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But pleasures are like poppies spread;
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white—then melts forever.

— Robert Burns Tam o' Shanter (1793)

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Happiness

More quotes by Robert Burns

The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.

Tam o' Shanter (1790)

Nae man can tether time or tide.

Tam o' Shanter (1790)

What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.

Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

Tam o' Shanter (1790)

All Robert Burns quotes →

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Attribution

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