655 quotes
Everybody has some particular point on which they pique themselves ; generally something which ill deserves the pride bestowed upon it.
Oh, the heart
Knows not the power of music till it loves !
Where, oh, where's the chain to fling,
One that will chain Cupid's wing—
One that will have longer power
Than the April sun or shower?
Abel the victim—Cain the homicide,
Were type and prophecy
Of times that were to be,
Thus reddened from the first life’s troubled tide.
That charm of genius, triumph of high art;
Poetry's divination, which reveals
All nature's secrets, such as influence
The heart of man.
Thou shalt bid thy fair hands rove
O'er thy soft lute's silver slumbers,
Waking sounds; of song and love
In their sweet Italian numbers.
Many were the disguises he assumed. At one time he even meditated cutting off his mustaches ; — that would have been "the unkindest cut of all.”
Romance and Reality (1831)
They named him — ah ! yet
Do I start at that name
For my spirit hath left her earthly home
And found a nobler dwelling,
Where the music of light is that of life,
And the starry harps are swelling.
The Golden Violet (1827)
Human nature is accused of much more selfishness than it really has ; a thousand kindly emotions break in upon and redeem our daily and interested life.
Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)
Now a nation's character is in its literature.
I do not believe that affection can exist with truth, without the ideal, and without blending with itself all that is best and most earnest in our nature.
For wishes are effectual but by will,
And that too much is impotent and void
In frail humanity; and time steals by
Sinful and wavering, and unredeem'd.
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)
Beautiful weakness! oh, if weak,
That woman's heart should tinge her cheek!
'Tis sad to change it for the strength
That heart and cheek must know at length.
The Golden Violet (1827)
It is a gem which hath the power to show
If plighted lovers keep their faith or no :
If faithful, it is like the leaves of spring ;
If faithless, like those leaves when withering.
The Improvisatrice (1824)
Alas! the praise given to the ear
Ne'er was nor e'er can be sincere—
And does but waste away the mind
On which it preys:—in vain
Would they in whom its poison lurks
A worthier state attain.
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)
When civilization comes to a certain point, the changes in the higher classes are little more than those of fancies and of fashions ; but those operating on the classes below are changes of character.
What a mistake rage is ! anger should never go beyond a sneer, if it really desires revenge.
Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)
I would give worlds, could I believe
One-half that is profess'd me;
Affection! could I think it Thee,
When Flattery has caress'd me.
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)
They say gravity is the centre of attraction ; I rather think that noise is. Nothing so soon assembles the inhabitants of a house as a loud and sudden noise : ...
Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)