lucile (pt. I, canto II, st. 23)
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We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
He may live without books,--what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope,--what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love,--what is passion but pining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?
Topic: Eating
Source: Lucile (pt. I, canto II, st. 24)
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Here's a health to the glow-worm, Death's sober lamplighter.
Topic: Glowworms
Source: Au Cafe (XXXIX)
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That man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise nor pelf:
Content to know and be unknown:
Whole in himself.
Topic: Greatness
Source: A Great Man
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O be very sure
That no man will learn anything at all,
Unless he first will learn humility.
Topic: Humility
Source: Vanini (l. 327)
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Don't be so humble--you are not that great.
Topic: Humility
Source: Vanini (l. 327)
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No life
Can be pure in its purpose or strong in its strife
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby.
Topic: Influence
Source: Lucile (pr. II, canto VI, st. 40)
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No star ever rose or set without influence somewhere.
Topic: Influence
Source: Lucile (pt. II, canto VI)
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It smelt so faint, and it smelt so sweet,
It made me creep and it made me cold.
Like the scent that steals from the crumbling sheet
Where a mummy is half unroll'd.
Topic: Jasmines
Source: Aux Italiens
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And the jasmine flower in her fair young breast,
(O the faint, sweet smell of that jasmine flower!)
And the one bird singing alone to his nest.
And the one star over the tower.
Topic: Jasmines
Source: Aux Italiens (st. 13)
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No true love there can be without
Its dread penalty--jealousy.
Topic: Jealousy
Source: Lucile (pt. II, canto I, st. 24, l. 8)
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What's saved affords
No indication of what's lost.
Topic: Loss
Source: The Scroll
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In life there are meetings which seem
Like a fate.
Topic: Meeting
Source: Lucile (pt. II, canto III, st. 8)
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Meanwhile, there is dancing in yonder green bower,
A swarm of young midges, they dance high and low;
'Tis a sweet little species that lives but one hour,
And the eldest was born half an hour ago.
Topic: Midges
Source: Midges
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News, news, news, my gossiping friends,
I have wonderful news to tell,
A lady by me her compliments sends;
And this is the news from Hell!
Topic: News
Source: News
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There is purpose in pain,
Otherwise it were devilish.
Topic: Pain
Source: Lucile (pt. II, canto V, st. 8)
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Who seeks for aid
Must show how service sought can be repaid.
Topic: Service
Source: Siege of Constantinople
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Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?
Topic: Shadows
Source: Lucile (pt. II, canto II, st. 5)
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The sylphs and ondines
And the sea-kings and queens
Long ago, long ago, on the waves built a city,
As lovely as seems
To some bard in his dreams,
The soul of his latest love-ditty.
Topic: Venice
Source: Venice
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God be thank'd that the dead have left still
Good undone for the living to do--
Still some aim for the heart and the will
And the soul of a man to pursue.
Topic: Work
Source: Epilogue
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