77 quotes
The Devil is an echo
Of search unsatisfied.
Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892)
Goodnight! Now dwindle wan and low
The embers of the afterglow,
And slowly over leaf and lawn
Is twilight's dewy curtain drawn.
Lamia's Winter-Quarters (1898)
In vain would science scan and trace
Firmly her aspect. All the while,
There gleams upon her far-off face
A vague unfathomable smile.
At the Gate of the Convent (1885)
Friendship, 'tis said, is love without his wings,
And friendship, sir, is sweet enough for me.
Savonarola (1881)
Imagination in Poetry, as distinguished from mere Fancy, is the transfiguring of the Real, or actual, into the Ideal.
The Bridling of Pegasus (1910)
Of all our feigned affections, there is none
So hollow, selfish, and injurious,
As what we christen Patriotism.
Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892)
[H]e who saves an ancient tree does better even than he who plants a new one.
In Veronica's Garden (1895)
[E]xclusiveness in a garden is a mistake as great as it is in society.
The Garden That I Love (1894)
When the foal and broodmare hinny,
And in every cut-down spinney
Ladysmocks grow mauve and mauver,
Then the winter days are over
Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892)
[P]eople who canalise their lives and prearrange their enjoyments lose much of the enchantment which attends the guiding beneficence of chance.
Lamia's Winter-Quarters (1898)
Imagination should
A reconciler, not a rebel, be,
To teach the heart of man to apprehend
Nature's vicissitudes, and bear his own,
With sympathetic fancy.
Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892)
[T]he charm of a half-neglected old garden arises from its having, once upon a time, not been neglected.
Haunts of Ancient Peace (1902)
[W]henever one wants to cite something wise and true, one has to go either to the ancients or to the eighteenth century for it.
The Poet's Diary (1904)
Doth Nature draw me, 'tis because,
Unto my seeming, there doth lurk
A lawlessness about her laws,
More mood than purpose in her work.
At the Gate of the Convent (1885)
A person of the right sort is one who has a solid grasp and realistic apprehension of people and things as they are, an irresistible inclination to transfigure them according to his imagination, and an inexhaustible supply of philosophic humour.
Haunts of Ancient Peace (1902)
People living and dead, things past and present, all are contributories to that diminutive stream, oneself; a reflection which is essentially consoling, since it associates one with the sum of things and prevents one from living in barren isolation.
The Garden That I Love: Second Series (1907)
Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As there is wrong to right,
Wail of the weak against the strong,
Or tyranny to fight
Lyrical Poems (1891)
[A]mbition should be spoken of as not the last, but the first infirmity of noble minds, of which they gradually purge themselves as they grow more mature.
In Veronica's Garden (1895)
All imitation is exaggeration.
Haunts of Ancient Peace (1902)
... 'tis ordained,
In death, as sooth in every pinch of life,
That women, lest they cry too loud, must hug
Their agony in silence.
Savonarola (1881)