To observations which ourselves we make, We grow more partial for th' observer's sake.
A mass enormous! which in modern days No two of earth's degenerate sons could raise.
Respect us human, and relieve us poor.
Coffee, which makes the politician wise, And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.
Dispel this cloud, the light of Heaven restore; Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more.
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
And binding Nature fast in fate, Left free the human will.
This, this is misery! the last, the worst That man can feel.
I am his Highness' dog at Kew; Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
The best of things beyond their measure cloy.
Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?
Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,-- Such men as live in these degenerate days.
It never was our guise To slight the poor, or aught humane despise.
He 's armed without that 's innocent within.
Whose well-taught mind the present age surpast.
But touch me, and no minister so sore; Whoe'er offends at some unlucky time Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme, Sacred to ridicule his whole life long, And the sad burden of some merry song.
I’m of the opinion that you can probably film a man dancing in his underwear in front of a camera for two hours and slap a Star Wars logo on the finished product, and it would still be successful.
You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them.
Forget the brother, and resume the man.
By flatterers besieg'd, And so obliging that he ne'er oblig'd; Like Cato, give his little senate laws, And sit attentive to his own applause.
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!
ii. Line 73._ When the brisk minor pants for twenty-one.
E'en copious Dryden wanted or forgot The last and greatest art,--the art to blot.
If you didn’t at least try to be civil, I wouldn’t invite you to my birthday party.
'T is true, 't is certain; man though dead retains Part of himself: the immortal mind remains.
Life is not to be bought with heaps of gold: Not all Apollo's Pythian treasures hold, Or Troy once held, in peace and pride of sway, Can bribe the poor possession of a day.
Fine by defect, and delicately weak.
Who says in verse what others say in prose.
Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.
Of manners gentle, of affections mild; In wit a man, simplicity a child.
Eternal smiles his emptiness betray, As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
Forever honour'd, and forever mourn'd.
'T is man's to fight, but Heaven's to give success.
A decent boldness ever meets with friends.
Our fruitless labours mourn, And only rich in barren fame return.
Like a pale martyr in his shirt of fire.
Led by the light of the M?onian star.
The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy.
~Sleep.~--When one asked Alexander how he could sleep so soundly and securely in the midst of danger, he told them that _Parmenio_ watched. Oh, how securely may they sleep over whom He watches that never slumbers nor sleeps! "I will," said David, "lay me down and sleep, for thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety."--_Venning._
Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect.
Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.
Far from gay cities and the ways of men.
Unblemish'd let me live, or die unknown; O grant an honest fame, or grant me none!
Sinks my sad soul with sorrow to the grave.
'T is but a part we see, and not a whole.
Mirror of constant faith, rever'd and mourn'd!
Who dares think one thing, and another tell, My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold, Alike fantastic if too new or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind! Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name, See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame![319-3]
Above all Greek, above all Roman fame.
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.
A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.
Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
There's no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day
See how the world its veterans rewards! A youth of frolics, an old age of cards.
Nor Fame I slight, nor for her favours call; She comes unlooked for if she comes at all.
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
The first in banquets, but the last in fight.
Unwept, unhonour'd, uninterr'd he lies!
Men must be taught as if you taught them not, And things unknown propos'd as things forgot.
The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still.
Who combats bravely is not therefore brave, He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave: Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,-- His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.
Ask where 's the North? At York 't is on the Tweed; In Scotland at the Orcades; and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honour clear; Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end, Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend.
Is there not glory enough in living the days given to us? You should know there is adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too.
Why expect that extraordinary virtues should be in one person united, when one virtue makes a man extraordinary? Alexander is eminent for his courage; Ptolemy for his wisdom; Scipio for his continence; Trajan for his love of truth; Constantius for his temperance.--_Zimmermann._
We hear a constant clamor for rights, rights, always rights, but so very little about responsibility. And we have forgotten God. The need now is for selflessness, for a spirit of sacrifice, for a willingness to put aside personal gains for the salvation of the whole Western world. [ The Wall Street Journal , June 23, 1983.]
How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged, arrows of light.
There with commutual zeal we both had strove In acts of dear benevolence and love: Brothers in peace, not rivals in command.
So how do you count in Happiness? It’s a little different, but just as easy to learn. In Happiness, you count by making a list of five things that make you happy. Do this daily. Some things will appear on your list every day, and some things will be new from one day to the next.
He serves me most who serves his country best.
The lot of man,--to suffer and to die.
Means not, but blunders round about a meaning; And he whose fustian 's so sublimely bad, It is not poetry, but prose run mad.
Virtuous and vicious every man must be,-- Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.
Sufficit huic tumulus, cui non suffecerit orbis=--A tomb now suffices for him for whom the world did not suffice.
The control over a man’s subsistence amounts to a control over his will.
