223 quotes
He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
All that hath been majestical
In life or death, since time began,
Is native in the simple heart of all,
The angel heart of man.
It is the tendency of all creeds, opinions, and political dogmas that have once defined themselves in institutions to become inoperative.
The Election in November 1860 (1860)
O thou, whose days are yet all spring,
Faith, blighted once, is past retrieving;
Experience is a dumb, dead thing;
The victory's in believing.
If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should answer that there is one book better than a cheap book, — and that is a book honestly come by.
Where Church and State are habitually associated it is natural that minds, even of a high order, should unconsciously come to regard religion as only a subtler mode of police.
Literary Essays, vol. III (1870)
True love is but a humble, low born thing,
And hath its food served up in earthenware;
It is a thing to walk with, hand in hand,
Through the every-dayness of this workday world.
It is curious how tyrannical the habit of reading is, and what shifts we make to escape thinking. There is no bore we dread being left alone with so much as our own minds.
Literary Essays, vol. I (1864)
Sence I've ben here, I've hired a chap to look about for me
To git me a transplantable an' thrifty fem'ly-tree.
Not what we give, but what we share,—
For the gift without the giver is bare.
I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast
Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk that will not let me rest.
On the Capture of Certain Fugitive Slaves Near Washington (1845)
The Maple puts her corals on in May,
While loitering frosts about the lowlands cling,
To be in tune with what the robins sing.
Heartsease and Rue (1888)
God is not dumb, that he should speak no more;
If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness
And find'st not Sinai, 'tis thy soul is poor.
Not but wut abstract war is horrid,
I sign to thet with all my heart,—
But civilysation doos git forrid
Sometimes, upon a powder-cart.
The Biglow Papers (1848)
Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed,
And feeds the green earth with its swift decay,
Leaving it richer for the growth of truth.
In vain we call old notions fudge,
And bend our conscience to our dealing;
The Ten Commandments will not budge,
And stealing will continue stealing.
Not as all other women are
Is she that to my soul is dear;
Her glorious fancies come from far,
Beneath the silver evening star,
And yet her heart is ever near.
These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,
Each softly lucent as a rounded moon;
The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,
Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
Heartsease and Rue (1888)
In life's small things be resolute and great
To keep thy muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she'll say to thee,
"I find thee worthy; do this deed for me"?
Heartsease and Rue (1888)
I do not believe in violent changes, nor do I expect them.
On Democracy (1884)