Beauty is an all-pervading presence. [ Channing ]
Slowly, slowly falls night's curtain
Over all the wide-spread land;
And the angels of the twilight
At the gates of heaven stand.
Lo, they come, a band of angels.
Clad in robes of tender gray;
And before their gracious presence,
Fades the sun's last lingering ray. [ C. E, Charles ]
Not the poet in the moment
Fancy lightens on his e'e,
Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture,
That thy presence gies to me. [ Burns ]
Her overpowering presence made you feel
It would not be idolatry to kneel. [ Byron ]
His steps are beauty, and His presence light. [ Montgomery ]
A good presence is letters of recommendation. [ Proverb ]
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it. [ Proverb ]
Oh! liberty, thou goddess, heavenly bright.
Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight!
Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign.
And smiling plenty, leads thy wanton train;
Eased of her load, subjection grows more light
And poverty looks cheerful in the sight;
Thou makest the gloomy face of nature gay,
Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. [ Addison ]
Genius! thou gift of Heaven! thou Light divine!
Amid what dangers art thou doom'd to shine!
Oft will the body's weakness check thy force,
Oft damp thy Vigour, and impede thy course;
And trembling nerves compel thee to restrain
Thy noble efforts, to contend with pain;
Or Want (sad guest!) will in thy presence come,
And breathe around her melancholy gloom:
To Life's low cares will thy proud thought confine,
And make her sufferings, her impatience, thine. [ Crabbe ]
The heart groweth tender in the presence of beauty. [ S. Neftanish ]
The penniless traveller will sing in presence of the robber. [ Juv ]
The presence of God calms the soul, and gives it quiet and repose. [ Fenelon ]
Lovers have an ineffable instinct which detects the presence of rivals. [ Bulwer ]
Govern the lips as they were palace doors, the king within;
Tranquil and fair and courteous be all words which from that presence win. [ Sir Edwin Arnold ]
Activity is the presence of function. Character is the record of function. [ Greenough ]
Genius is lonely without the surrounding presence of a people to inspire it. [ T. W. Higginson ]
Character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence and without means. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Conceit not so high a notion of any as to be bashful and impotent in their presence. [ Fuller ]
The finite is annihilated in the presence of infinity, and becomes a simple nothing. [ Pascal ]
We do nothing, but in the presence of two great witnesses; God, and our own conscience. [ Proverb ]
The grace of the spirit comes only from heaven, and lights up the whole bodily presence. [ Spurgeon ]
It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. [ Lowell ]
The vision of the Divine Presence ever takes the form which our circumstances most require. [ Alexander Maclaren ]
Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it. [ Charles Lamb ]
Love is but another name for that inscrutable presence by which the soul is connected with humanity. [ Simms ]
Love is just another name for the inscrutable presence by which the soul is connected with humanity. [ Simms ]
Thou mayst be more prodigal of praise when thou writest a letter than when thou speakest in presence. [ Fuller ]
The presence of the wretched is a burden to the happy; and alas! the happy still more so to the wretched. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
As contraries are known by contraries, so is the delight of presence best known by the torments of absence. [ Alcibiades ]
We conceive, I think, more nobly of the weak presence of Paul than of the fair and ruddy countenance of David. [ John Ruskin ]
We should have all our communications with men as in the presence of God; and with God, as in the presence of men. [ Colton ]
Our love is inwrought in our enthusiasm, as electricity is inwrought in the air, exalting its power by a subtle presence. [ George Eliot ]
Presence of mind, penetration, fine observation, are the sciences of women; ability to avail themselves of these is their talent. [ Rousseau ]
That man is always happy who is in the presence of something which he cannot know to the full, which he is always going on to know. [ John Ruskin ]
When we imagine that we love, it is the presence of the loved one that deceives us: when we truly love, it is absence that proves it. [ Lingrie ]
Death, of all estimated evils, is the only one whose presence never incommoded anybody, and which only causes concern during its absence. [ Arcesilaus ]
I like books. I was born and bred among them, and have the easy feeling when I get in their presence, that a stable-boy has among horses. [ O. W. Holmes ]
Friendships are the purer and the more ardent, the nearer they come to the presence of God, the Sun not only of righteousness but of love. [ Landor ]
The presence of a young girl is like the presence of a flower; the one gives its perfume to all that approach it, the other her grace to all that surround her. [ Louis Desnoyers ]
Grief is only the memory of widowed affection. The more intense the delight in the presence of the object, the more poignant must be the impression of the absence. [ James Martineau ]
We must never undervalue any person. The workman loves not that his work should be despised in his presence. Now God is present everywhere, and every person is His work. [ De Sales ]
Like an old woman at her hearth, we warm our hands at our sorrows and drop in faggots, and each thinks his own fire a sun in presence of which all other fires should go out. [ J. M. Barrie ]
