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It 's Wiser Being Good Than Bad; It 's Safer Being Meek Than Fierce; It 's Fitter Being Sane Than Mad. My Own Hope Is, A Sun Will Pierce The Thickest Cloud Earth Ever Stretched; That After Last Returns The First, Though A Wide Compass Round Be Fetched.

-Robert Browning

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It 's Wiser Being

Robert Browning

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It 's Wiser Being Good Than Bad; It 's Safer Being Meek Than Fierce; It 's Fitter Being Sane Than Mad. My Own Hope Is, A Sun Will Pierce The Thickest Cloud Earth Ever Stretched; That After Last Returns The First, Though A Wide Compass Round Be Fetched.

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Lost, Lost! One Moment Knelled The Woe Of Years.

Why Stay On The Earth Except To Grow.

What Youth Deemed Crystal, Age Finds Out Was Dew.

I Trust In Nature For The Stable Laws Of Beauty And Utility. Spring Shall Plant And Autumn Garner To The End Of Time. I Trust In God,-the Right Shall Be The Right And Other Than The Wrong, While He Endures. I Trust In My Own Soul, That Can Perceive The Outward And The Inward,-nature's Good And God's.

Still More Labyrinthine Buds The Rose.

Stung By The Splendour Of A Sudden Thought.

I Have Lived, And Seen God's Hand Thro A Life Time, And All Was For The Best.

Sing, Riding 's A Joy! For Me I Ride.

Such Ever Was Love's Way: To Rise, It Stoops.

Imperfection Means Perfection Hid.

Better Have Failed In The High Aim, As I, Than Vulgarly In The Low Aim Succeed As, God Be Thanked! I Do Not.

It 's Wiser Being Good Than Bad; It 's Safer Being Meek Than Fierce; It 's Fitter Being Sane Than Mad. My Own Hope Is, A Sun Will Pierce The Thickest Cloud Earth Ever Stretched; That After Last Returns The First, Though A Wide Compass Round Be Fetched.

Make No More Giants, God!but Elevate The Race At Once!

Though Rome's Gross Yoke Drops Off, No More To Be Endured, Her Teaching Is Not So Obscured By Errors And Perversities, That No Truth Shines Athwart The Lies.

Over My Head His Arm He Flung, Against The World.

A Pretty Woman's Worth Some Pains To See, Nor Is She Spoiled, I Take It, If A Crown Completes The Forehead Pale And Tresses Pure.

Since There My Past Life Lies, Why Alter It?

Shakespeare Was Of Us, Milton Was Of Us, Burns, Shelley, Were With Us. They Watch From Their Graves!

Ah, Love, - You Are My Unutterable Blessing.....i Am In Full Sunshine Now.

All Service Ranks The Same With God,- With God, Whose Puppets, Best And Worst, Are We: There Is No Last Nor First.

God Is Seen God In The Star, In The Stone, In The Flesh, In The Soul And The Clod.

Mothers, Wives And Maids, These Be The Tools With Which Priests Manage Men.

Time'swheelsrunsbackor Stops: Potterand Clayendure.

Look Not Down But Up!

The Sea Heaves Up, Hangs Loaded O'er The Land, Breaks There, And Buries Its Tumultuous Strength.

Dear, Dead Women, With Such Hair, Too--what's Become Of All The Gold Used To Hang And Brush Their Bosoms?

Earth Being So Good, Would Heaven Seem Best?

Where The Heart Lies, Let The Brain Lie Also.

Let Friend Trust Friends, And Love Demand Love's Like.

Only I Discern Infinite Passion, And The Pain Of Finite Hearts That Yearn.

Ambition Is Not What Man Does... But What Man Would Do.

Women Hate A Debt As Men A Gift.

O Woman-country! Wooed Not Wed, Loved All The More By Earth's Male-lands, Laid To Their Hearts Instead.

Day! Faster And More Fast. O'er Night's Brim, Day Boils At Last.

God Be Thanked, The Meanest Of His Creatures Boasts Two Soul-sides, One To Face The World With, One To Show A Woman When He Loves Her.

T'was A Thief Said The Last Kind Word To Christ. Christ Took The Kindness And Forgave The Theft.

I See My Way As Birds Their Trackless Way. I Shall Arrive,- What Time, What Circuit First, I Ask Not; But Unless God Send His Hail Or Blinding Fire-balls, Sleet Or Stifling Snow, In Some Time, His Good Time, I Shall Arrive: He Guides Me And The Bird. In His Good Time.

