High flavour. [ French ]
Envy aims very high. [ Ovid ]
Look high and fall low. [ Proverb ]
Death is Life's high meed. [ Keats ]
High winds blow on high hills. [ Proverb ]
I gaze upon the thousand stars
That fill the midnight sky;
And wish, so passionately wish,
A light like theirs on high.
I have such eagerness of hope
To benefit my kind;
I feel as if immortal power
Were given to my mind. [ Miss Landon ]
Man's true, genuine estimate,
The grand criterion of his fate,
Is not - Art thou high or low?
Did thy fortune ebb or flow? [ Burns ]
The hours are viewless angels,
That still go gliding by,
And bear each moment's record up
To Him that sits on high. [ C. P. Cranch ]
It is hard to be high and humble. [ Proverb ]
A high station hath great hazards. [ Proverb ]
High places have their precipices. [ Proverb ]
So full of shapes is fancy.
That it alone is high fantastical. [ William Shakespeare ]
But whether on the scaffold high,
Or in the battle's van,
The fittest place where man can die
Is where he dies for man. [ Michael J. Barry ]
Who can foretell for what high cause
This darling of the gods was born? [ Andrew Marvell ]
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen.
Fallen from his high estate.
And welt'ring in his blood;
Deserted at his utmost need.
But those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes. [ Dryden ]
High buildings have a low foundation. [ Proverb ]
It is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lovers' vows
Seem sweet in every whispered word. [ Byron ]
High flying hawks are fit for princes. [ Proverb ]
Who never climbed high never fell low. [ Proverb ]
He who climbs too high is near a fall. [ Italian Proverb ]
Dust, to its narrow house beneath!
Soul, to its place on high!
They that have seen thy look in death,
No more may fear to die. [ Mrs. Hemans ]
As high as a hog, all but the bristles. [ Proverb ]
He knew what's what, and that's as high
As metaphysic wit can fly. [ Butler ]
High birth is an accident, not a virtue. [ Metastasio ]
It heeds not whence begins our thinking,
If to the end its flight is high. [ Dr. Johnson ]
Graceful, tossing plume of glowing gold,
Waving lonely on the rocky ledge;
Leaning seaward, lovely to behold,
Clinging to the high cliff's ragged edge. [ Celia Thaxter ]
And, lo! in the dark east, expanded high.
The rainbow brightens to the setting Sun. [ Beattie ]
What's brave, what's noble,
Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us. [ William Shakespeare ]
Love is not to be reason'd down or lost
In high ambition or a thirst of greatness. [ Addison ]
Be you never so high, the law is above you. [ Proverb ]
He has, I know not what
Of greatness in his looks, and of high fate
That almost awes me. [ Dryden ]
The Raven's house is built with reeds, -
Sing woe, and alas is me!
And the Raven's couch is spread with weeds,
High on the hollow tree;
And the Raven himself, telling his beads
In penance for his past misdeeds.
Upon the top I see. [ Thos. Darcy McGee ]
Where passion is high, there reason is low. [ Proverb ]
One cannot take true aim at things too high. [ Proverb ]
Thou canst not fly high with borrowed wings. [ Proverb ]
I love vast libraries; yet there is a doubt,
If one be better with them or without -
Unless he use them wisely, and, indeed,
Knows the high art of what and how to read. [ J. G. Saxe ]
High minds, of native pride and force.
Most deeply feel thy pangs. Remorse!
Fear, for their scourge, mean villains have,
Thou art the torturer of the brave! [ Scott ]
Look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. [ William Shakespeare, Hamlet ]
When night hath set her silver lamp on high.
Then is the time for study. [ Bailey ]
'Tis sweet to listen as the night winds creep
From leaf to leaf; 'tis sweet to view on high
The rainbow, based on ocean, span the sky. [ Byron ]
When the hop grows high, it must have a pole. [ Proverb ]
He alone can claim this name, who writes
With fancy high, and bold and daring flights. [ Horace ]
No one reaches a high position without daring. [ Syrus ]
But Heaven hath a hand in these events,
To whose high will we bound our calm contents. [ William Shakespeare ]
What hath this day deserved? what hath it done.
