Quotes to inspire and reflect

End of the wonderful one-hoss shay. Logic is logic. That’s all I say.

 

Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay, That was built in such a logical way It ran a hundred years to a day?

 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past!

 

There is no time like the old time, when you and I were young.

 

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon’s roar— The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more.

 

As if in his tower of ivory, retired before noon. 1

 

Never less alone than when alone.

 

By many a temple half as old as Time.

 

This feat of Tell, the archer, will be told While yonder mountains stand upon their base. By heaven! The apple’s cleft right through the core.

 

You saw his weakness, and he will never forgive you.

 

The mountain cannot frighten one who was born on it.

 

Who reflects too much will accomplish little.

 

Pain is short, and joy is eternal.

 

Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain. 6

 

There’s no such thing as chance; And what to us seems merest accident Springs from the deepest source of destiny.

 

I am better than my reputation.

 

If you want to know yourself, Just look how others do it; If you want to understand others, Look into your own heart.

 

Many a crown shines spotless now That yet was deeply sullied in the winning.

 

Great souls suffer in silence.

 

The richest monarch in the Christian world; The sun in my own dominions never sets. 3

 

What one refuses in a minute No eternity will return.

 

O who knows what slumbers in the background of the times?

 

World history is the world’s court. 2

 

There are three lessons I would write, Three words as with a burning pen, In tracings of eternal light Upon the hearts of men.

 

Joy, thou spark from Heav’n immortal, Daughter of Elysium! Drunk with fire, toward Heaven advancing Goddess, to thy shrine we come. Thy sweet magic brings together What stern Custom spreads afar; All men become brothers Where thy happy wing-beats are. 1

 

Did you think the lion was sleeping because he didn’t roar?

 

This thing you see, a bright-colored deceit, displaying all the many charms of art, with false syllogisms of tint and hue is a cunning deception of the eye…

The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself.

 

Foolish men who accuse a woman mindlessly— you cannot even see you cause what you abuse.

 

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small. 1

 

Armed peace.

 

Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest: To give and not to count the cost; To fight and not to heed the wounds; To toil and not to seek for rest; To labor and not ask for any reward Save that of knowing that we do Thy will.

 

O reverend Chaucere, rose of rethoris all, As in oure tong ane flour imperiall, That raise in Britane evir, quho redis rycht, Thou beris of makaris the triumph riall. 3

 

Yisterday fair up sprang the flouris, This day thai are all slane with schouris; And fowles in forrest that sang cleir Now walkis with a drery cheir; Full caild are baith thair beddis and bouris.

 

Our plesance here is all vain glory, This false world is but transitory.

 

I that in heill wes and gladnes Am trublit now with gret seiknes And feblit with infermite: Timor Mortis conturbat me. 1

 

London, thou art the flower of Cities all.

 

Gem of all joy, jasper of jocundity.

 

Kingdoms are but cares, State is devoid of stay; Riches are ready snares, And hasten to decay.

 

Love is he, radiant with great splendor, And speaks to us of Thee, O Most High.

 

Praise to thee, my Lord, for all thy creatures, Above all Brother Sun Who brings us the day and lends us his light.

 

Slowly consumed, like fire down a candle; Forever flowing, like a passing river. Now, morning, I face my lone shadow: Suddenly my eyes are bleared with tears. 1

 

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Drunk we lie down in empty hills, heaven and earth our quilt and pillow. 1

 

Always look up words in a good dictionary, even when you know what they mean.

You don’t choose a word if you’re a writer as a golf pro chooses a club with the shot in mind. You choose it with yourself in mind— your needs, your passions. It has to carry the green, yes, but it must also carry you .

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.

You can’t clobber any reader while he’s looking. You divert his attention, then you clobber him and he never knows what hit him.