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We lie and listen to the hissing waves,
Wherein our boat seems sharpening its keel,
Which on the sea's face all unthankful graves
An arrowed scratch as with a tool of steel.

— John Davidson

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More quotes by John Davidson

One must become
Fanatic – be a wedge – a thunder-bolt
To smite a passage through the close-grained world.

Mere by-blows are the world and we,
And time within eternity
A sheer anachronism.

Unwilling friend, let not your spite abate;
Help me with scorn, and strengthen me with hate.

Ballads and Songs (1894)

Business – the world's work – is the sale of lies:
Not goods, but trade-marks; and still more and more
In every branch becomes the sale of money.

From fear in every guise,
From sloth, from love of pelf,
By war's great sacrifice
The world redeems itself.

War Song. Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Davidson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.