That it in golden letters should be set
Among the high tides in the calendar? [ William Shakespeare ]
Even peace may be purchased at to high a price. [ Franklin ]
These taught us how to live; and (oh, too high
The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die. [ Thomas Tickell ]
The wages of a good workman are never too high. [ French Proverb ]
Greatness, with private men
Esteem'd a blessing, is to me a curse;
And we, whom from our high births they conclude
The only free men, are the only slaves:
Happy the golden mean. [ Massinger ]
Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest.
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high.
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold,
That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold. [ William Shakespeare ]
Don't carry your head too high; the door is low. [ German Proverb ]
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide; [ Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel ]
Vain-glorious man, when fluttering wind does blow
In his light wings, is lifted up to sky;
The scorn of knighthood and true chivalry,
To think, without desert of gentle deed
And noble worth, to be advanced high,
Such praise is shame, but honour, virtue's meed.
Doth bear the fairest flower in honourable seed. [ Spenser ]
This is the fruit of craft:
Like him that shoots up high, looks for the shaft,
And finds it in his forehead. [ Middleton ]
High is the head of the stag on the mountain crag. [ Gaelic Proverb ]
The journey of high honor lies not in smooth ways. [ Sir P. Sidney ]
High houses are usually empty in the upper storey. [ German Proverb ]
Compliment is the high-road to the heart of woman. [ Champcenest ]
And high above the fight the lonely bugle grieves. [ Grenville Mellin ]
Why dost thou heap up wealth, which thou must quit,
Or what is worse, be left by it?
Why dost thou load thyself when thou 'rt to fly.
Oh, man! ordained to die?
Why dost thou build up stately rooms on high,
Thou who art under ground to lie?
Thou sow'st and plantest, but no fruit must see.
For death, alas! is reaping thee. [ Cowley ]
The heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high. [ Thoreau ]
These wickets of the soul are placed so high,
Because all sounds do highly move aloft;
And that they may not pierce too violently,
They are delay'd with turns and twinings oft.
For should the voice directly strike the brain,
It would astonish and confuse it much;
Therefore these plaits and folds the sound restrain,
That it the organ may more gently touch. [ Sir John Davies ]
One can never pay too high a price for any sensation. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]
High-erected thoughts, seated in a heart of courtesy. [ Sir P. Sidney ]
High erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy. [ Sir P. Sidney ]
Be wise; Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise. [ Massinger ]
Keep a tight hand over your son (hold the bridle high). [ French Proverb ]
Let us weep in our darkness - but weep not for him!
Not for him - who, departing, leaves millions in tears!
Not for him - who has died full of honor and years!
Not for him - who ascended Fame's ladder so high.
From the round at the top he has stepped to the sky. [ N. P. Willis ]
He must stand high who would see his destiny to the end. [ Danish Proverb ]
Love ought to raise a low heart and not humble a high one. [ Ariosto ]
High station has to be resigned in order to be appreciated. [ Pascal ]
Well-meant ignorance is a grievous calamity in high places. [ Bossuet ]
Flesh never stands so high but a dog will venture his legs. [ Proverb ]
A house built by the way-side is either too high or too low. [ Proverb ]
Joy never feasts so high as when the first course is of misery. [ Suckling ]
It is only the educated who can produce or appreciate high art. [ Marguerite de Valois ]
That fabric rises high as heaven whose basis on devotion stands. [ Prior ]
One man may as much miss the mark by aiming too high as too low. [ Proverb ]
Studious let me sit, And hold high converse with the mighty Dead. [ Thomson ]
Let us not strive to rise too high, that we may not fall too low. [ Friedrich Schiller ]
It is better to fall short of a high mark, than to reach a low one. [ H. C. Payne ]
When the next house is on fire, it is high time to look to your own. [ Proverb ]
No bird ever flew so high but it had to come to the ground for food. [ Dutch Proverb ]
Our high respect for a well-read man is praise enough of literature. [ Emerson ]
A woman who is beautiful, good, rich, and wise, is four stories high. [ French Proverb ]
See the mountains kiss high heavens, and the waves clasp one another. [ Shelley ]
Fame has eagle wings, and yet she mounts not so high as man's desires. [ Beaconsfield ]
Experience takes dreadfully high school-wages, but teaches as no other. [ Carlyle ]
Courage is, on all hands, considered as an essential of high character. [ Froude ]
No condition so low but may have hopes, none so high but may have fears. [ Proverb ]
Grammar knows how to lord it over kings, and with high hand make them obey. [ Molière ]
Often the cockloft is empty in those whom nature hath built many stories high. [ Thomas Fuller ]
He seemed for dignity composed and high exploit; but all was false and hollow. [ Milton ]
An oak whose boughs were mossed with age, and high top bald with dry antiquity. [ William Shakespeare ]
Experience does take dreadfully high school-wages, but he teaches like no other. [ Carlyle ]
Persecution to persons in a high rank stands them in the stead of eminent virtue. [ Cardinal de Retz ]
No man has a prosperity so high and firm but two or three words can dishearten it. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly. [ Horace ]
Conceit not so high a notion of any as to be bashful and impotent in their presence. [ Fuller ]
Generosity is the accompaniment of high birth; pity and gratitude are its attendants. [ Corneille ]
Sell your confidence at a high price, if at all; to be strong, keep your own counsel. [ Dumas, Pere ]
This little member can behold the earth, and in a moment view things as high as heaven. [ Charnock ]
High-built abundance, heap on heap! for what? To breed new wants, and beggar us the more,
Then, make a richer scramble for the throng. [ Young ]
We are valued either too highly or not high enough; we are never taken at our real worth. [ Marie Ebner-Eschenbach ]
Obey the voice of your mother, O my children! and remember the teachings of the Most High. [ Rabbi Judah ]
The fir-trees dark and high; I used to think their slender tops were close against the sky. [ Hood ]
Lifted up so high I disdained subjection, and thought one step higher would set me highest. [ Milton ]
Love without esteem can not reach far, nor rise very high: it is an angel with but one wing. [ A. Dumas fils ]
When any one has offended me. I try to raise my soul so high that the offence cannot reach it. [ Descartes ]
The seal of suffering impressed upon our destiny announces in clear characters our high calling. [ De Gerando ]
Glory drags all men along, low as well as high, bound captive at the wheels of her glittering car. [ Horace ]
High positions are like the summit of high, steep rocks: eagles and reptiles alone can reach them. [ Mme. Necker ]
Sweet is the breath of praise when given by those whose own high merit claims the praise they give. [ Hannah More ]
Contention, like a horse full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose, and bears down all before him. [ William Shakespeare ]
There is a god within us, and we have intercourse with heaven. That spirit comes from abodes on high. [ Ovid ]
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them; and if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. [ William Shakespeare ]
Too high an appreciation of our own talents is the chief cause why experience preaches to us all in vain. [ Colton ]
What, though thou wert rich and of high esteem, dost thou yield to sorrow because of thy loss of fortune? [ Hitopadesa ]
High rank and discernment are two different things, and love for virtue and for virtuous people is a third thing. [ La Bruyère ]
The perfection of conversational intercourse is when the breeding of high life is animated by the fervor of genius. [ Leigh Hunt ]
I'd like to see a nude opera, because when they hit those high notes, I bet you can really see it in those genitals. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
Great is the strength of an individual soul true to its high trust; mighty is it, even to the redemption of a world. [ Mrs. Child ]
There remains a way through the heavens; through the heavens we will attempt to go. High Jupiter, pardon my bold design. [ Ovid, in the name of Daedalus when he escaped from the labyrinth on wings ]
Poetry is enthusiasm with wings of fire; it is the angel of high thoughts, that inspires us with the power of sacrifice. [ Mazzini ]
When Nature fills the sails, the vessel goes smoothly on; and when judgment is the pilot, the insurance need not be high. [ Sir T. Browne ]
No artist-work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character in a child. [ Charlotte Cushman ]
Fate with impartial hand turns out the doom of high and low: her capacious urn is constantly shaking the names of all mankind. [ Horace ]
Train your son and daughter to an employment, to frugality, to hold the high front and to walk the fearless step of independence. [ Timothy Flint ]
The most gladsome thing in the world is that few of us fall very low; the saddest that, with such capabilities, we seldom rise high. [ J. M. Barrie ]
Beauty, wit, high birth, vigor of bone, desert in service, love, friendship, charity, are subjects all to envious and calumniating time. [ William Shakespeare ]
Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance they are altogether lighter than vanity. [ Bible ]
Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art. [ Thoreau ]
The love of fame is a passion natural and universal, which no man, however high or mean, however wise or ignorant, was yet able to despise. [ Dr. Johnson ]
He who cannot see the beautiful side is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover; he cannot lift his mind and his heart so high as goodness. [ Joubert ]
High air-castles are cunningly built of words, the words well-bedded in good logic mortar; wherein, however, no knowledge will come to lodge. [ Carlyle ]
High birth is a gift of fortune which should never challenge esteem towards those who receive it, since it costs then neither study nor labor. [ Bruyere ]
Friendship and love require the deepest and most entire confidence, but souls of a high character demand not communications of a familiar nature. [ Humboldt ]
The heart must be perpetually fortified by wise counsel and high moral principle, or it will inevitably submit to the invasion of the vilest foes. [ Magoon ]
