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 ]

Years steal
Fire from the mind, as vigour from the limb;
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim. [ Byron ]

The vigour of manhood passes away like a spring flower.

He knows not how to speak who cannot be silent, still less how to act with vigour and decision. [ Lavater ]

The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigour to our moral nature. [ Ward Beecher ]

Facts are to the mind the same thing as food to the body. On the due digestion of facts depends the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigour and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable in the commerce of life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts. [ Burke ]