Truth Is Within Ourselves; It Takes No Rise From Outward Things, Whate'er You May Believe. There Is An Inmost Centre In Us All, Where Truth Abides In Fulness; And Around, Wall Upon Wall, The Gross Flesh Hems It In, This Perfect, Clear Perception-which Is Truth. A Baffling And Perverting Carnal Mesh Binds It, And Makes All Error: And To Know Rather Consists In Opening Out A Way Whence The Imprisoned Splendour May Escape, Than In Effecting Entry For A Light Supposed To Be Without.

My Business Is Not To Remake Myself, But To Make The Absolute Best Of What God Made.

A Minute Of Success Pays For Years Of Failure.

What I Aspired To Be And Was Not, Comforts Me.

The Heavens And Earth Stay As They Were; My Heart Beats As It Beat: The Truth Remains The Truth.

Aspire, Break Bounds. Endeavor To Be Good, And Better Still, Best.

I, Painting From Myself And To Myself, Know What I Do, Am Unmoved By Men's Blame Or Their Praise Either.

Autumn Wins You Best By This Its Mute Appeal To Sympathy For Its Decay.

So Munch On, Crunch On, Take Your Nuncheon, Breakfast, Supper, Dinner, Luncheon!

He Guides Me And The Bird. In His Good Time!

There Shall Never Be One Lost Good! What Was, Shall Live As Before; The Evil Is Null, Is Nought, Is Silence Implying Sound; What Was Good Shall Be Good, With For Evil So Much Good More; On The Earth The Broken Arcs; In The Heaven, A Perfect Round.

The Body Sprang At Once To The Height, And Stayed; But The Soul,-no!

How Very Hard It Is To Be A Christian!

Fair Or Foul The Lot Apportioned Life On Earth, We Bear Alike.

Grow Old With Me. The Best Is Yet To Be. The Last Of Life For Which The First Was Made.

Grow Old Along With Me! The Best Is Yet To Be, The Last Of Life, For Which The First Was Made. Our Times Are In His Hand Who Saith, 'a Whole I Planned, Youth Shows But Half; Trust God: See All, Nor Be Afraid!

Outside Are The Storms And Strangers: We — Oh, Close, Safe, Warm Sleep I And She, — I And She!

If All The World Is A Stage And Life Is Just A Play Upon It, Get Me Two Seats In The Stalls.

The Sad Rhyme Of The Men Who Proudly Clung To Their First Fault, And Withered In Their Pride.

'tis Only When They Spring To Heaven That Angels Reveal Themselves To You.

Into The Street The Piper Stepped, Smiling First A Little Smile As If He Knew What Magic Slept In His Quiet Pipe The While. And The Piper Advanced And The Children Followed.

There Is Nothing So Unpardonable As To Consent To A Senseless, Aimless, Purposeless Life.

At Last Awake From Life, That Insane Dream We Take For Waking Now.

I Walked A Mile With Pleasure; She Chattered All The Way. But Left Me None The Wiser For All She Had To Say. I Walked A Mile With Sorrow And Ne'er A Word Said She; But Oh, The Things I Learned From Her When Sorrow Walked With Me!

If You Get Simple Beauty And Naught Else, You Get About The Best Thing God Invents.

Twere Too Absurd To Slight For The Hereafter The Todays Delight!

Oh The Wild Joys Of Living! The Leaping From Rock To Rock ... The Cool Silver Shock Of The Plunge In A Pool's Living Waters.

I Know A Mount, The Gracious Sun Perceives First When He Visits, Last, Too, When He Leaves The World; And, Vainly Favored, It Repays The Day-long Glory Of His Steadfast Gaze By No Change Of Its Large Calm Front Of Snow.

The Great Mind Knows The Power Of Gentleness.

Pippa's Song The Year's At The Spring The Day's At The Morn Morning's At Seven, The Hill Side's Dew-pearled The Lark's On The Wing The Snail's On The Thorn God's In His Heaven- All's Right With The World

That's The Wise Thrush; He Sings Each Song Twice Over, Lest You Should Think He Never Could Recapture The First Fine Careless Rapture!

In Heaven I Yearn For Knowledge, Account All Else Inanity; On Earth I Confess An Itch For The Praise Of Fools - That's Vanity

All Good Things Are Ours, Nor Soul Helps Flesh More, Now, Than Flesh Helps Soul!

The Curious Crime, The Fine Felicity And Flower Of Wickedness.

How Sad And Bad And Mad It Was - But Then, How It Was Sweet

But How Carve Way I' The Life That Lies Before, If Bent On Groaning Ever For The Past?

The Best Way To Excape His Ire Is, Not To Seem Too Happy.

Rejoice That Man Is Hurled, From Change To Change Unceasingly, His Soul's Wings Never Furled!

'tis An Awkward Thing To Play With Souls.

Boot, Saddle, To Horse, And Away!

Other Heights In Other Lives, God Willing.

It Was Roses, Roses, All The Way, With Myrtle Mixed In My Path Like Mad.

For Life, With All Its Yields Of Joy And Woe Is Just A Chance O' The Prize Of Learning Love.

No Thought Which Ever Stirred A Human Breast Should Be Untold.

The Rain Set Early In Tonight, The Sullen Wind Was Soon Awake, It Tore The Elm-tops Down For Spite, And Did Its Best To Vex The Lake: I Listened With Heart Fit To Break. When Glided In Porphyria; Straight She Shut The Cold Out And The Storm, And Kneeled And Made The Cheerless Grate Blaze Up And All The Cottage Warm.

If You Can Sit At Set Of Sun And Count The Deeds That You Have Done And Counting Find Oneself-denying Act, One Word That Eased The Heart Of Him That Heard. One Glance Most Kind, Which Fell Like Sunshine Where He Went, Then You May Count That Day Well Spent.

What? Was Man Made A Wheel-work To Wind Up, And Be Discharged, And Straight Wound Up Anew? No! Grown, His Growth Lasts; Taught, He Ne'er Forgets: May Learn A Thousand Things, Not Twice The Same.

All's Love, Yet All's Law.

Love, Hope, Fear, Faith - These Make Humanity; These Are Its Sign And Note And Character.

Therefore I Summon Age / To Grant Youth's Heritage.

A People Is But The Attempt Of Many To Rise To The Completer Life Of One; And Those Who Live As Models For The Mass Are Singly Of More Value Than They All.

Art Remains The One Way Possible Of Speaking Truth.

That Great Brow And The Spirit-small Hand Propping It.

How Good Is Life, The Mere Living!

Thou Art My Single Day, God Lends To Leaven What Were All Earth Else, With A Feel Of Heaven.

What A Thing Friendship Is - World Without End.

From The Sprinkled Isles, Lily On Lily, That O'erlace The Sea.

But Little Do Or Can The Best Of Us: That Little Is Achieved Through Liberty.

The Aim, If Reached Or Not, Makes Great The Life: Try To Be Shakespeare, Leave The Rest To Fate!

The Common Problem, Yours, Mine, Everyone's Is ? Not To Fancy What Were Fair In Life Provided It Could Be ? But, Finding First What May Be, Then Find How To Make It Fair Up To Our Means.

I Say, The Acknowledgment Of God In Christaccepted By Thy Reason, Solves For Theeall Questions In The Earth And Out Of It,and Has So Far Advanced Thee To Be Wise.

Kiss Me As If You Made Believe You Were Not Sure This Eve, How My Face, Your Flower, Had Pursed It's Petals Up.

Who Knows Most, Doubts Most.

How Well I Know What I Mean To Do When The Long Dark Autumn Evenings Come, And Where, My Soul, Is Thy Pleasant Hue? With The Music Of All Thy Voices, Dumb In Life’s November Too! I Shall Be Found By The Fire, Suppose, O’er A Great Wise Book As Beseemeth Age, While The Shutters Flap As The Cross-wind Blows, And I Turn The Page, And I Turn The Page, Not Verse Now, Only Prose!

Just For A Handful Of Silver He Left Us, Just For A Riband To Stick In His Coat.

Take Away Love And Our Earth Is A Tomb.

And Let Them Pass, As They Will Too Soon, With The Bean-flowers' Boon, And The Blackbird's Tune, And May, And June!

We Shall March Prospering,-not Thro' His Presence; Songs May Inspirit Us,-not From His Lyre; Deeds Will Be Done,-while He Boasts His Quiescence, Still Bidding Crouch Whom The Rest Bade Aspire.

Be Sure That God Ne'er Dooms To Waste The Strength He Deigns Impart.

Never The Time And The Place And The Loved One All Together.

Oh Never Star Was Lost Here But It Rose Afar.

On The Earth The Broken Arcs; In The Heaven A Perfect Round.

Good To Forgive, Best To Forget.

Desire Joy And Thank God For It. Renounce It, If Need Be, For Other's Sake. That's Joy Beyond Joy.

I Dare Not So Honor My Mere Wishes And Prayers As To Put Them For A Moment Beside Your Noble Acts; But This Know, I Would Rather Submit To The Worst Of Deaths, So Far As Pain Goes, Than Have A Single Dog Or Cat Tortured On The Pretence Of Sparing Me A Twinge Or Two.

And Inasmuch As Feeling, The East's Gift, Is Quick And Transient,- Comes, And Lo! Is Gone, While Northern Thought Is Slow And Durable.

A Minute's Success Pays The Failure Of Years.

O Lyric Love, Half Angel And Half Bird. And All A Wonder And A Wild Desire.

Our Interest's On The Dangerous Edge Of Things. The Honest Thief, The Tender Murderer, The Superstitious Atheist.

Lose Who May-i Still Can Say, Those Who Win Heaven, Blest Are They!

Love Is The Energy Of Life.

What Of Soul Was Left, I Wonder, When The Kissing Had To Stop?

Might She Have Loved Me? Just As Well She Might Have Hated, Who Can Tell!

He Who Did Well In War Just Earns The Right, To Begin Doing Well In Peace.

Night Conceals A World But Reveals A Universe.

For Sudden The Worst Turns The Best To The Brave, The Black Minute's At End, And The Elements' Rage, The Fiend Voices That Rave, Shall Dwindle, Shall Blend, Shall Change, Shall Become First A Peace Out Of Pain, Then A Light, Then Thy Breast, O Thou Soul Of My Soul! I Shall Clasp Thee Again, And With God Be The Rest!

When A Man's Busy, Why Leisure Strikes Him As Wonderful Pleasure: 'faith, And At Leisure Once Is He? Straightway He Wants To Be Busy.

God! Thou Art Love! I Build My Faith On That.

Life Is An Empty Dream.

Talent Should Minister To Genius.

Finds Progress, Man's Distinctive Mark Alone, Not God's, And Not The Beast's; God Is, They Are, Man Partly Is, And Wholly Hopes To Be.

Where The Apple Reddens Never Pry - Lest We Lose Our Edens, Eve And I.

My Care Is For Myself; Myself Am Whole And Sole Reality.

Pleasure Must Succeed To Pleasure, Else Past Pleasure Turns To Pain

The Peerless Cup Afloat Of The Lake-lily Is An Urn Some Nymph Swims Bearing High Above Her Head.

To Me At Least Was Never Evening Yet, But Seemed Far Beautifuller Than Its Day.

What A Name! Was It Love Or Praise? Speech Half-asleep Or Song Half-awake? I Must Learn Spanish, One Of These Days, Only For That Slow Sweet Name's Sake.

Hatred And Cark And Care, What Place Have They / In Yon Blue Liberality Of Heaven?.

O Never Star Was Lost; Here We All Aspire To Heaven And There Is Heaven Above Us. If I Stoop Into A Dark Tremendous Sea Of Cloud, It Is But For A Time; I Press God's Lamp Close To My Breast; Its Splendor Soon Or Late Will Pierce The Gloom. I Shall Emerge Some Day.

O World, As God Has Made It! All Is Beauty.

Good Strong Thick Stupefying Incense-smoke!

All Poetry Is Difficult To Read - The Sense Of It Anyhow.

Wander At Will, Day After Day,-- Wander Away, Wandering Still-- Soul That Canst Soar! Body May Slumber: Body Shall Cumber Soul-flight No More.

Out Of Your Whole Life Give But A Moment! All Of Your Life That Has Gone Before, All To Come After It, -so You Ignore, So You Make Perfect The Present, Condense, In A Rapture Of Rage, For Perfection's Endowment, Thought And Feeling And Soul And Sense.

Graved Inside Of It, "italy".

Let's Contend No More, Love, Strive Nor Weep: All Be As Before Love, - Only Sleep.

I Was Made And Meant To Look For You And Wait For You And Become Yours Forever.

That Low Man Seeks A Little Thing To Do, Sees It And Does It: This High Man, With A Great Thing To Pursue, Dies Ere He Knows It. That Low Man Goes On Adding One To One, His Hundred's Soon Hit: This High Man, Aiming At A Million, Misses An Unit. That, Has The World Here-should He Need The Next, Let The World Mind Him! This, Throws Himself On God, And Unperplext Seeking Shall Find Him.

I Know What I Want And What I Might Gain, And Yet, How Profitless To Know.

All Service Is The Same With God.

Inscribe All Human Effort With One Word, Artistry's Haunting Curse, The Incomplete!

Earth Is Crammed With Heavens.

All June I Bound The Rose In Sheaves, Now, Rose By Rose, I Strip The Leaves.

Tis Looking Downward Makes One Dizzy.

The Great Beacon Light God Sets In All, The Conscience Of Each Bosom.

In God's Good Time, Which Does Not Always Fall On Saturday When The World Looks For Wages.

Strike When Thou Wilt, The Hour Of Rest, But Let My Last Days Be My Best.

Sorrow, The Heart Must Bear, Sits In The Home Of Each, Conspicuous There. Many A Circumstance, At Least, Touches The Very Breast. For Those Whom Any Sent Away,--he Knows: And In The Live Man's Stead, Armor And Ashes Reach The House Of Each.

For The Preacher's Merit Or Demerit, It Were To Be Wished That The Flaws Were Fewer In The Earthen Vessel, Holding Treasure, But The Main Thing Is, Does It Hold Good Measure Heaven Soon Sets Right All Other Matters!

Hand Grasps At Hand, Eye Lights Eye In Good Friendship, And Great Hearts Expand And Grow One In The Sense Of This World's Life.

So, Fall Asleep Love, Loved By Me... For I Know Love, I Am Loved By Thee.

There Are Those Who Believe Something, And Therefore Will Tolerate Nothing; And On The Other Hand, Those Who Tolerate Everything, Because They Believe Nothing.

A Lion May Die Of An Ass's Kick.

One May Do Whatever One Likes. In Art, The Only Thing Is, To Make Sure That One Does Like It.

Every One Soon Or Late Comes Round By Rome.

Death: The Grand Perhaps.

All We Have Gained Then By Our Unbelief Is A Life Of Doubt Diversified By Faith, For One Of Faith Diversified By Doubt: We Called The Chess-board White-we Call It Black.

Ignorance Is Not Innocence But Sin.

Purity And Innocence

Shun Death, Is My Advice.

This Could But Have Happened Once,- And We Missed It, Lost It Forever.

Are There Not, Dear Michael, Two Points In The Adventure Of The Diver,- One, When A Beggar He Prepares To Plunge; One, When A Prince He Rises With His Pearl? Festus, I Plunge.

When Pain Ends, Gain Ends Too.

What So Wild As Words Are?

Ah, But A Man's Reach Should Exceed His Grasp, Or What's A Heaven For?

How Strange Now, Looks The Life He Makes Us Lead; So Free We Seem, So Fettered Fast We Are!

Make Us Happy And You Make Us Good.

Generations Pass While Some Tree Stands, And Old Families Last Not Three Oaks.

Praise Is Deeper Than The Lips

Most Progress Is Most Failure.

Oh, The Little More, And How Much It Is! And The Little Less, And What Worlds Away.

The Candid Incline To Surmise Of Late That The Christian Faith Proves False.

Tis Man's To Explore Up And Down, Inch By Inch, With The Taper His Reason.

Be Sure They Sleep Not Whom God Needs.

I Do What Many Dream Of, All Their Lives

Can We Love But On Condition That The Thing We Love Must Die?

What's The Earth With All Its Art, Verse, Music, Worth — Compared With Love, Found, Gained, And Kept?

Wedding Anniversary

The Trouble That Most Of Us Find With The Modern Matched Sets Of Clubs Is That They Don't Really Seem To Know Any More About The Game Than The Old Ones Did.

When I Love Most, Love Is Disguised. In Hate; And When Hate Is Surprised, In Love, Then I Hate Most.

We Mortals Cross The Ocean Of This World Each In His Average Cabin Of A Life; The Bests Not Big, The Worst Yields Elbowroom.

But God Has A Few Of Us To Whom He Whispers In The Ear; The Rest May Reason And Welcome; 'tis We Musicians Know.

No! Let Me Taste The Whole Of It, Fare Like My Peers, The Heroes Of Old, Bear The Brunt, In A Minute Pay Glad Life's Arrears Of Pain, Darkness And Cold.

The World And Life's Too Big To Pass For A Dream

A Pretty Woman's Worth Some Pains To See.

I Trust In Nature For The Stable Laws Of Beauty And Utility. Spring Shall Plant And Autumn Garner To The End Of Time.

White Shall Not Neutralize The Black, Nor Good Compensate Bad In Man, Absolve Him So; Life's Business Being Just The Terrible Choice.

Truth That Peeps Over The Glass's Edge When Dinner's Done.

What Joy Is Better Than The News Of Friends?

Sappho Survives, Because We Sing Her Songs; And Eschylus, Because We Read His Plays!

Who Hears Music Feels His Solitude Peopled At Once.

Inspirational Music

There Are Three Ways Of Learning Golf: By Study, Which Is The Most Wearisome; By Imitation, Which Is The Most Fallacious; And By Experience, Which Is The Most Bitter.

Any Nose May Ravage With Impunity A Rose.

Say Not "a Small Event!" Why "small"? Costs It More Pain That This Ye Call A "great Event" Should Come To Pass From That? Untwine Me From The Mass Of Deeds Which Make Up Life, One Deed Power Shall Fall Short In Or Exceed!

Once More On My Adventure Brave And New.

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