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but walking orderly; its grandeur does not exercise itself in grandeur, but in mediocrity. [ Montaigne ]
The guardian angel of life sometimes flies so high that man cannot see it; but he always is looking down upon us, and will soon hover nearer to us. [ Richter ]
I hope in the future Americans are thought of as a warlike, vicious people, because I bet a lot of high schools would pick Americans
as their mascot. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
Innocence and diligence are inseparable companions, and only those who are active in the discharge of their duties here below are blessed from on high. [ Magoon ]
Cheerfulness is the daughter of employment; and I have known a man come home in high spirits from a funeral, merely because he has had the management of it. [ Dr. Horne ]
Power above powers! O heavenly eloquence! that, with the strong reign of commanding words, dost manage, guide and master the high eminence of men's affections! [ Daniel ]
The two weak points of our age are want of principle and want of profile. Style depends largely on the way the chin is worn. They are worn very high at present. [ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest ]
In art the Greeks were the children of the Egyptians. The day may yet come when we shall do justice to the high powers of that mysterious and imaginative people. [ Beaconsfield ]
Pride of origin, whether high or low, springs from the same principle in human nature; one is but the positive, the other the negative, pole of a single weakness. [ Lowell ]
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, yet, with my nobler reason, against my fury do I take part; the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance. [ William Shakespeare ]
It is a high, solemn, almost awful thought for every individual man, that his earthly influence, which has a commencement, will never, through all ages, have an end. [ Aughey ]
It is always esteemed the greatest mischief a man can do to those whom he loves, to raise men's expectations of them too high by undue and impertinent commendations. [ Sprat ]
The lofty pine is oftenest agitated by the winds - high towers rush to the earth with a heavier fall - and the lightning most frequently strikes the highest mountains. [ Horace ]
I have ventured like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, this many summers in a sea of glory, but far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride at length broke under me. [ Shakespeare ]
Labour is the ornament of the citizen; the reward of toil is when you confer blessings on others; his high dignity confers honour on the king; be ours the glory of our hands. [ Friedrich Schiller ]
High birth is a thing which I never knew any one to disparage except those who had it not; and I never knew any one to make a boast of it who had anything else to be proud of. [ Bishop Warburton ]
Short is the life of those who possess great accomplishments, and seldom do they reach a good old age. Whatever thou lovest, pray that thou mayest not set too high a value on it. [ Martial ]
There is a perennial nobleness and even sacredness in work. Were he ever so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works. [ Carlyle ]
The wise will determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high-minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands. [ Burke ]
We prefer a person with vivacity and high spirits, though bordering upon insolence, to the timid and pusillanimous; we are fonder of wit joined to malice than of dullness without it. [ Hazlitt ]
Wisdom sits alone, topmost in heaven: she is its light, its God; and in the heart of man she sits as high, though groveling minds forget her oftentimes, seeing but this world's idols. [ N. P. Willis ]
Happy contractedness of youth, nay, of mankind in general, that they think neither of the high nor the deep, of the true nor the false, but only of what is suited to their own conceptions. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
Office of itself does much to equalize politicians. It by no means brings all characters to a level; but it does bring high characters down and low characters up towards a common standard. [ Macaulay ]
As great enmities spring from great friendships, and mortal distempers from vigorous health, so do the most surprising and the wildest frenzies from the high and lively agitations of our souls. [ Montaigne ]
O brave poets! keep back nothing, nor mix falsehood with the whole; look up Godward; speak the truth in worthy song from earnest soul; hold, in high poetic duty, truest truth the fairest beauty! [ Mrs. Browning ]
Child of earth and earthly sorrows - child of God and immortal hopes - arise from thy sadness, gird up the loins of thy mind, and with unfaltering energy press toward thy rest and reward on high. [ E. L. Magoon ]
Irony is to the high-bred what billingsgate is to the vulgar; and when one gentleman thinks another gentleman an ass, he does not say it pointblank, he implies it in the politest terms he can invent. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I'd never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest high catch, and he never walked off the field. [ Yogi Berra ]
Friendship is impossible between men of high social standing and men in the lower walks of life; very difficult between a young man and a young woman; between two beautiful women, it is but a poetic fiction.
