Background Image

...

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!

-Robert Browning

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Say Not "a Small

Robert Browning

...

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!

Views: 11

Topic

More From Robert Browning

Women Hate A Debt As Men A Gift.

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

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

Would You Have Your Songs Endure? Build On The Human Heart.

It Is The Glory And Good Of Art, That Art Remains The One Way Possible Of Speaking Truth, To Mouths Like Mine At Least.

Needs There Groan A World In Anguish Just To Teach Us Sympathy?

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

I Hold That A Man Should Strive To The Uttermost For His Life's Set Prize.

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

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

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

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.

You Never Know What Life Means Till You Die; Even Throughout Life, Tis Death That Makes Life Live.

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.

To Do Good Things In The World, First You Must Know Who You Are And What Gives Meaning To Your Life.

Man Partly Is And Wholly Hopes To Be.

Graved Inside Of It, "italy".

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

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

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

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

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!

I Show You Doubt, To Prove That Faith Exists.

Brightest Truth, Purest Trust In The Universe, All Were For Me, In The Kiss Of One Girl.

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

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.

Boot, Saddle, To Horse, And Away!

But Facts Are Facts And Flinch Not.

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

We Find Great Things Are Made Of Little Things, And Little Things Go Lessening Till At Last Comes God Behind Them.

Rats They Fought The Dogs And Killed The Cats, And Bit The Babies In The Cradles, And Ate The Cheeses Out Of The Vats, And Licked The Soup From The Cook's Own Ladles. Split Open The Kegs Of Salted Sprats, Made Nests Inside Men's Sunday Hats, And Even Spoiled The Women's Chats By Drowning Their Speaking With Shrieking And Squeaking In Fifty Different Sharps And Flats.

Love Is The Energy Of Life.

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

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

Who Knows Most, Doubts Most.

I Am Grown Peaceful As Old Age Tonight.

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

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.

Then Welcome Each Rebuff That Turns Earth's Smoothness Rough, Each Sting That Bids Nor Sit Nor Stand, But Go! Be Our Joys Three-parts Pain! Strive, And Hold Cheap The Strain; Learn, Nor Account The Pang; Dare, Never Grudge The Throe!

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

Was There Nought Better Than To Enjoy? No Feat Which, Done, Would Make Time Break, And Let Us Pent-up Creatures Through Into Eternity, Our Due? No Forcing Earth Teach Heaven's Employ?

I Want To Know A Butcher Paints, A Baker Rhymes For His Pursuit, Candlestick-maker Much Acquaints His Soul With Song, Or, Haply Mute, Blows Out His Brains Upon The Flute.

A Pretty Woman's Worth Some Pains To See.

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.

Oh, To Be In England Now That April's There.

April And Spring

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

There Is An Inmost Center In Us All, Where Truth Abides In Fullness;....and, To Know, Rather Consists In Opening Out A Way Where The Imprisoned Splendor May Escape, Then In Effecting Entry For A Light Supposed To Be Without.

A Lion May Die Of An Ass's Kick.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

And I Have Written Three Books On The Soul, Proving Absurd All Written Hitherto, And Putting Us To Ignorance Again.

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.

When The Liquor's Out, Why Clink The Cannikin?

There Is No Truer Truth Obtainable By Man Than Comes Of Music

Who Knows But The World May End Tonight

Other Heights In Other Lives, God Willing.

Good To Forgive, Best To Forget.

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

Go In Thy Native Innocence, Rely On What Thou Hast Of Virtue, Summon All, For God Towards Thee Hath Done His Part, Do Thine.

When Is Man Strong Until He Feels Alone?

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

Motherhood: All Love Begins And Ends There.

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!

I Do What Many Dream Of, All Their Lives

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

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

Good Strong Thick Stupefying Incense-smoke!

One Wise Man's Verdict Outweighs All The Fools'.

