"The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"And this I know: whether the one True Light Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite, One Flash of It within the Tavern caught Better than in the Temple lost outright."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A Moment's Halt--a momentary taste Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste-- And, Lo! the phantom Caravan has reach'd The NOTHING it set out from. Oh, make haste!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"And when like her, O Sáki, you shall pass Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass, And in your blissful errand reach the spot Where I made One--turn down an empty Glass."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire, And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Then the omnipotent Father with his thunder made Olympus tremble, and from Ossa hurled Pelion."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"They come to see; they come that they themselves may be seen."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Nothing is stronger than custom."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I am not a Virginian, but an American."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell; and George the Third ["Treason!" cried the Speaker]--may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"And o'er them the lighthouse looked lovely as hope,-- That star of life's tremulous ocean."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The scene was more beautiful far to the eye Than if day in its pride had arrayed it."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"That orbed maiden with white fire laden, Whom mortals call the moon."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Kings are like stars,--they rise and set, they have The worship of the world, but no repose."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"What! alive, and so bold, O earth?"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A lovely lady, garmented in light From her own beauty."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Those who inflict must suffer, for they see The work of their own hearts, and this must be Our chastisement or recompense."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The moon of Mahomet Arose, and it shall set; While, blazoned as on heaven's immortal noon, The cross leads generations on."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Then black despair, The shadow of a starless night, was thrown Over the world in which I moved alone."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay, And saw in sleep old palaces and towers Quivering within the wave's intenser day, All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet, the sense faints picturing them."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"You lie--under a mistake, For this is the most civil sort of lie That can be given to a man's face. I now Say what I think."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"All love is sweet, Given or returned. Common as light is love, And its familiar voice wearies not ever. . . . . . . They who inspire it most are fortunate, As I am now; but those who feel it most Are happier still."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of eternity."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats, tho' unseen, amongst us."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Sing again, with your dear voice revealing A tone Of some world far from ours, Where music and moonlight and feeling Are one."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong: They learn in suffering what they teach in song."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory; Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Oh thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I could lie down like a tired child, And weep away the life of care Which I have borne, and yet must bear."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame Over his living head like heaven is bent, An early but enduring monument, Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song In sorrow."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame A mechanized automaton."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A pard-like spirit, beautiful and swift."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"How wonderful is Death! Death and his brother Sleep."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"With hue like that when some great painter dips His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Heaven's ebon vault Studded with stars unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, Seems like a canopy which love has spread To curtain her sleeping world."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I love tranquil solitude And such society As is quiet, wise, and good."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Peter was dull; he was at first Dull,--oh so dull, so very dull! Whether he talked, wrote, or rehearsed, Still with this dulness was he cursed! Dull,--beyond all conception, dull."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Live while you live, the epicure would say, And seize the pleasures of the present day; Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, And give to God each moment as it flies. Lord, in my views, let both united be: I live in pleasure when I live to thee."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Awake, my soul! stretch every nerve, And press with vigour on; A heavenly race demands thy zeal, And an immortal crown."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The hunter and the deer a shade."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Then rushed to meet the insulting foe; They took the spear, but left the shield."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain