Familiar Quotations by - (most read books in the world of all time .txt) 📕
Evangeline. Part i. 3.
And as she looked around, she saw how Death the consoler, Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.
Evangeline. Part ii. 5.
God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting.[616-1]
The Courtship of Miles Standish. iv.
Into a world unknown,--the corner-stone of a nation![616-2]
The Courtship of Miles Standish. iv.
Saint Augustine! well hast thou said, That of our vices we can frame A ladder, if we will but tread Beneath our feet each deed of shame.[616-3]
The Ladder of Saint Augustine.
The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they while their companions slept Were toiling upward in the night.
The Ladder of Saint Augustine.
The surest pledge of a deathless name Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.
The Herons of Elmwood.
He has singed the beard of the king of Spain.[616-4]
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Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776.
PATRICK HENRY. 1736-1799.Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell; and George the Third ["Treason!" cried the Speaker]—may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.
Speech in the Virginia Convention, 1765.
I am not a Virginian, but an American.[428:1]
Speech in the Virginia Convention. September, 1774.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.[428:2]
Speech in the Virginia Convention. March, 1775.
[430]
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Speech in the Virginia Convention. March, 1775.
[428:1] I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American!—Webster: Speech, July 17, 1850.
[428:2] See Burke, page 411.
EDWARD GIBBON. 1737-1794.The reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history, which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.[430:1]
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. iii.
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. xi.
Amiable weaknesses of human nature.[430:2]
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. xiv.
In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.[430:3]
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. xlviii.
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. xlix.
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.[430:4]
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. lxviii.
Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. lxxi.
All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance.
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. lxxi.
I saw and loved.[430:5]
Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 106.
[431]
On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.
Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 116.
I was never less alone than when by myself.[431:1]
Memoirs. Vol. i. p. 117.
[430:1] L'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs (History is but the record of crimes and misfortunes).—Voltaire: L' Ingénu, chap. x.
[430:2] See Fielding, page 364.
[430:3] See Clarendon, page 255.
[430:4] On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons (It is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions).—Voltaire: Letter to M. le Riche. 1770.
J'ai toujours vu Dieu du coté des gros bataillons (I have always noticed that God is on the side of the heaviest battalions).—De la Ferté to Anne of Austria.
[430:5] See Chapman, page 35.
[431:1] Never less alone than when alone.—Rogers: Human Life.
THOMAS PAINE. 1737-1809.And the final event to himself [Mr. Burke] has been, that, as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
Letter to the Addressers.
These are the times that try men's souls.
The American Crisis. No. 1.
The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.[431:2]
Age of Reason. Part ii. note.
[431:2] Probably this is the original of Napoleon's celebrated mot, "Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas" (From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step).
JOHN WOLCOT. 1738-1819.What rage for fame attends both great and small!
Better be damned than mentioned not at all.
To the Royal Academicians.
No, let the monarch's bags and others hold
The flattering, mighty, nay, al-mighty gold.[431:3]
To Kien Long. Ode iv.
Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt,
And every grin so merry draws one out.
Expostulatory Odes. Ode xv.
[432]
A fellow in a market town,
Most musical, cried razors up and down.
Farewell Odes. Ode iii.
[431:3] See Jonson, page 178.
MRS. THRALE. 1739-1821.The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground:
'T was therefore said by ancient sages,
That love of life increased with years
So much, that in our latter stages,
When pain grows sharp and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.
Three Warnings.
CHARLES MORRIS. 1739-1832.Solid men of Boston, banish long potations!
Solid men of Boston, make no long orations![432:1]
Pitt and Dundas's Return to London from Wimbledon. American Song. From Lyra Urbanica.
O give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall!
Town and Country.
[432:1]
Solid men of Boston, make no long orations!
Solid men of Boston, banish strong potations!
Billy Pitt and the Farmer. From Debrett's Asylum for Fugitive Pieces, vol. ii. p. 250.
A. M. TOPLADY. 1740-1778.Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.
Salvation through Christ.
[433]
THOMAS MOSS. 1740-1808.Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;
Oh give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.
The Beggar.
A pampered menial drove me from the door.[433:1]
The Beggar.
[433:1] This line stood originally, "A liveried servant," etc., and was altered as above by Goldsmith.—Forster: Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 215 (fifth edition, 1871).
MRS. BARBAULD. 1743-1825.Man is the nobler growth our realms supply,
And souls are ripened in our northern sky.
The Invitation.
This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.
A Summer's Evening Meditation.
It is to hope, though hope were lost.[433:2]
Come here, Fond Youth.
Life! we 've been long together
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
'T is hard to part when friends are dear,—
Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear;
Then steal away, give little warning,
Choose thine own time;
Say not "Good night," but in some brighter clime
Bid me "Good morning."
Life.
[434]
So fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;[434:1]
So dies a wave along the shore.
The Death of the Virtuous.
Child of mortality, whence comest thou? Why is thy countenance sad, and why are thine eyes red with weeping?
Hymns in Prose. xiii.
[433:2] Who against hope believed in hope.—Romans iv. 18.
Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive.—Montgomery: The World before the Flood.
[434:1] See Chaucer, page 6.
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1743-1826.The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
Summary View of the Rights of British America.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God[434:2] entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident,—that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;[434:3] that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Declaration of Independence.
We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.
Declaration of Independence.
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801.
[435]
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations,—entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; . . . . freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,—these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.
First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801.
In the full tide of successful experiment.
First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801.
Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations.[435:1] No duty is at the same time more difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect.
Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven, July 12, 1801.
If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few; by resignation, none.[435:2]
Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven, July 12, 1801.
[436]
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.[436:1]
Life of Jefferson (Rayner), p. 356.
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
Notes on Virginia. Query xviii. Manners.
[434:2] See Bolingbroke, page 304.
[434:3] All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights.—Constitution of Massachusetts.
[435:1] This passage is thus paraphrased by John B. McMaster in his "History of the People of the United States" (ii. 586): "One sentence will undoubtedly be remembered till our
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