Speak not in high commendation of any man to his face, nor censure any man behind his back: but if thou knowest anything good of him, tell it unto others; if anything ill, tell it privately and prudently to himself. [ Burkitt ]
The capacity of apprehending what is high is very rare; and therefore, in common life a man does well to keep such things for himself, and only to give out so much as is needful to have some advantage against others. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
Of all varieties of fopperies, the vanity of high birth is the greatest. True nobility is derived from virtue, not from birth. Title, indeed, may be purchased, but virtue is the only coin that makes the bargain valid. [ Burton ]
The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged and trampled under foot. [ W. E. Channing ]
My first and last secret of Art is to get a thorough intelligence of the fact to be painted, represented, or, in whatever way, set forth - the fact deep as Hades, high as heaven, and written so, as to the visual face of it on this poor earth. [ Carlyle ]
Let him speak of his own deeds, and not of those of his forefathers. High birth is mere accident, and not a virtue; for if reason had controlled birth, and given empire only to the worthy, perhaps Arbaces would have been Xerxes, and Xerxes Arbaces. [ Metastasio ]
High original genius is always ridiculed on its first appearance; most of all by those who have won themselves the highest reputation in working on the established lines. Genius only commands recognition when it has created the taste which is to appreciate it. [ Froude ]
Biographies of great, but especially of good men are most instructive and useful as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some of the best are almost equivalent to gospels, - teaching high living, high thinking, and energetic action, for their own and the world's good. [ Samuel Smiles ]
Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim, the very roughness only stimulates the climber to steadier and steadier steps, till that legend of the rough places fulfills itself at last, per aspera ad astra
, over steep ways to the stars. [ Bishop W. C. Doane ]
Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim, the very roughness only stimulates the climber to steadier and steadier steps, till that legend of the rough places fulfills itself at last, "per aspera ad astra", over steep ways to the stars. [ Bishop W. C. Doane ]
Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilized into time and tune; such is the extensiveness thereof, that it stoopeth so low as brute beasts, yet mounteth as high as angels; horses will do more for a whistle than for a whip, and by hearing their bells, jingle away their weariness. [ T. Fuller ]
Whatever of true glory has been won by any nation of the earth; whatever great advance has been made by any nation in that which constitutes a high Christian civilization, has been always at the cost of sacrifice; has cost the price marked upon it in God's inventory of national good. [ J. G. Holland ]
It is averse to talent to be consorted and trained up with inferior minds or inferior companions, however high they may rank. The foal of the racer neither finds out his speed, nor calls out his powers, if pastured out with the common herd, that are destined for the collar and the yoke. [ Colton ]
It is adverse to talent to be consorted and trained up with inferior minds and inferior companions, however high they may rank. The foal of the racer neither finds out his speed nor calls out his powers if pastured out with the common herd, that are destined for the collar and the yoke. [ Colton ]
If our eloquence be directed above the heads of our hearers, we shall do no execution. By pointing our arguments low, we stand a chance of hitting their hearts as well as their heads. In addressing angels, we could hardly raise our eloquence too high; but we must remember that men are not angels. [ Colton ]
We may put too high a premium on speech from platform and pulpit; at the bar and in the legislative hall, and pay dear for the whistle of our endless harangues. England, and especially Germany, are less loquacious, and attend more to business. We let the eagle, and perhaps too often the peacock, scream. [ Bartol ]
Remember always in painting, as in eloquence, the greater your strength the quieter will be your manner and the fewer your words; and in painting, as in all the arts and acts of life, the secret of high success will be found, not in a fretful and various excellence, but in a quiet singleness of justly chosen aim. [ Ruskin ]
As well might a lovely woman look daily in her mirror, yet not be aware of her beauty, as a great soul be unconscious of the powers with which Heaven has gifted him; not so much for himself, as to enlighten others - a messenger from God Himself, with a high and glorious mission to perform. Woe unto him who abuses that mission! [ Chambers ]
Metaphysicians have been learning their lessons for the last four thousand years, and it is high time that they should now begin to teach us something. Can any of the tribe inform us why all the operations of the mind are carried on with undiminished strength and activity in dreams, except the judgment, which alone is suspended and dormant? [ Colton ]
