Over 40,000 Famous Quotes Sorted By Topic and Author

Absence from whom we love is worse than death.

Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.

By low ambition and the thirst of praise.

On the summit see, The seals of office glitter in his eyes, He climbs, he pants, he grasps them! At his heels, Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends, And with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down, And wins them, but to lose them in his turn.

Dress drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires And introduces hunger, frost, and woe, Where peace and hospitality might reign.

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies. . . . It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.

When his wife asked him to change clothes to meet the German Ambassador: "If they want to see me, here I am. If they want to see my clothes, open my closet and show them my suits."

O Popular Applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?

Silently as a dream the fabric rose; No sound of hammer or of saw was there.

None but an author knows an author's cares, Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears.

Habits of close attention, thinking heads, Become more rare as dissipation spreads, Till authors hear at length one general cry Tickle and entertain us, or we die!

So that the jest is clearly to be seen, Not in the words--but in the gap between; Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.

The church-going bell.

How soft the music of those village bells, Falling at interval upon the ear In cadence sweet; now dying all away, Now pealing loud again, and louder still, Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on! With easy force it opens all the cells Where Memory slept.

I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.

Toil for the brave! The brave that are no more.

A business with an income at its heels.

With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.