Familiar Quotations

"These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are rendered so ridiculously and equally extravagant by the old romancers that f...

Go call a coach, and let a coach be called, And let the man who calleth be the caller; And in his calling let him nothing call But Coach! Coach! Coach! O for a coach, ye gods!

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the nobl...

This house is to be let for life or years; Her rent is sorrow, and her income tears, Cupid 't has long stood void; her bills make known, She must be dearly let, or let alone.

Some say, compared to Bononcini, That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny; Others aver that he to Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange all this difference should be 'Twixt...

Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen; Here's to the widow of fifty; Here's to the flaunting, extravagant quean, And here's to the housewife that's thrifty. Let the toast pass...

I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated, needs but to be seen; But seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Alike all ages: dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze; And the gay grandsire, skilled in gestic lore, Has frisked beneath the burden of threesc...

A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues, that syllable men's names On sands, and shores, and desert w...

Full little knowest thou that hast not tride, What hell it is in suing long to bide; To loose good dayes, that might be better spent To wast long nights in pensive discontent; T...

The soul of music slumbers in the shell, Till waked and kindled by the master's spell; And feeling hearts--touch them but rightly--pour A thousand melodies unheard before! Then,...

When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy? What art can wash her guilt away? The only art her guilt to cover, T...

O that the desert were my dwelling-place, With one fair spirit for my minister, That I might all forget the human race, And, hating no one, love but only her!

Alas! how light a cause may move Dissension between hearts that love! Hearts that the world in vain had tried, And sorrow but more closely tied; That stood the storm when waves...

Go, Soul, the body's guest, Upon a thankless errand! Fear not to touch the best: The truth shall be thy warrant. Go, since I needs must die, And give the world the lie.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A maid whom there were none to praise, And very few to love: A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! F...

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds; And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is...

In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and a sullennes against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rej...

Three Poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn; The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, The next in majesty, in both the last. The force of n...

Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth; While all the stars that round her bu...

Fallen from his high estate, And weltering in his blood; Deserted, at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed; On the bare earth exposed he lies, With not a friend to cl...

Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew; The big drops, mingling with the milk he drew, Gave the sad presage of his future years, The child of misery, baptized in tears.

"A jolly place," said he, "in times of old! But something ails it now: the spot is cursed." Never to blend our pleasure or our pride With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.

To be, or not to be? that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And...

[Note 8: See Hudibras, Part ii. Canto ii. line 698. Mr. Macaulay thinks that this proverb originated in the preference generally given to the gray mares of Flanders over the fin...

She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender li...

And then, the whining schoolboy, with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then, the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful...

Take, O take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn; And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn; But my kisses bring again, Seals of love, but sea...

O that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary...

[Note 16: The authorship both of the words and music of "God save the King" has long been a matter of dispute, and is still unsettled, though the weight of the evidence is in fa...

O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea; Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire, and behold our home.

Sweet is every sound, Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying through the lawn, The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumera...

The sky is changed! and such a change! O night, And storm, and darkness! ye are wondrous strong, Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light Of a dark eye in woman.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to d...

I have seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground, applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell; To which, in silence hushed, his very soul L...

The intelligible forms of ancient poets, The fair humanities of old religion, The power, the beauty, and the majesty, That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountain, Or forest...

How fading are the joys we dote upon! Like apparitions seen and gone; But those which soonest take their flight Are the most exquisite and strong; Like angel's visits, short and...

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

Our revels row are ended: these our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-...

Look here, upon this picture, and on this; The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. See what a grace was seated on this brow! Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; An...

Good name, in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been...

And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer, but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long. And then they say no spirit dares stir abro...

Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward, Thou little valiant, great in villany! Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight But when her...

My way of life Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in...

If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.-- That strain again--it had a dying fall; O, it came o'er my...

I would do what I pleased, and doing what I pleased, I should have my will, and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is contented, there is no more to be desired;...

O how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, More pangs and fears...

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Tur...

Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing; more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you...

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood; Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres; Thy knotted and combined lo...

My story being done She gave me for my pains a world of signs: She swore, In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing; strange; 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful: She wished she...

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hat...

Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you, I was down, and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, def...

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye...

The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face, The heart whose softness harmonized the whole And oh! that eye was in itself a soul!

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse t...

She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm in the bud, Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought, And, with a green and yellow melancholy, She sat, like Pati...

O, I have passed a miserable night, So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night, Though 'twere to b...

O, now, forever, Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars, That make ambition virtue! O farewell! Farewell the neighing steed, a...

True love's the gift which God has given To man alone beneath the heaven. It is the secret sympathy, The silver link, the silken tie, Which heart to heart, and mind to mind, In...

[Note 26: This expression is of much Creator antiquity, it appears in the Chronicle of Battel Abbey, from 1066 to 1176, page 27, Lower's Translation, and also in Piers Ploughman...

Then shall our names, Familiar in their mouths as household words-- Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster-- Be in their flowing cups fres...

I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life; but for my single self, I had as lief not be as live to be In awe of such a thing as I myself.

Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love. Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself, And...

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how li...

No daintie flowre or herbe that growes on grownd No arborett with painted blossomes drest And smelling sweete, but there it might be fownd To bud out faire, and throwe her sweet...

O woman! in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made, When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministeri...

Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless. So dull, so dead in look, so woebegone, Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burned.

Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnati...

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man. To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms And bears his blushing honors thick...

Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights; Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

What in me is dark, Illumine; what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men.

As quick as lightning, in the breach Just in the place where honor 's lodged, As wise philosophers have judged, Because a kick in that place more Hurts honor than deep wounds be...

The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes,

Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lowered upon our house, In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune: Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.

In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is...

Dar'st thou, Cassius, now Leap in with me into this angry flood, And swim to yonder point?--Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, And bade him follow.

I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy, The sleepless soul that perished in his pride; Of him who walked in glory and in joy, Following his plough, along the mountainside.

Verily, I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow.