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The History Of Man For The Nine Months Preceding His Birth Would, Probably, Be Far More Interesting And Contain Events Of Greater Moment Than All The Three Score And Ten Years That Follow It.

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The History Of Man

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The History Of Man For The Nine Months Preceding His Birth Would, Probably, Be Far More Interesting And Contain Events Of Greater Moment Than All The Three Score And Ten Years That Follow It.

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Hence, Viper Thoughts, That Coil Around My Mind,reality's Dark Dream!i Turn From You, And Listen To The Wind,which Long Has Raved Unnoticed.

Never Can True Courage Dwell With Them, Who, Playing Tricks With Conscience, Dare Not Look At Their Own Vices.

The Genius Of Coleridge Is Like A Sunken Treasure Ship, And Coleridge A Diver Too Timid And Lazy To Bring Its Riches To The Surface.

As There Is Much Beast And Some Devil In Man, So Is There Some Angel And Some God In Him. The Beast And The Devil May Be Conquered, But In This Life Never Destroyed.

Pedantry Consists In The Use Of Words Unsuitable To The Time, Place, And Company.

Never Pursue Literature As A Trade.

Let Every Book-worm, When In Any Fragrant, Scarce Old Tome, He Discovers A Sentence, A Story, An Illustration, That Does His Heart Good, Hasten To Give It The Widest Circulation That Newspapers And Magazines, Penny And Halfpenny, Can Afford.

God! Sing, Ye Meadow-streams, With Gladsome Voice! Ye Pine-groves, With Your Soft And Soul-like Sounds! And They Too Have A Voice, You Piles Of Snow, And In Their Perilous Fall Shall Thunder, God!

Flowers Are Lovely; Love Is Flower-like; Friendship Is A Sheltering Tree; Oh The Joys That Came Down Shower-like, Of Friendship, Love, And Liberty, Ere I Was Old!

Milton Had A Highly Imaginative, Cowley A Very Fanciful Mind.

It [is] Very Unfair To Influence A Child's Mind By Inculcating Any Opinions Before It [has] Come To Years Of Discretion To Choose For Itself.

Christianity Is Not A Theory Or Speculation, But A Life; Not A Philosophy Of Life, But A Life And A Living Process.

Mr. Mum's Rudesheimer And The Church Of St. Geryon Are The Two Things Alone That Deserve To Be Known In The Body-and-soul-stinking Town Of Cologne.

A Man May Devote Himself To Death And Destruction To Save A Nation; But No Nation Will Devote Itself To Death And Destruction To Save Mankind.

And Looking To The Heaven, That Bends Above You, How Oft! I Bless The Lot, That Made Me Love You.

Advice Is Like Snow - The Softer It Falls, The Longer It Dwells Upon, And The Deeper In Sinks Into The Mind.

The Misery Of Human Life Is Made Up Of Large Masses, Each Separated From The Other By Certain Intervals. One Year The Death Of A Child; Years After, A Failure In Trade; After Another Longer Or Shorter Interval, A Daughter May Have Married Unhappily; In All But The Singularly Unfortunate, The Integral Parts That Compose The Sum-total Of The Unhappiness Of A Man's Life Are Easily Counted And Distinctly Remembered.

In Shakespeare One Sentence Begets The Next Naturally; The Meaning Is All Inwoven. He Goes On Kindling Like A Meteor Through The Dark Atmosphere.

Ah! From The Soul Itself Must Issue Forth A Light, A Glory, A Fair Luminous Cloud Enveloping The Earth And From The Soul Itself Must There Be Sent A Sweet And Potent Voice, Of Its Own Birth Of All Sweet Sounds The Life And Element!

A Spring Of Love Gush'd From My Heart, And I Bless'd Them Unaware.

Experience Informs Us That The First Defence Of Weak Minds Is To Recriminate.

The Principle Of The Gothic Architecture Is Infinity Made Imaginable. It Is No Doubt A Sublimer Effort Of Genius Than The Greek Style; But Then It Depends Much More On Execution For Its Effect.

Talk Of The Devil, And His Horns Appear.

Oh, The Difficulty Of Fixing The Attention Of Men On The World Within Them!

Truths ... Are Too Often Considered As So True, That They Lose All The Power Of Truth, And Lie Bed-ridden In The Dormitory Of The Soul, Side By Side With The Most Despised And Exploded Errors.

The First Class Of Readers May Be Compared To An Hour-glass, Their Reading Being As The Sand; It Runs In And Runs Out, And Leaves Not A Vestige Behind. A Second Class Resembles A Sponge, Which Imbibes Everything, And Returns It In Nearly The Same State, Only A Little Dirtier. A Third Class Is Like A Jelly-bag, Which Allows All That Is Pure To Pass Away, And Retains Only The Refuse And Dregs. The Fourth Class May Be Compared To The Slave Of Golconda, Who, Casting Aside All That Is Worthless, Preserves Only The Pure Gems.

A Falsehood Is, In One Sense, A Dead Thing; But Too Often It Moves About, Galvanized By Self-will, And Pushes The Living Out Of Their Seats.

Work Without Hope Draws Nectar In A Sieve, And Hope Without An Object Cannot Live.

A Man's As Old As He's Feeling. A Woman As Old As She Looks.

Man Is Distinguished From The Brute Animals In Proportion As Thought Prevails Over Sense: But In The Healthy Processes Of The Mind, A Balance Is Constantly Maintained Between The Impressions From Outward Objects And The Inward Operations Of The Intellect:--for If There Be An Overbalance In The Contemplative Faculty, Man Thereby Becomes The Creature Of Mere Meditation, And Loses His Natural Power Of Action.

He Who Is Best Prepared Can Best Serve His Moment Of Inspiration.

Inspirational Life

There Is Nothing Insignificant-nothing.

Water, Water, Everywhere, And All The Boards Did Shrink; Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop To Drink.

Shakespeare Knew The Human Mind, And Its Most Minute And Intimate Workings, And He Never Introduces A Word, Or A Thought, In Vain Or Out Of Place; If We Do Not Understand Him, It Is Our Own Fault.

No Man Does Anything From A Single Motive.

People Of Humor Are Always In Some Degree People Of Genius.

If A Man Is Not Rising Upward To Be An Angel, Depend On It, He Is Sinking Downward To Be A Devil.

Painting Is The Intermediate Somewhat Between A Thought And A Thing.

Seldom Can Philosophic Genius Be More Usefully Employed Than In Thus Rescuing Admitted Truths From The Neglect Caused By The Very Circumstance Of Their Universal Admission.

For I Was Reared In The Great City, Pent With Cloisters Dim,and Saw Naught Lovely But The Sky And Stars.but Thou, My Babe! Shalt Wander Like A Breeze By Lakes And Sandy Shores, Beneath The Cragsof Ancient Mountains, And Beneath The Clouds,which Image In Their Bulk Both Lakes And Shoresand Mountain Crags: So Shall Thou See And Hearthe Lovely Shapes And Sounds Intelligible Of That Eternal Language, Which Thy Godutters, Who From Eternity Doth Teachhimself In All, And Al Things In Himselfgreat Universal Teacher! He Shall Moldthy Spirit And By Giving , Make It Ask.

Joy Is The Sweet Voice, Joy The Luminous Cloud. We In Ourselves Rejoice! And Thence Flows All That Charms Or Ear Or Sight, All Melodies The Echoes Of That Voice, All Colours A Suffusion From That Light.

That Gracious Thing, Made Up Of Tears And Light.

As I Live And Am A Man, This Is An Unexaggerated Tale - My Dreams Become The Substances Of My Life.

The Act Of Praying Is The Very Highest Energy Of Which The Human Mind Is Capable; Praying, That Is, With The Total Concentration Of The Faculties. The Great Mass Of Worldly Men And Of Learned Men Are Absolutely Incapable Of Prayer.

Perhaps 'tis Pretty To Force Together Thoughts So All Unlike Each Other; To Mutter And Mock A Broken Charm, To Dally With Wrong That Does No Harm.

The Present System Of Taking Oaths Is Horrible. It Is Awfully Absurd To Make A Man Invoke God's Wrath Upon Himself, If He Speaks False; It Is, In My Judgment, A Sin To Do So.

Forth From His Dark And Lonely Hiding-place, (portentous Sight!) The Owlet Atheism, Sailing On Obscene Wings Athwart The Noon, Drops His Blue-fringed Lids, And Holds Them Close, And Hooting At The Glorious Sun In Heaven, Cries Out, ''where Is It?''

Therefore All Seasons Shall Be Sweet To Thee, Whether The Summer Clothe The General Earth With Greenness, Or The Redbreast Sit And Sing Betwixt The Tufts Of Snow On The Bare Branch Of Mossy Apple Tree.

The Whole Faculties Of Man Must Be Exerted In Order To Call Forth Noble Energies; And He Who Is Not Earnestly Sincere Lives In But Half His Being, Self-mutilated, Self-paralyzed.

Blest Hour! It Was A Luxury--to Be!

That Saints Will Aid If Men Will Call; For The Blue Sky Bends Over All!

Democracy Is The Healthful Lifeblood Which Circulates Through The Veins And Arteries, Which Supports The System, But Which Ought Never To Appear Externally, And As The Mere Blood Itself.

Greatness And Goodness Are Not Means, But Ends.

God Grant Me Grace My Prayers To Say: O God! Preserve My Mother Dear, In Strength And Health For Many A Year; And O! Preserve My Father Too, And May I Pay Him Reverence Due; And May I My Best Thoughts Employ To Be My Parents' Hope And Joy; And O! Preserve My Brothers Both From Evil Doings, And From Sloth, And May We Always Love Each Other, Our Friends, Our Father, And Our Mother, And Still, O Lord, To Me Impart An Innocent And Grateful Heart, That After My Last Sleep I May Awake To Thy Eternal Day! Amen.

A Mother Is A Mother Still, The Holiest Thing Alive.

The Poet, Described In Ideal Perfection, Brings The Whole Soul Of Man Into Activity, With The Subordination Of Its Faculties To Each Other According To Their Relative Worth And Dignity. He Diffuses A Tone And Spirit Of Unity, That Blends, And (as It Were) Fuses , Each Into Each, By That Synthetic And Magical Power, To Which I Would Exclusively Appropriate The Name Of Imagination.

How Wonderfully Beautiful Is The Delineation Of The Characters Of The Three Patriarchs In Genesis! To Be Sure If Ever Man Could, Without Impropriety, Be Called, Or Supposed To Be, "the Friend Of God," Abraham Was That Man. We Are Not Surprised That Abimelech And Ephron Seem To Reverence Him So Profoundly. He Was Peaceful, Because Of His Conscious Relation To God.

And Here Were Forests Ancient As The Hills, Enfolding Sunny Spots Of Greenery.

An Undevout Poet Is An Impossibility.

A Man Of Maxims Only Is Like A Cyclops With One Eye, And That In The Back Of His Head.

But Metre Itself Implies A Passion , I.e. A State Of Excitement, Both In The Poet's Mind, & Is Expected In That Of The Reader.

The Artist Must Imitate That Which Is Within The Thing, That Which Is Active Through Form And Figure, And Discourses To Us By Symbols.

I Do Not Wish You To Act From These Truths; No, Still And Always Act From Your Feelings; Only Meditate Often On These Truths That Sometime Or Other They May Become Your Feelings.

It Would Not Be Correct To Say That Every Moral Obligation Involves A Legal Duty; But Every Legal Duty Is Founded On A Moral Obligation.