I Hear You Reproach, "but Delay Was Best, For Their End Was A Crime." Oh, A Crime Will Do As Well, I Reply, To Serve For A Test As A Virtue Golden Through And Through, Sufficient To Vindicate Itself And Prove Its Worth At A Moment's View! . . . . . . Let A Man Contend To The Uttermost For His Life's Set Prize, Be It What It Will! The Counter Our Lovers Staked Was Lost As Surely As If It Were Lawful Coin; And The Sin I Impute To Each Frustrate Ghost Is-the Unlit Lamp And The Ungirt Loin, Though The End In Sight Was A Vice, I Say.

Smiling The Boy Fell Dead.

Escape Me? Never, Beloved! While I Am I, And You Are You.

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

The Past Is Gained, Secure, And On Record.

Since There My Past Life Lies, Why Alter It?

You Should Not Take A Fellow Eight Years Old And Make Him Swear To Never Kiss The Girls.

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

The Moment Eternal - Just That And No More - When Ecstasy's Utmost We Clutch At The Core While Cheeks Burn, Arms Open, Eyes Shut, And Lips Meet!

Tis Looking Downward Makes One Dizzy.

As Is Your Sort Of Mind, So Is Your Sort Of Search: You Will Find What You Desire.

Talent Should Minister To Genius.

In The Morning Of The World, When Earth Was Nigher Heaven Than Now.

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.

Any Nose May Ravage With Impunity A Rose.

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

Measure Your Mind's Height By The Shade It Casts.

A Man In Armor Is His Armor's Slave.

Stung By The Splendour Of A Sudden Thought.

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

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

Wedding Anniversary

Death Was Past, Life Not Come: So He Waited.

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.

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

How He Lies In His Rights Of A Man! Death Has Done All Death Can. And Absorbed In The New Life He Leads, He Recks Not, He Heeds Nor His Wrong Nor My Vengeance; Both Strike On His Senses Alike, And Are Lost In The Solemn And Strange Surprise Of The Change.

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

Of What I Call God, And Fools Call Nature.

The Devil, That Old Stager, Who Leads Downward, Perhaps, But Fiddles All The Way!

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.

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

Italy, My Italy! Queen Mary's Saying Serves For Me (when Fortune's Malice Lost Her Calais): "open My Heart, And You Will See Graved Inside Of It 'italy.'"

As If True Pride Were Not Also Humble!

Poetry, Like Love, Is Something We Never Truly Say Goodbye To.

Once More On My Adventure Brave And New.

Make Us Happy And You Make Us Good.

What Youth Deemed Crystal, Age Finds Out Was Dew.

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

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

Earth Being So Good, Would Heaven Seem Best?

All The Breath And The Bloom Of The Year In The Bag Of One Bee; All The Wonder And Wealth Of The Mine In The Heart Of One Gem; In The Core Of One Pearl All The Shade And The Shine Of The Sea; Breath And Bloom, Shade And Shine,- Wonder, Wealth, And-how Far Above Them- Truth, That's Brighter Than Gem, Truth, That's Purer Than Pearl,- Brightest Truth, Purest Trust In The Universe- All Were For Me In The Kiss Of One Girl.

God Is In His Heaven, All's Right With The World.

I Have No Little Insight Into The Feelings Of Furniture, And Treat Books And Prints With A Reasonable Consideration. How Some People Use Their Pictures, For Instance, Is A Mystery To Me; Very Revolting All The Same--portraits Obliged To Face Each Other For Ever--prints Put Together In Portfolios.

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

The Ultimate, Angels' Law, Indulging Every Instinct Of The Soul There Where Law, Life, Joy, Impulse Are One Thing!

Never Brag, Never Bluster, Never Blush.

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

Why Comes Temptation But For Man To Meet And Master And Make Crouch Beneath His Foot, And So Be Pedestaled In Triumph?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Silence 'tis Awe Decrees.

Time'swheelsrunsbackor Stops: Potterand Clayendure.

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

Who Hears Music Feels His Solitude Peopled At Once.

Inspirational Music

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.

Life Is An Empty Dream.

No Work Begun Shall Ever Pause For Death.