So near are the boundaries of panegyric and invective, that a worn-out sinner is sometimes found to make the best declaimer against sin. The same high-seasoned descriptions which in his unregenerate state served to inflame his appetites, in his new province of a moralist will serve him (a little turned) to expose the enormity of those appetites in other men. [ Lamb ]
The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward, to his object - this is eloquence, or rather it is something greater and higher than all eloquence - it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action. [ Webster ]
Wealth brings noble opportunities, and competence is a proper object of pursuit; but wealth, and even competence, may be bought at too high a price. Wealth itself has no moral attribute. It is not money, but the love of money, which is the root of all evil. It is the relation between wealth and the mind and the character of its possessor which is the essential thing. [ Hillard ]
Pride differs in many things from vanity, and by gradations that never blend, although they may be somewhat indistinguishable. Pride may perhaps be termed a too high opinion of ourselves founded on the overrating of certain qualities that we do actually possess; whereas vanity is more easily satisfied, and can extract a feeling of self-complacency from qualifications that are imaginary. [ Colton ]
The refining influence is the study of art, which is the science of beauty; and I find that every man values every scrap of knowledge in art, every observation of his own in it, every hint he has caught from another. For the laws of beauty are the beauty of beauty, and give the mind the same or a higher joy than the sight of it gives the senses. The study of art is of high value to the growth of the intellect. [ Emerson ]
The blindness of bigotry, the madness of ambition, and the miscalculations of diplomacy seek their victims principally amongst the innocent and the unoffending. The cottage is sure to suffer for every error of the court, the cabinet, or the camp. When error sits in the seat of power and of authority, and is generated in high places, it may be compared to that torrent which originates indeed in the mountain, but commits its devastation in the vale. [ Colton ]
You can throw yourselves away. You can become of no use in the universe except for a warning. You can lose your souls. Oh, what a loss is that! The perversion and degradation of every high and immortal power for an eternity! And shall this be true of any one of you? Will you be lost when One has come from heaven, traveling in the greatness of His strength, and with garments dyed in blood, on purpose to guide you home - home to a Father's house - to an eternal home? [ Mark Hopkins ]
How the universal heart of man blesses flowers! They are wreathed round the cradle, the marriage altar, and the tomb; all these are appropriate uses. Flowers should deck the brow of the youthful bride, for they are in themselves a lovely type of marriage; they should twine round the tomb, for their perpetually renewed beauty is a symbol of the resurrection; they should festoon the altar, for their fragrance and their beauty ascend in perpetual worship before the Most High. [ Mrs. L. M. Child ]
Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some, in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labor, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicuity, of things that are profound. [ Colton ]
Morals are an acquirement - like music, like a foreign language, like piety, poker, paralysis - no man is born with them. I wasn't myself, I started poor. I hadn't a single moral. There is hardly a man in this house that is poorer than I was then. Yes, I started like that - the world before me, not a moral in the slot. Not even an insurance moral. I can remember the first one I ever got. I can remember the landscape, the weather, the - I can remember how everything looked. It was an old moral, an old second-hand moral, all out of repair, and didn't fit, anyway. But if you are careful with a thing like that, and keep it in a dry place, and save it for processions, and Chautauquas, and World's Fairs, and so on, and disinfect it now and then, and give it a fresh coat of whitewash once in a while, you will be surprised to see how well she will last and how long she will keep sweet, or at least inoffensive. When I got that mouldy old moral, she had stopped growing, because she hadn't any exercise; but I worked her hard, I worked her Sundays and all. Under this cultivation she waxed in might and stature beyond belief, and served me well and was my pride and joy for sixty-three years; then she got to associating with insurance presidents, and lost flesh and character, and was a sorrow to look at and no longer competent for business. She was a great loss to me. Yet not all loss. I sold her - ah, pathetic skeleton, as she was - I sold her to Leopold, the pirate King of Belgium; he sold her to our Metropolitan Museum, and it was very glad to get her, for without a rag on, she stands 57 feet long and 16 feet high, and they think she's a brontosaur. Well, she looks it. They believe it will take nineteen geological periods to breed her match. [ Mark Twain, Seventieth Birthday speech ]