Laughter Is Equally The Expression Of Extreme Anguish And Horror As Of Joy: As There Are Tears Of Sorrow And Tears Of Joy, So Is There A Laugh Of Terror And A Laugh Of Merriment.

The Wise Only Possess Ideas; The Greater Part Of Mankind Are Possessed By Them.

A State, In Idea, Is The Opposite Of A Church. A State Regards Classes, And Not Individuals; And It Estimates Classes, Not By Internal Merit, But External Accidents, As Property, Birth, Etc. But A Church Does The Reverse Of This, And Disregards All External Accidents, And Looks At Men As Individual Persons, Allowing No Gradations Of Ranks, But Such As Greater Or Less Wisdom, Learning, And Holiness Ought To Confer. A Church Is, Therefore, In Idea, The Only Pure Democracy.

Like One, That On A Lonesome Road Doth Walk In Fear And Dread, And Having Once Turned Round Walks On, And Turns No More His Head; Because He Knows, A Frightful Fiend Doth Close Behind Him Tread.

All Sympathy Not Consistent With Acknowledged Virtue Is But Disguised Selfishness.

The Myriad-minded Man, Our, And All Men's, Shakespeare, Has In This Piece Presented Us With A Legitimate Farce In Exactest Consonance With The Philosophical Principles And Character Of Farce, As Distinguished From Comedy And From Entertainments. A Proper Farce Is Mainly Distinguished From Comedy By The Licence Allowed, And Even Required, In The Fable, In Order To Produce Strange And Laughable Situations. The Story Need Not Be Probable, It Is Enough That It Is Possible.

Above All Things I Entreat You To Preserve Your Faith In Christ. It Is My Wealth In Poverty, My Joy In Sorrow, My Peace Amid Tumult. For All The Evil I Have Committed, My Gracious Pardon; And For Every Effort, My Exceeding Great Reward. I Have Found It To Be So. I Can Smile With Pity At The Infidel Whose Vanity Makes Him Dream That I Should Barter Such A Blessing For The Few Subtleties From The School Of The Cold-blooded Sophists.

Nature Has Her Proper Interest; And He Will Know What It Is, Who Believes And Feels, That Every Thing Has A Life Of Its Own, And That We Are All One Life.

Remorse Weeps Tears Of Blood.

The Worth And Value Of Knowledge Is In Proportion To The Worth And Value Of Its Object.

To Carry Feelings Of Childhood Into The Powers Of Adulthood, To Combine The Child's Sense Of Wonder And Novelty With The Appearances Which Every Day For Years Has Rendered Familiar, This Is The Character And Privilege Of Genius, And One Of The Marks Which Distinguish It From Talent.

All Powerful Souls Have Kindred With Each Other

To Leave No Interval Between The Sentence And The Fulfillment Of It Doth Beseem God Only, The Immutable!

And I, The While, The Sole Unbusy Thing, Nor Honey Make, Nor Pair, Nor Build, Nor Sing.

Veracity Does Not Consist In Saying, But In The Intention Of Communicating The Truth.

The Paternal And Filial Duties Discipline The Heart, And Prepare It For The Love Of All Mankind. The Intensity Of Private Attachment Encourages, Not Prevents, Universal Benevolence.

Imagination That Compares And Contrasts With What Is Around As Well As What Is Better And Worse Is The Living Power And Prime Agent Of All Human Perception Judgement And Emotional Reaction.

Lovely Was The Death Of Him Whose Life Was Love! Holy With Power, He On The Thought-benighted Skeptic Beamed Manifest Godhead.

Nor Dim Nor Red, Like God's Own Head, The Glorious Sun Uprist

Everyone Should Have Two Or Three Hives Of Bees. Bees Are Easier To Keep Than A Dog Or A Cat. They Are More Interesting Than Gerbils.

I Have Often Been Surprised That Mathematics, The Quintessence Of Truth, Should Have Found Admirers So Few And So Languid. Frequent Consideration And Minute Scrutiny Have At Length Unravelled The Cause: Viz . That Though Reason Is Feasted, Imagination Is Starved; Whilst Reason Is Luxuriating In Its Proper Paradise, Imagination Is Wearily Travelling On A Dreary Desert.

