67 quotes
Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.
Changeless march the stars above,
Changeless morn succeeds to even;
And the everlasting hills,
Changeless watch the changeless heaven.
The Saint's Tragedy (1848)
Hold on yet awhile. More ways of killing a cat than choking her with cream.
Westward Ho! (1855)
Still the race of hero spirits pass the lamp from hand to hand.
For to be discontented with the divine discontent, and to be ashamed with the noble shame, is the very germ and first upgrowth of all virtue.
I have fought my fight, I have lived my life,
I have drunk my share of wine;
From Trier to Coln there was never a knight
Led a merrier life than mine.
Be good my child, and let who will be clever;
Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long;
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.
Are gods more ruthless than mortals?
Have they no mercy for youth? no love for the souls who have loved them?
Andromeda and Other Poems (1858)
Possession means to sit astride the world
Instead of having it astride of you.
Our wanton accidents take root, and grow
To vaunt themselves God's laws.
Saint's Tragedy (1848)
Clear and cool, clear and cool,
By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool.
The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby (1863)
Do to-day's duty, fight to-day's temptation; and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.
The health of a church depends not merely on the creed which it professes, not even on the wisdom and holiness of a few great ecclesiastics, but on the faith and virtue of its individual members.
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
For science is ... like virtue, its own exceeding great reward.
Oh! that we two lay sleeping,
Under the churchyard sod;
With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast,
And our souls at home with God!
The Saint's Tragedy (1848)
Oh! 'tis easy
To beget great deeds; but in the rearing of them—
The threading in cold blood each mean detail,
And furze brake of half-pertinent circumstance—
There lies the self-denial.
So fleet the works of men, back to their earth again;
Ancient and holy things fade like a dream.
There are two freedoms — the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought.
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
And therefore let us say, in utter faith, "Come as Thou seest best — but in whatsoever way Thou comest — even so come, Lord Jesus."
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
Toil is the true knight's pastime.
The Saint's Tragedy (1848)