But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. |
Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away; A single laugh demolished the right arm Of his country. |
For what were all these country patriots born? To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn? |
I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, . . . that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us. |
I really cannot know whether I am or am not the Genius you are pleased to call me, but I am very willing to put up with the mistake, if it be one. |
I slept and dreamt that life was beauty; I woke and found that life was duty. |
If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing. . . I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. |
Men freely believe that which they wish to be the truth. |
My great comfort is, that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. |
She walks in beauty like the night. |
The best prophet of the future is the past. |
There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more. |
This is the patent age of new inventions/ For killing bodies, and saving souls,/ All propagated with the best of intentions. |
When we think we lead we are most led. |
Yes, Love indeed is light from heaven; A spark of that immortal fire With angels shared, by Allah given To lift from earth our low desire. |