The History Of Man For The Nine Months Preceding His Birth Would, Probably, Be Far More Interesting And Contain Events Of Greater Moment Than All The Three Score And Ten Years That Follow It.

'tis A Month Before The Month Of May, And The Spring Comes Slowly Up This Way.

Iambics March From Short To Long;-- With A Leap And A Bound The Swift Anapaests Throng

Creation Rather Than Painting, Or If Painting, Yet Such, And With Such Co-presence Of The Whole Picture Flash'd At Once Upon The Eye, As The Sun Paints In A Camera Obscura. (describing His Poetic Ideal, 1817)

That Only Can With Propriety Be Styled Refinement Which, By Strengthening The Intellect, Purifies The Manners.

Architecture Exhibits The Greatest Extent Of The Difference From Nature Which May Exist In Works Of Art. It Involves All The Powers Of Design, And Is Sculpture And Painting Inclusively. It Shows The Greatness Of Man, And Should At The Same Time Teach Him Humility.

How Like Herrings And Onions Our Vices Are In The Morning After We Have Committed Them.

Cant Is The Parrot Talk Of A Profession.

Good And Bad Men Are Each Less So Than They Seem.

The Heart Should Have Fed Upon The Truth, As Insects On A Leaf, Till It Be Tinged With The Color, And Show Its Food In Every ... Minutest Fiber.

A Savage Place! As Holy And Enchanted/as E'er Beneath The Waning Moon Was Haunted/by Woman Wailing For Her Demon Lover!

A Bitter And Perplexed "what Shall I Do?" Is Worse To Man Than Worse Necessity.

For She Belike Hath Drunken Deep Of All The Blessedness Of Sleep.

Why Aren't More Gems From Our Great Authors Scattered Over The Country? Great Books Aren't Within Everybody's Reach.

Poetry, Even That Of The Loftiest, And Seemingly, That Of The Wildest Odes, [has] A Logic Of Its Own As Severe As That Of Science; And More Difficult, Because More Subtle, More Complex, And Dependent On More And More Fugitive Causes. In The Truly Great Poets... There Is A Reason Assignable, Not Only For Every Word, But For The Position Of Every Word.

Method Means Primarily A Way Or Path Of Transit. From This We Are To Understand That The First Idea Of Method Is A Progressive Transition From One Step To Another In Any Course. If In The Right Course, It Will Be The True Method; If In The Wrong, We Cannot Hope To Progress.

The Happiness Of Life Is Made Up Of Minute Fractions.

A Man's Desire Is For The Woman, But The Woman's Desire Is Rarely Other Than For The Desire Of The Man.

I Know The Bible Is Inspired Because It Finds Me At Greater Depths Of My Being Than Any Other Book.

The Rules Of Prudence, Like The Laws Of The Stone Tables, Are For The Most Part Prohibitive. "thou Shalt Not" Is Their Characteristic Formula.

Persecution Is A Very Easy Form Of Virtue.

Works Of Imagination Should Be Written In Very Plain Language; The More Purely Imaginative They Are The More Necessary It Is To Be Plain.

The Man Hath Penance Done, And Penance More Will Do.

Greatness And Goodness Are Not Means, But Ends! Hath He Not Always Treasures, Always Friends, The Good Great Man? Three Treasures, Love And Light, And Calm Thoughts, Regular As Infants' Breath; And Three Firm Friends, More Sure Than Day And Night, Himself, His Maker, And The Angel Death.

I Am Sure From My Experience Of Juries That, In A Criminal Case Especially, They Will Obey The Law As Declared By The Judge; They Will Take The Law From The Judge, Whether They Like It Or Do Not Like It, And Apply It Honestly To The Facts Before Them.

To Believe And To Understand Are Not Diverse Things, But The Same Things In Different Periods Of Growth.

