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Absence from whom we love is worse than death.
Topic: Absence
Source: None
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Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Topic: Advice / Experience / Wisdom
Source: None
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Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.
Topic: All About Love
Source: None
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By low ambition and the thirst of praise.
Topic: Ambition
Source: Table Talk (l. 591)
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On the summit see,
The seals of office glitter in his eyes;
He climbs, he pants, he grasps them! At his heels,
Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends,
And with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down,
And wins them, but to lose them in his turn.
Topic: Ambition
Source: Task (bk. IV, l. 58)
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Dress drains our cellar dry,
And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires
And introduces hunger, frost, and woe,
Where peace and hospitality might reign.
Topic: Apparel
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 614)
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If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture,
let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy
philosophies. . . . It would be a sad situation if the wrapper
were better than the meat wrapped inside it.
Topic: Apparel
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 614)
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When his wife asked him to change clothes to meet the German
Ambassador: "If they want to see me, here I am. If they want to
see my clothes, open my closet and show them my suits."
Topic: Apparel
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 614)
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O Popular Applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
Topic: Applause
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 431)
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Silently as a dream the fabric rose;
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.
Topic: Architecture
Source: Task (bk. V, l. 144)
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None but an author knows an author's cares,
Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears.
Topic: Authorship
Source: The Progress of Error (l. 518)
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Habits of close attention, thinking heads,
Become more rare as dissipation spreads,
Till authors hear at length one general cry
Tickle and entertain us, or we die!
Topic: Authorship
Source: Retirement (l. 707)
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So that the jest is clearly to be seen,
Not in the words--but in the gap between;
Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,
The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.
Topic: Authorship
Source: Table Talk (l. 540)
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The church-going bell.
Topic: Bells
Source: verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk
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How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at interval upon the ear
In cadence sweet; now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on!
With easy force it opens all the cells
Where Memory slept.
Topic: Bells
Source: Task (bk. VI, l. 6)
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I pity bashful men, who feel the pain
Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain,
And bear the marks upon a blushing face,
OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.
Topic: Blushes
Source: Conversation (l. 347)
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But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of Heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.
Topic: Boating
Source: Human Frailty (st. 6)
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Toil for the brave!
The brave that are no more.
Topic: Bravery
Source: On the Loss of the Royal George
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A business with an income at its heels.
Topic: Business
Source: Retirement (l. 614)
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With spots quadrangular of diamond form,
Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,
And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.
Topic: Cards
Source: Task (bk. IV, The Winter Evening, l. 217)
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Still ending, and beginning still.
Topic: Change
Source: Task (bk. III, l. 627)
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True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd.
Topic: Charity
Source: Charity (l. 573)
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Feast of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, c.678 O for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame, A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb Return, O holy Dove, return, Sweet messenger of rest! I hate the sins that made Thee mourn And drove Thee from my breast The dearest idol I have known, Whate'er that idol be, Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee. So shall my walk be close with God, Calm and serene my frame; So purer light shall mark the road That leads me to the Lamb.
Topic: Christianity
Source: None
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Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945 I thirst, but not as once I did, The vain delights of earth to share; Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid That I should seek my pleasures there. It was the sight of Thy dear cross First weaned my soul from earthly things; And taught me to esteem as dross The mirth of fools, and pomp of kings. I want that grace that springs from Thee, That quickens all things where it flows; And makes a wretched thorn like me Bloom as the myrtle or the rose. Dear fountain of delight unknown! No longer sink beneath the brim, But overflow, and pour me down A living and life-giving stream! For sure, if all the plants that share The notice of Thy Father's eye, None proves less grateful to His care, Or yields Him meaner fruit than I.
Topic: Christianity
Source: None
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Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.
Topic: Circumstance
Source: Letter to Mr. Newton
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God made the country, and man made the town.
Topic: Cities
Source: Task (bk. I, l. 749)
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Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.
Topic: Compassion
Source: None
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The still small voice is wanted.
Topic: Conscience
Source: Task (bk. V, l. 687)
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Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor;
And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
Topic: Content
Source: Task--Winter Morning Walk (bk. V, last lines)
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Great contest follows, and much learned dust
Involves the combatants; each claiming truth,
And truth disclaiming both.
Topic: Contention
Source: Task (bk. III, l. 161)
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But conversation, choose what theme we may,
And chiefly when religion leads the way,
Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs,
Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.
Topic: Conversation
Source: Conversation (l. 703)
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. . . thieves at home must hang; but he that puts
Into his overgorged and bloated purse
The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes.
Topic: Corruption
Source: Task (bk. I, l. 736)
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But many a crime deemed innocent on earth
Is registered in Heaven; and these no doubt
Have each their record, with a curse annex'd.
Topic: Crime
Source: Task (bk. VI, l. 439)
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Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
Topic: Cruelty
Source: Task (bk. III, l. 326)
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Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day,
Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.
Topic: Day
Source: Needless Alarm (l. 132)
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Could he with reason murmur at his case,
Himself sole author of his own disgrace?
Topic: Disgrace
Source: Hope (l. 316)
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He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.
Topic: Doubt
Source: Conversation (l. 121)
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Dream after dream ensues;
And still they dream that they shall still succeed;
And still are disappointed.
Topic: Dreams
Source: Task (bk. III, l. 127)
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How much a dunce that has been sent to roam
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
Topic: Education
Source: Progress of Error (l. 410)
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England with all thy faults, I love thee still--
My country! and, while yet a nook is left
Where English minds and manners may be found,
Shall be constrained to love thee.
Topic: England
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 206)
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Without one friend, above all foes,
Britannia gives the world repose.
Topic: England
Source: To Sir Joshua Reynolds
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Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.
Topic: Errors
Source: Poem on Truth (l. 1)
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Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
Topic: Fanatics
Source: None
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While fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
Topic: Fancy
Source: Task (bk. IV, l. 118)
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Ever let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.
Topic: Fancy
Source: Task (bk. IV, l. 118)
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Fate steals along with silent tread,
Found oftenest in what least we dread;
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the sunshine strikes the blow.
Topic: Fate
Source: A Fable--Moral
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His frown was full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe
As left him not, till penitence had won
Lost favor back again, and clos'd the breach.
Topic: Fear
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 659)
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Words pregnant with celestial fire.
Topic: Fire
Source: Boadicea (33)
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Not a flower
But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain,
Of his unrivall'd pencil.
Topic: Flowers
Source: Task (bk. VI, l. 241)
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The solemn fog; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.
Topic: Folly
Source: Conversation (l. 299)
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