If Two Lives Join, There Is Oft A Scar. They Are One And One, With A Shadowy Third; One Near One Is Too Far.

Who Knows Most, Doubts Most; Entertaining Hope Means Recognizing Fear.

Must In Death Your Daylight Finish? My Sun Sets To Rise Again.

Truth Is Within Ourselves. There Is An Inmost Center In Us All, Where The Truth Abides In Fullness.

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

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.

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.

I Give The Fight Up: Let There Be An End, A Privacy, An Obscure Nook For Me. I Want To Be Forgotten Even By God.

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.

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

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.

Things Are Where Things Are, And, As Fate Has Willed, So Shall They Be Fulfilled.

Faultless To A Fault.

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.

What Joy Is Better Than The News Of Friends?

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.

How Good Is Life, The Mere Living!

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

Oh, Good Gigantic Smile O' The Brown Old Earth, This Autumn Morning! How He Sets His Bones To Bask I' The Sun, And Thrusts Out Knees And Feet. From The Ripple To Run Over In Its Mirth

For Thence A Paradox Which Comforts While It Mocks, - Shall Life Succeed In That It Seems To Fail: What I Aspired To Be, And Was Not, Comforts Me: A Brute I Might Have Been, But Would Not Sink I' The Scale.

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

Genius Has Somewhat Of The Infantine; But Of The Childish Not A Touch Or Taint.

'tis An Awkward Thing To Play With Souls.

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

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

Death: The Grand Perhaps.

My Sun Sets To Rise Again.

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

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

Fail I Alone, In Words And Deeds? Why, All Men Strive And Who Succeeds?

Have You Found Your Life Distasteful? My Life Did, And Does, Smack Sweet. Was Your Youth Of Pleasure Wasteful? Mine I Saved And Hold Complete. Do Your Joys With Age Diminish? When Mine Fail Me, I'll Complain. Must In Death Your Daylight Finish? My Sun Sets To Rise Again.

Men Are Not Angels, Neither Are They Brutes.

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

Lofty Designs Must Close In Like Effects.

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

Art Remains The One Way Possible Of Speaking Truth.

The Best Things In Life Can Never Be Kept; They Must Be Given Away. A Smile, A Kiss, And Love If You Are Asking If I'd Hurt You, The Answer Is Never. If You Are Asking If I Love U,the Answer Is Forever. If You Are Asking If I Want U,the Answer Is I Do. If You Are Asking What I Value Most, The Answer Is You Grow Old Along With Me, The Best Is Yet To Be.

The Lie Was Dead And Damned, And Truth Stood Up Instead.

How Good Is Man's Life, The Mere Living! How Fit To Employ All The Heart And The Soul And The Senses Forever In Joy!

The Only Fault's With Time; All Men Become Good Creatures: But So Slow!

Truth Is Within Ourselves.

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

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

A Minute Of Success Pays For Years Of Failure.

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

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

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.

Again The Cousin's Whistle! Go, My Love.

In The First Is The Last, In Thy Will Is My Power To Believe.

Go Practice If You Please With Men And Women: Leave A Child Alone For Christ's Particular Love's Sake!

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

Days Decrease, / And Autumn Grows, Autumn In Everything.

A Face To Lose Youth For, To Occupy Age With The Dream Of, Meet Death With.

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

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

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

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.

"with This Same Key Shakespeare Unlocked His Heart" Once More! Did Shakespeare? If So, The Less Shakespeare He!

What's Come To Perfection Perishes. Things Learned On Earth We Shall Practice In Heaven; Works Done Least Rapidly Art Most Cherishes.

And Gain Is Gain, However Small.

A Whole I Planned, Youth Shows But Half; Trust God: See All, Nor Be Afraid!

Best Is Yet To Come

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!

A Minute's Success Pays The Failure Of Years.

Man Seeks His Own Good At The Whole World's Cost.

Thought Is The Soul Of Act.

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

Trending Author

David Schwimmer

John C. Maxwell

Category