Great Throughts Treasury

"Are not the mountains, waves and skies a part of me and my soul, as I of them?"

"Are we aware of our obligations to a mob? It is the mob that labor in your fields and serve in your houses -- that man your navy, and recruit your army -- that have enabled you to defy the world, and can also defy you when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair. You may call the people a mob; but do not forget that a mob too often speaks the sentiments of the people."

"Arm! Arm! it is - it is - the cannon's opening roar!"

"Armenian is a rich language, however, and would amply repay any one the trouble of learning it."

"As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it."

"Around her shone the nameless charms unmark'd by her alone. The light of love, the purity of grace, the mind, the music breathing from her face, the heart whose softness harmonized the whole, and, oh! That eye was in itself a soul."

"As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man."

"As soon Seek roses in December, ice in June; hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff; believe a woman or an epitaph, or any other thing that's false, before you trust in critics, who themselves are sore."

"As long as I retain my feeling and my passion for Nature, I can partly soften or subdue my other passions and resist or endure those of others."

"As falls the dew on quenchless sands, blood only serves to wash ambition's hands."

"As fierce as hell, or fiercer still, A woman piqued who has her will."

"As to "Don Juan," confess that it is the sublime of that sort of writing; it may be bawdy, but is it not good English? It may be profligate, but is it not life? Is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world? And tooled in a post-chaise? In a hackney coach? In a Gondola? Against a wall? In a court carriage? In a vis a vis? On a table? And under it?"

"As the liberty lads o'er the sea bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood, so we, boys, we shall die fighting or live free, and down with all kings but King Ludd!"

"As winds come whispering lightly from the West, Kissing, not ruffling, the blue deep's serene."

"Ave Maria! blessed be the hour! The time, the clime, the spot where I so oft Have felt that moment in its fullest power Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft, While swung the deep bell in the distant tower, Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft, And not a breath crept through the rosy air, And yet the forest leaves seem'd stirr'd with prayer. Soft hour! which makes the wish and melts the heart Of those who sail the seas, on the first day; When they from their sweet friends are torn apart; Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way, As the far bell of vesper makes him start, Seeming to weep the dying day's decay; Is this a fancy which our reason scorns? Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns!"

"Battle's magnificently stern array!"

"Be warm, but pure; be amorous, but be chaste."

"Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray."

"Because He is all-powerful, must all-good, too, follow? I judge but by the fruits—and they are bitter— Which I must feed on for a fault not mine."

"Be hypocritical, be cautious, be not what you seem but always what you see."

"Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this."

"Believe a woman or an epitaph, or any other thing that's false."

"Besides, they always smell of bread and butter."

"Better to err with Pope, than shine with Pye."

"Better to sink beneath the shock than molder piecemeal on the rock"

"Before decay's effacing fingers have swept the lines where beauty lingers."

"Between two worlds life hovers like a star, ‘twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge. How little do we know that which we are! How less what we may be! The eternal surge of time and tide rolls on, and bears afar our bubbles; as the old burst, new emerge, lash'd from the foam of ages; while the graves of empires heave but like some passing waves."

"Blood only serves to wash Ambition's hands."

"Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred."

"Brave men are all vertebrates; they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle."

"Born to be ploughed with years, and sown with cares, and reaped by Death, lord of the human soil."

"Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war."

"Brave men were living before Agamemnon."

"Bring forth the horse! - the horse was brought; In truth, he was a noble steed, A Tartar of the Ukraine breed, Who look'd as though the speed of thought Were in his limbs."

"But every fool describes, in these bright days, His wondrous journey to some foreign court, And spawns his quarto, and demands your praise,-- Death to his publisher, to him 'tis sport."

"But at sixteen the conscience rarely gnaws So much, as when we call our old debts in At sixty years, and draw the accounts of evil, And find a deuced balance with the devil."

"But all have prices, From crowns to kicks, according to their vices."

"But first, on earth as vampire sent, thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent, then ghastly haunt thy native place, and suck the blood of all thy race. There from thy daughter, sister, wife, at midnight drain the stream of life, yet loathe the banquet which perforce must feed thy livid living corpse. Thy victims ere they yet expire shall know the demon for their sire, as cursing thee, thou cursing them, thy flowers are withered on the stem."

"But as to women, who can penetrate the real sufferings of their she condition? Man's very sympathy with their estate has much of selfishness and more suspicion. Their love, their virtue, beauty, education, but form good housekeepers, to breed a nation."

"But he, with first a start and then a wink, Said, `There's another star gone out, I think!'"

"But Life will suit Itself to Sorrow's most detested fruit, Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore, All ashes to the taste."

"But here I say the Turks were much mistaken - Who, hating hogs, yet wished to save their bacon"

"But I hate things all fiction... there should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric - and pure invention is but the talent of a liar."

"But now being lifted into high society, And having pick'd up several odds and ends Of free thoughts in his travels for variety, He deem'd, being in a lone isle, among friends, That without any danger of a riot, he Might for long lying make himself amends; And singing as he sung in his warm youth, Agree to a short armistice with truth."

"But O ye lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not henpecked you all?"

"But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, And roam along, the world's tired denizen, With none who bless us, none whom we can bless."

"But pomp and power alone are woman's care, and where these are light Eros finds a feere; maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare, and Mammon wins his way where Seraphs might despair."

"But scandal's my aversion--I protest Against all evil speaking, even in jest."

"But owned that smile, if oft observed and near, Waned in its mirth, and wither'd to a sneer."

"But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell, And there hath been thy bane."