[T]he generation now coming out of Western schools is unable to distinguish good from bad. Even those words are unacceptable. This results in impaired thinking ability. [ The Wall Street Journal , June 23, 1983.]
"There shall stand up yet,"--after Cyrus, under whom all this still is,--"three kings in Persia,"--Cambyses, Smyrdis, Darius;--"and the fourth,"--Xerxes, who shall then come,--"shall be far richer than they all, and far stronger, and shall stir up all his people against the Greeks, and a mighty king shall stand up,"--Alexander,--"that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided in four parts toward the four winds of heaven,"--see also vii. 6 vii. 8--"but not to his posterity, and his successors shall not equal his power, for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside these,"--his four principal successors.
Heroes as great have died, and yet shall fall.
There still remains to mortify a wit The many-headed monster of the pit.
Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, Content to dwell in decencies forever.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone.
'T is from high life high characters are drawn; A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite, Who never mentions hell to ears polite.
How index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of science by the tail.
A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along.
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.
The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, forever, and forever!
Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.
And o'er the past Oblivion stretch her wing.
To err is human, to forgive divine.
Lotus, the name; divine, nectareous juice!
First in the fight and every graceful deed.
From old Belerium to the northern main.
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administer'd is best. For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity.
Content to follow when we lead the way.
The distant Trojans never injur'd me.
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.
Order is Heaven's first law.
Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity.
Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies, And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.
Stuff the head With all such reading as was never read: For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it, And write about it, goddess, and about it.
For too much rest itself becomes a pain.
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.
I should esteem it the extreme of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our national affairs, and to expose the union to the jeopardy of successive experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a perfect plan. I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the deliberations of all collective bodies must necessarily be a compound as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense and wisdom of the individuals of whom they are composed.
Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane.
The windy satisfaction of the tongue.
Is there not glory enough in living the days given to us? You should know there is adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too.
And hence one master-passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
The flying Rumours gather'd as they roll'd, Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told; And all who told it, added something new, And all who heard it, made Enlargements too, In ev'ry Ear it spread, on ev'ry Tongue it grew.
She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or if she rules him, never shows she rules.
A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.
She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen.
Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound.
Modern society is hypnotized by socialism. It is prevented by socialism from seeing the mortal danger it is in. And one of the greatest dangers of all is that you have lost all sense of danger, you cannot even see where it’s coming from as it moves swiftly towards you. [“Solzhenitsyn’s Warning,” The Washington Post , April 4, 1976, p. C5.]
If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you 'll forget them all.
What can ennoble sots or slaves or cowards? Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
Strong are her sons, though rocky are her shores.
Curse on all laws but those which love has made!
Remember, there is no 'up' or 'down' in this universe we are creating; everything is merely a frame of reference.
And bear unmov'd the wrongs of base mankind, The last and hardest conquest of the mind.
The young Astyanax, the hope of Troy.
Rare gift! but oh what gift to fools avails!
One simile that solitary shines In the dry desert of a thousand lines.
And bear about the mockery of woe To midnight dances and the public show.
I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
Fired that the house rejects him, "'Sdeath! I 'll print it, And shame the fools."
By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, And what to those we give, to Jove is lent.
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow: Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
Know from the bounteous heaven all riches flow; And what man gives, the gods by man bestow.
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
But thousands die without or this or that,-- Die, and endow a college or a cat.
Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide, Or gave his father grief but when he died.
The forges of friendship, thought Angus, may be busy ones, but their dorrs are always open.
We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
Not always actions show the man; we find Who does a kindness is not therefore kind.
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power. [1775.]
Murray._ Vain was the chief's the sage's pride! They had no poet, and they died.
But the sound of the church-going bell These valleys and rocks never heard; Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell, Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.
Who dies in youth and vigour, dies the best.
And for our country 't is a bliss to die.
I live an idle burden to the ground.
There is no study that is not capable of delighting us, after a little application to it.
Just are the ways of Heaven: from Heaven proceed The woes of man; Heaven doom'd the Greeks to bleed,-- A theme of future song!
Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfin'd, Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o'er mankind.
E'en Palinurus nodded at the helm.
A wit 's a feather, and a chief a rod; An honest man 's the noblest work of God.
Woman 's at best a contradiction still.
Being nimble and light-footed, his father encouraged him to run in the Olympic race. "Yes," said he, "if there were any kings there to run with me."
And mistress of herself though china fall.
Yet while my Hector still survives, I see My father, mother, brethren, all, in thee.
A winy vapour melting in a tear.
Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something you have never seen before.
Is there no bright reversion in the sky For those who greatly think, or bravely die?
'T is fortune gives us birth, But Jove alone endues the soul with worth.
Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
How sweet an Ovid, Murray was our boast!
You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come; Knock as you please, there 's nobody at home.
