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John Godfrey Saxe Quotes

d. 1887 United States

John Godfrey Saxe (2 June 1816 – 31 March 1887) was an American poet.

United States
19th-century poets
Poets

Random John Godfrey Saxe quote

35 quotes

Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.

'Tis well to borrow from the good and great;
'Tis wise to learn; 'tis God-like to create!

The Library: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

At Learning's fountain it is sweet to drink,
But 'tis a nobler privilege to think.

The Library; Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

'T is wise to learn; 't is God-like to create.

"God bless the man who first invented sleep!"
So Sancho Panza said, and so say I.

He says a thousand pleasant things,—
But never says "Adieu."

My Familiar (1849)

Old Care has a mortgage on every estate,
And that's what you pay for the wealth that you get.

He takes the strangest liberties —
But never takes his leave!

Golden hair, like sunlight streaming
On the marble of her shoulder.

Young men! it 's a critical thing to go
Exactly right with a lady in tow;
But when you are in the proper track,
Just go ahead, and never look back!

All things of beauty are not theirs alone
Who hold the fee; but unto him no less
Who can enjoy, than unto them who own,
Are sweetest uses given to possess.

Again I hear that creaking step!—
He's rapping at the door!
Too well I know the boding sound
That ushers in a bore.

My Familiar (1849)

INGLORIOUS friend! most confident I am
Thy life is one of very little ease;
Albeit men mock thee with their similes
And prate of being "happy as a clam!"

I love vast libraries; yet there is a doubt,
If one be better with them or without,—
Unless he use them wisely, and, indeed,
Knows the high art of what and how to read.

The Library: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

NAY, weep not, dearest, though the child be dead;
He lives again in Heaven's unclouded life

A youth would marry a maiden,
For fair and fond was she;
But he was high and she was low,
And so it might not be.

A youth would marry a maiden,
For fair and fond was she;
But she was rich, and he was poor,
And so it might not be.

But her voice is still living immortal,
The same you have frequently heard,
In your rambles in valleys and forests,
Repeating your ultimate word.

When Nature gives a gorgeous rose,
Or yields the simplest fern,
She writes this motto on the leaves, —
"To whom it may concern!"
And so it is the poet comes
And revels in her bowers,
And, — though another hold the land,
Is owner of the flowers.

The Masquerade and Other Poems (1866)

Bless me! this is pleasant
Riding on the Rail.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Godfrey Saxe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.