Love is not an intellectual admiration, a gratified imagination. It is too intangible for definement; but the soul knoweth its presence, by its fullness of content in the beloved. [ Mrs. Oakes Smith ]
The commonest man, who has his ounce of sense and feeling, is conscious of the difference between a lovely, delicate woman and a coarse one. Even a dog feels a difference in her presence. [ George Eliot ]
If a crooked stick is before you, you need not explain how crooked it is. Lay a straight one down by the side of it, and the work is well done. Preach the truth, and error will stand abashed in its presence. [ Spurgeon ]
Love can take what shape he pleases; and when once begun his fiery inroad in the soul, how vain the after knowledge which his presence gives! We weep or rave; but still he lives, and lives master and lord, amidst pride and tears and pain. [ Barry Cornwall ]
How dear the sure counsel of a present friend, whose heavenly power failing, the lonely one sinks in silence; for earnest thought and resolution, locked within his breast, are slowly ripened; the presence of the loved one soon warms them into being. [ Goethe ]
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character. [ Sir Walter Scott ]
We are born for a higher destiny than earth; there is a realm where the rainbow never fades, where the stars will be spread before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beings that pass before us like shadows will stay in our presence forever. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]
Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius, throwing the reader of a book, or the spectator of a statue, into the very ideal presence whence these works have really originated. A great work always leaves us in a state of musing. [ Isaac Disraeli ]
The contemplation of night should lead to elevating, rather than depressing, ideas. Who can fix his mind on transitory and earthly things, in presence of those glittering myriads of worlds; and who can dread death or solitude in the midst of this brilliant, animated universe? [ Richter ]
Charms which, like flowers, lie on the surface and always glitter, easily produce vanity; hence women, wits, players, soldiers, are vain, owing to their presence, figure and dress. On the contrary, other excellences, which lie down like gold and are discovered with difficulty, leave their possessors modest and proud. [ Richter ]
The contemplation of night should lead to elevating rather than to depressing ideas. Who can fix his mind on transitory and earthly things, in presence of those glittering myriads of worlds; and who can dread death or solitude in the midst of this brilliant, animated universe, composed of countless suns and worlds, all full of light and life and motion? [ Richter ]
By conversing with the mighty dead, we imbibe sentiment with knowledge. We become strongly attached to those who can no longer either hurt or serve us, except through the influence which they exert over the mind. We feel the presence of that power which gives immortality to human thoughts and actions, and catch the flame of enthusiasm from all nations and ages. [ Hazlitt ]
To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little, and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not to be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation; above all, on the same condition, to keep friends with himself: here is a task for all a man has of fortitude and delicacy. [ Robert Louis Stevenson ]
We enter our studies, and enjoy a society which we alone can bring together. We raise no jealousy by conversing with one in preference to another; we give no offence to the most illustrious by questioning him as long as we will, and leaving him as abruptly. Diversity of opinion raises no tumult in our presence: each interlocutor stands before us, speaks or is silent, and we adjourn or decide the business at our leisure. [ Landor ]
Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds to the numberless flowers of the spring; it waves in the branches of the trees and the green blades of grass; it haunts the depths of the earth and the sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and setting sun, all overflow with beauty. [ Channing ]
Consistent characters are those which in social intercourse are easy, sure, and gentle. We do not clash with them, and they are never wanting nor contradictory to themselves; their stability incites confidence, their frankness induces self-surrendering openness. We feel at ease with them, we are not offended at their superiority, doubtless we admire them less, but we also hardly dream of feeling envious of them, and they seem almost to disdain malignity by the peaceful influence of their presence. [ Degerando ]
Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gesture or quick movement inspires involuntary disrespect. One looks for a moment at a cascade; but one sits for hours, lost in thought, and gazing upon the still water of a lake. A deliberate gale, gentle manners, and a gracious tone of voice - all of which may be acquired - give a mediocre man an immense advantage over those vastly superior to him. To be bodily tranquil, to speak little, and to digest without effort are absolutely necessary to grandeur of mind or of presence, or to proper development of genius. [ Balzac ]
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their soul into ours. God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers; they give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live. [ W. E. Channing ]