Happiest they of human race,
To whom God has granted grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch and force the way;
And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn. [ Scott ]
True love's the gift which God has given
To man alone beneath the heaven;
It is not fantasy's hot fire,
Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly;
It liveth not in fierce desire,
With dead desire it doth not die;
It is the secret sympathy.
The silver link, the silken tie.
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind,
In body and in soul can bind. [ Walter Scott ]
All things are not to be granted at all times. [ Proverb ]
Nature has granted to all to be happy, if we did but know how to use her benefits. [ Claudian ]
It is a brief period of life that is granted us by nature, but the memory of a well-spent life never dies. [ Cicero ]
Ever take it for granted that man collectively wishes that which is right; but take care never to think so of one! [ Friedrich Schiller ]
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. [ Bacon ]
Shun to seek what is hid in the Womb of the morrow, and set down as gain in life's ledger whatever time fate shall have granted thee. [ Horace ]
Wherever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man. [ Pope ]
If the Vikings were around today, they would probably be amazed at how much glow-in-the-dark stuff we have, and how we take so much of it for granted. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
When I think back on all the blessings I have been given in my life, I can't think of a single one, unless you count that rattlesnake that granted me all those wishes. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
The unknown! It is the field in which are sown our dreams, where we see them germinate, grow, and bloom. Who would live without the benefit of the incertitude granted to our miseries. [ E. Souvestre ]
Receive with a thankful hand every hour that God may have granted you, and defer not the comforts of life to another year; that in whatever place you are, you may say you have lived agreeably. [ Horace ]
Lord Melbourne was so accustomed to garnish his conversation in this way that Sydney Smith once said to him, We will take it for granted that everybody is damned, and now proceed with the subject.
[ L'Estrange ]
There is a moral excellence attainable by all who have the will to strive after it; but there is an intellectual and physical superiority which is above the reach of our wishes, and is granted to a few only. [ Crabb ]
Granted the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle damaged; the pilot is blameworthy; he has not been all-wise and all-powerful; but to know how blameworthy, tell us first whether his voyage has been round the globe or only to Ramsgate and the Isle of Dogs. [ Carlyle ]
The press is not only free; it is powerful. That power is ours. It is the proudest that man can enjoy. It was not granted by monarchs, it was not gained for us by aristocracies; but it sprang from the people, and, with an immortal instinct, it has always worked for the people. [ Beaconsfield ]
There is in some men a dispassionate neutrality of mind, which, though it generally passes for good temper, can neither gratify nor warm us: it must indeed be granted that these men can only negatively offend; but then it should also be remembered that they cannot positively please. [ Lord Greville ]
Excellence is never granted to man, but as the reward of labor. It argues, indeed, no small strength of mind to persevere in the habits of industry, without the pleasure of perceiving those advantages which, like the bands of a clock, whilst they make hourly approaches to their point, yet proceed so slowly as to escape observation. [ Sir Joshua Reynolds ]
The receipt to make a speaker, and an applauded one too, is short and easy. Take commonsense quantum sufficit (in sufficient quantity); add a little application to the rules and orders of the House of Commons, throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness and elegancy of style. Take it for granted that by far the greatest part of mankind neither analyze nor search to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper than the surface. [ Chesterfield ]