Vital spark of heavenly flame! [ Pope ]
Then with no fiery throbbing pain.
No cold gradations of decay.
Death broke at once the vital chain.
And freed his soul the nearest way. [ Samuel Johnson ]
How populous, how vital is the grave! [ Young ]
Health is the vital principle of bliss. [ Thomson ]
Health is the vital principle of bliss,
And exercise of health. [ James Thomson ]
And sing to those that hold the vital shears;
And turn the adamantine spindle round,
On which the fate of gods and men is wound. [ Milton ]
Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history. [ Plato ]
There is a vast deal of vital air in loving words. [ Landor ]
The vital air of friendship is composed of confidence. Friendship perishes in proportion as this air diminishes. [ Joseph Roux ]
There is really nothing left to a genuine idle man, who possesses any considerable degree of vital power, but sin. [ J. G. Holland ]
Take a walk to refresh yourself with the open air, which inspired fresh doth exceedingly recreate the lungs, heart and vital spirits. [ Harvey ]
Character is the spiritual body of the person, and represents the individualisation of vital experience, the conversion of unconscious things into self-conscious men. [ Whipple ]
Twenty people can gain money for one who can use it; and the vital question for individuals and for nations, is never how much do they make,
but to what purpose do they spend.
[ John Ruskin ]
The idea you have once spoken, if even it were an idea, is no longer yours; it is gone from you, so much life and virtue is gone, and the vital circulations of yourself and your destiny and activity are henceforth deprived of it. [ Carlyle ]
The only liberty that is valuable is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle. [ Burke ]
The more readily we admit the possibility of our own cherished convictions being mixed with error, the more vital and helpful whatever is right in them will become; and no error is so conclusively fatal as the idea that God will not allow us to err, though He has allowed all other men to do so. [ Ruskin ]
Be it remembered that man subsists upon the air more than upon his meat and drink: but no one can exist for an hour without a copious supply of air. The atmosphere which some breathe is contaminated and adulterated, and with its vital principles so diminished that it cannot fully decarbonize the blood, nor fully excite the nervous system. [ Thackeray ]
I put myself, my experiences, my observations, my heart and soul into my work. I press my soul upon the white paper. The writer who does this may have any style, he or she will find the hearts of their readers. Writing a book involves, not a waste, but a great expenditure of vital force. Yet I can assure you I have written the last lines of most of my stories with tears. The characters of my own creation had become dear to me. I could not bear to bid them good-bye and send them away from me into the wide world. [ Amelia E. Barr, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]