30 quotes
Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.
There is nothing so difficult to support imperturbably as the head of a lovely girl, except her grief.
Absence and death are the same—only that in death there is no suffering.
Him I would call the powerful one who controls the storms of his mind.
Study is the bane of childhood, the oil of youth, the indulgence of adulthood, and a restorative in old age.
Of all failures, to fail in a witticism is the worst, and the mishap is the more calamitous in a drawn-out and detailed one.
Imaginary Conversations (1824)
Ambition is but Avarice on stilts and masked.
Imaginary Conversations (1824)
The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.
To Robert Browning (1846)
Have heard her sigh and soften out the name.
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes
May weep, but never see,
A night of memories and of sighs
I consecrate to thee.
Rose Aylmer (1806)
Little men in lofty places, who throw long shadows, because our sun is setting.
Imaginary Conversations (1824)
There is delight in singing, though none hear
Beside the singer.
To Robert Browning (1846)
Ah what avails the sceptered race,
Ah what the form divine!
Rose Aylmer (1806)
Heat and animosity, contest and conflict, may sharpen the wits, although they rarely do; they never strengthen the understanding, clear the perspicacity, guide the judgment, or improve the heart.
I am heartily glad to witness your veneration for a Book which to say nothing of its holiness or authority, contains more specimens of genius and taste than any other volume in existence.
We must not indulge in unfavourable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe that they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain.
Imaginary Conversations (1824)
She smiled, and more of pleasure than disdain
Was in her dimpled chin and liberal lip.
Gebir (1798)
You should indeed have longer tarried
By the roadside before you married.
'Tis verse that gives
Immortal youth to mortal maids.
Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend: such nails are then thrown into the dust or into the furnace.
Imaginary Conversations (1824)