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
He from whose lips divine persuasion flows.
And every eye Gaz'd, as before some brother of the sky.
To labour is the lot of man below; And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe.
As full-blown poppies, overcharg'd with rain, Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain,-- So sinks the youth; his beauteous head, deprest Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast.
In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung.
Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace; If not, by any means get wealth and place.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Content if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, The learn'd reflect on what before they knew.
For love deceives the best of womankind.
Father of all! in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord.
Base wealth preferring to eternal praise.
The people's parent, he protected all.
Like strength is felt from hope and from despair.
And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Know then this truth (enough for man to know),-- "Virtue alone is happiness below."
The sex is ever to a soldier kind.
Judicious drank, and greatly daring din'd.
Dogs, ye have had your day!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O grave! where is thy victory? O death! where is thy sting?
Honour and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
Vital spark of heavenly flame! Quit, O quit this mortal frame!
'T is education forms the common mind: Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined.
Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few.
Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe.
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head.
I have marched in many a battle host, but I have also planted seeds and reaped the harvest with my own hands. And I have learned there is greater honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped in blood.
[P]olitical democracy cannot flourish under all economic conditions. Democracy requires an economic system which supports the political ideals of liberty and equality for all. Men cannot exercise freedom in the political sphere when they are deprived of it in the economic sphere. John Adams and Alexander Hamilton observed that a man who is dependent for his subsistence on the arbitrary will of another man is not economically free and so should not be admitted to citizenship because he cannot use the political liberty which belongs to that status. If they had stated this point as a prediction, it would have been confirmed by later historic facts. The progressive political enfranchisement of the working classes has followed their progressive economic emancipation from slavery and serfdom, or from abject dependence on their employers. [Preface by Adler in The Capitalist Manifesto
Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair.
For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.
Years following years steal something every day; At last they steal us from ourselves away.
Rise, honest muse! and sing The Man of Ross.
But sure the eye of time beholds no name So blest as thine in all the rolls of fame.
Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage, But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice,-- A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Extremes in Nature equal good produce; Extremes in man concur to general use.
One science only will one genius fit: So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
Grief tears his heart, and drives him to and fro In all the raging impotence of woe.
Depressingly hilarious and inspirationally cynical, Cat’s Cradle was a joy to behold, and the icy finale caused my jaw to drop to the floor, much to the apparent laughter of some nearby pre-teens, bless their little hearts.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.
And truths divine came mended from that tongue.
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot.
For dear to gods and men is sacred song. Self-taught I sing; by Heaven, and Heaven alone, The genuine seeds of poesy are sown.
How grand it is to see by the eye of faith, Darius and Cyrus, Alexander, the Romans, Pompey and Herod working, though unconsciously, for the glory of the Gospel!
Cæsar, as it seems to me, was too old to set about amusing himself with the conquest of the world. Such a pastime was good for Augustus or Alexander, who were still young men, and these are difficult to restrain, but Cæsar should have been more mature.
The example of Alexander's chastity has not made so many continent as that of his drunkenness has made intemperate. It is not shameful to be less virtuous than he, and it seems excusable to be no more vicious. We do not think ourselves wholly partakers in the vices of ordinary men, when we see that we share those of the great, not considering that in such matters the great are but ordinary men. We hold on to them by the same end by which they hold on to the people, for at whatsoever height they be, they are yet united at some point to the lowest of mankind. They are not suspended in the air, abstracted from our society. No, doubly no; if they are greater than we, it is because their heads are higher; but their feet are as low as ours. There all are on the same level, resting on the same earth, and by the lower extremity are as low as we are, as the meanest men, as children, and the brutes.
And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.
In lazy apathy let stoics boast Their virtue fix'd: 't is fix'd as in a frost; Contracted all, retiring to the breast; But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
What one finds pretentious, others find brilliant
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels Than C?sar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise? 'T is but to know how little can be known; To see all others' faults, and feel our own.
Dictatorships can be indeed defined as systems in which there is a prevalence of thinking in destructive rather than in ameliorative terms in dealing with social problems. The ease with which destruction of life is advocated for those considered either socially useless or socially disturbing instead of educational or ameliorative measures may be the first danger sign of loss of creative liberty in thinking, which is the hallmarks of democratic society. [“Medical Science Under Dictatorship,” New England Journal of Medicine , Vol. 241, No. 2, July 14, 1949, p. 47.]
In winter, when the dismal rain Comes down in slanting lines, And Wind, that grand old harper, smote His thunder-harp of pines.
And what so tedious as a twice-told tale.
The day shall come, that great avenging day Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay, When Priam's powers and Priam's self shall fall, And one prodigious ruin swallow all.
Achilles absent was Achilles still.
Wise to resolve, and patient to perform.
Friend to my life, which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song.