Indignation At Literary Wrongs I Leave To Men Born Under Happier Stars. I Cannot Afford It.

Conscience Is The Pulse Of Reason

He Holds Him With His Glittering Eye, And Listens Like A Three Years' Child.

And All Who Heard Should See Them There, And All Should Cry, Beware! Beware! His Flashing Eyes, His Floating Hair! Weave A Circle Round Him Thrice, And Close Your Eyes With Holy Dread, For He On Honey-dew Hath Fed, And Drunk The Milk Of Paradise.

Women Have Their Heads In Their Hearts. Man Seems To Have Been Destined For A Superior Being; As Things Are, I Think Women Generally Better Creatures Than Men. They Have Weaker Appetites And Weaker Intellects But Much Stronger Affections. A Man With A Bad Heart Has Been Sometimes Saved By A Strong Head; But A Corrupt Woman Is Lost Forever.

You Talk About Making This Article Cheaper By Reducing Its Price In The Market From 8 D. To 6 D. But Suppose, In So Doing, You Have Rendered Your Country Weaker Against A Foreign Foe; Suppose You Have Demoralized Thousands Of Your Fellow-countrymen, And Have Sown Discontent Between One Class Of Society And Another, Your Article Is Tolerably Dear, I Take It, After All.

Real Pain Can Alone Cure Us Of Imaginary Ills. We Feel A Thousand Miseries Till We Are Lucky Enough To Feel Misery.

It Has Been Observed Before That Images, However Beautiful, Though Faithfully Copied From Nature, And As Accurately Represented In Words, Do Not Of Themselves Characterize The Poet. They Become Proofs Of Original Genius Only As Far As They Are Modified By A Predominant Passion; Or By Associated Thoughts Or Images Awakened By That Passion; Or When They Have The Effect Of Reducing Multitude To Unity, Or Succession To An Instant; Or Lastly, When A Human And Intellectual Life Is Transferred To Them From The Poet's Spirit.

Love Is The Admiration And Cherishing Of The Amiable Qualities Of The Beloved Person, Upon The Condition Of Yourself Being The Object Of Their Action.

Be Not Merely A Man Of Letters! Let Literature Be An Honorable Augmentations To Your Arms, Not Constitute The Coat Or Fill The Escutcheon!

On The Greek Stage A Drama, Or Acted Story, Consisted In Reality Of Three Dramas, Called Together A Trilogy, And Performed Consecutively In The Course Of One Day.

If You Wish To Assured Of The Truth Of Christianity, Try It. Believe, And If Thy Belief Be Right, That Insight Which Gradually Transmutes Faith Into Knowledge Will Be The Reward Of Thy Belief.

The First Great Requisite Is Absolute Sincerity. Falsehood And Disguise Are Miseries And Misery-makers.

How Well He Fell Asleepl Like Some Proud River, Widening Toward The Sea; Calmly And Grandly, Silently And Deep, Life Joined Eternity.

To Be Beloved Is All I Need, And Whom I Love, I Love Indeed.

Law Grows, And Though The Principles Of Law Remain Unchanged, Yet (and It Is One Of The Advantages Of The Common Law) Their Application Is To Be Changed With The Changing Circumstances Of The Times. Some Persons May Call This Retrogression, I Call It Progression Of Human Opinion.

The Language Of The Dream/night Is Contrary To That Of Waking/day. It Is A Language Of Images And Sensations, The Various Dialects Of Which Are Far Less Different From Each Other, Than The Various Day-languages Of Nations.

But Oh! Each Visitation Suspends What Nature Gave Me Any My Birth, My Shaping Spirit Of Imagination.

Our Own Heart, And Not Other Men's Opinion, Forms Our True Honor.

The Faults Of Great Authors Are Generally Excellences Carried To An Excess.

Tranquillity! Thou Better Name Than All The Family Of Fame.

