Great Throughts Treasury

"And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue, which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew of music so delicate, soft, and intense, it was felt like an odor within the sense."

"And the Naiad-like lily of the vale, Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale, That the light of its tremulous bells is seen, Through their pavilions of tender green."

"And the wand-like lily which lifted up, as a Maenad, its moonlight-colored cup, till the fiery star, which is its eye, gazed through clear dew on the tender sky."

"And the Spring arose on the garden fair, like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; and each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."

"And Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."

"And the violet lay dead while the odor flew on the wings of the wind o'er the waters blue."

"And the rose like a nymph to the bath addrest, which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, till, fold after fold, to the fainting air, the soul of her beauty and love lay bare."

"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."

"And with glorious triumph, they rode through England proud and gay, drunk as with intoxication of the wine of desolation."

"As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker, so an unsuccessful author turns critic."

"Around, around in ceaseless circles wheeling With clangs of wings and scream, the Eagle sailed Incessantly."

"Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, two scorpions under one wet stone, two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, two crows perched on the murrained cattle, two vipers tangled into one."

"As long as skies are blue, and fields are green evening must usher night, night urge the morrow, month follow month with woe, and year wake year to sorrow."

"Away, away, from men and towns, to the wild wood and the downs ?to the silent wilderness where the soul need not repress its music lest it should not find an echo in another?s mind."

"As in the soft and sweet eclipse, when soul meets soul on lover's lips."

"Ay, many flowering islands lie in the waters of wide Agony."

"As I lay asleep in Italy there came a voice from over the Sea, and with great power it forth led me to walk in the visions of Poesy."

"Be your strong and simple words keen to wound as sharpened swords, and wide as targes let them be, with their shade to cover ye."

"Best and brightest, come away!"

"Better than all measures Of delightful sound, Better than all treasures That in books are found, Thy skilled to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!"

"Before we deny or believe the existence of anything, it is necessary that we should have a tolerably clear idea of what it is. The word "God," a vague word, has been, and will continue to be, the source of numberless errors, until it is erased from the nomenclature of philosophy. Does it imply "the soul of the universe, the intelligent and necessarily beneficent, actuating principle?" This it is impossible not to believe in; I may not be able to adduce proofs, but I think that the leaf of a tree, the meanest insect on which we trample, are, in themselves, arguments more conclusive than any which can be advanced, that some vast intellect animates infinity."

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are those who have preserved internal sanctity of soul; who are conscious of no secret deceit; who are the same in act as they are in desire; who conceal no thought, no tendencies of thought, from their own conscience; who are faithful and sincere witnesses, before the tribunal of their own judgments, of all that passes within their mind. Such as these shall see God."

"Broad water-lilies lay tremulously, and starry river-buds glimmered by, and around them the soft stream did glide and dance with a motion of sweet sound and radiance."

"But Greece and her foundations are built below the tide of war, based on the crystalline sea of thought and its eternity; her citizens, imperial spirits, rule the present from the past, on all this world of men inherits their seal is set."

"But hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth Are children of one mother, even Love."

"Chameleons feed on light and air: Poets food is love and fame."

"But its reward is in the world divine"

"Come near me! I do weave A chain I cannot break ? I am possest With thoughts too swift and strong for one lone human breast."

"Cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay."

"Dark is the realm of grief: but human things Those may not know of who cannot weep for them."

"Dar?st thou amid the varied multitude to live alone, an isolated thing?"

"Constancy has nothing virtuous in itself, independently of the pleasure it confers, and partakes of the temporizing spirit of vice in proportion as it endures tamely moral defects of magnitude in the object of its indiscreet choice."

"Design must be proved before a designer can be inferred."

"Ere Babylon was dust, the Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, met his own image walking in the garden. That apparition, sole of men, he saw."

"Earth, ocean, air, beloved brotherhood."

"Dar'st thou amid the varied to live alone, an isolated thing?"

"Dar'st thou amid the varied multitude to live alone, an isolated thing?"

"Every epoch, under names more or less specious, has deified its peculiar errors."

"Far clouds of feathery gold, Shaded with deepest purple, gleam Like islands on a dark blue sea."

"Ere midnight's frown and morning's smile, ere thou and peace may meet."

"Feathery curtains, stretching o'er the sun's bright couch."

"For after the rain when with never a stain the pavilion of heaven is bare, and the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, and out of the caverns of rain, like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again."

"For there are deeds which have no form, sufferings which have no tongue."

"Fertile golden islands, floating on a silver sea."

"For there are deeds"

"For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower; radiance and odor are not its dower; it loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full, it desires what it has not, the beautiful."

"From the haunts of daily life where is waged the daily strife with common wants and common cares which sows the human heart with tares."

"Gold is a living god and rules in scorn,"

"God is an hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof: the onus probandi rests on the theist."

"Good-night? Ah! No; the hour is ill which severs those it should unite; let us remain together still, then it will be good night. How can I call the lone night good, though thy sweet wishes wing its flight? Be it not said, thought, understood -- then it will be -- good night. To hearts which near each other move from evening close to morning light, the night is good; because, my love, they never say good-night."