Remorse Is As The Heart In Which It Grows; If That Be Gentle, It Drops Balmy Dews Of True Repentance; But If Proud And Gloomy, It Is The Poison Tree, That Pierced To The Inmost, Weeps Only Tears Of Poison.

What! Did Sir W[alter] R[aleigh] Believe That A Male And Female Ounce (and, If So, Why Not Two Tigers And Lions, Etc?) Would Have Produced, In A Course Of Generations, A Cat, Or A Cat A Lion? This Is Darwinizing With A Vengeance.

Day After Day, Day After Day, We Stuck, Nor Breath Nor Motion; As Idle As A Painted Ship Upon A Painted Ocean.

The Annals Of The French Revolution Prove That The Knowledge Of The Few Cannot Counteract The Ignorance Of The Many.... The Light Of Philosophy, When It Is Confined To A Small Minority, Points Out The Possessors As The Victims Rather Than The Illuminators Of The Multitude.

The Three Great Ends Which A Statesman Ought To Propose To Himself In The Government Of A Nation Are, — 1. Security To Possessors; 2. Facility To Acquirers; And 3. Hope To All.

Ignorance Seldom Vaults Into Knowledge.

Not One Man In A Thousand Has Either Strength Of Mind Or Goodness Of Heart To Be An Atheist. I Repeat It. Not One Man In A Thousand Has Either Strength Of Mind Or Goodness Of Heart To Be An Atheist.

Acquaintance Many, And Conquaintance Few, But For Inquaintance I Know Only Two - The Friend I've Wept And The Maid I Woo.

I Stood In Unimaginable Trance And Agony That Cannot Be Remembered.

I Never Knew A Trader In Philanthropy Who Was Not Wrong In His Head Or Heart Somewhere Or Other.

When A Man Mistakes His Thoughts For Persons And Things, He Is Mad.

Milton Has Carefully Marked In His Satan The Intense Selfishness, The Alcohol Of Egotism, Which Would Rather Reign In Hell Than Serve In Heaven.

The Author Of Biographia Literaria Was Already A Ruined Man. Sometimes, However, To Be A "ruined Man" Is Itself A Vocation.

What Comes From The Heart Goes To The Heart

The Primary Notion I Hold To Be The Living Power.

A Gothic Church Is A Petrified Religion.

The Fastidious Taste Will Find Offence In The Occasional Vulgarisms, Or What We Now Call Slang, Which Not A Few Of Our Writers Seem To Have Affected.

Finally, Good Sense Is The Body Of Poetic Genius, Fancy Its Drapery, Motion Its Life, And Imagination The Soul That Is Everywhere And In Each; And Forms All Into One Graceful And Intelligent Whole.

Our Quaint Metaphysical Opinions, In An Hour Of Anguish, Are Like Playthings By The Bedside Of A Child Deathly Sick.

I May Not Hope From Outward Forms To Win / The Passion And The Life, Whose Fountains Are Within.

Health Is A Great Blessing--competence Obtained By Honorable Industry Is A Great Blessing--and A Great Blessing It Is To Have Kind, Faithful, And Loving Friends And Relatives; But, That The Greatest Of All Blessings, As It Is The Most Ennobling Of All Privileges, Is To Be Indeed A Christian.

Men, I Still Think, Ought To Be Weighed Not Counted.

The Jews Would Not Willingly Tread Upon The Smallest Piece Of Paper In Their Way, But Took It Up; For Possibly, They Say, The Name Of God May Be On It. Though There Was A Little Superstition In This, Yet Truly There Is Nothing But Good Religion In It, If We Apply It To Men. Trample Not On Any; There May Be Some Work Of Grace There, That Thou Knowest Not Of. The Name Of God May Be Written Upon That Soul Thou Treadest On; It May Be A Soul That Christ Thought So Much Of, As To Give His Precious Blood For It; Therefore Despise It Not.

The Juggle Of Sophistry Consists, For The Most Part, In Using A Word In One Sense In All The Premises, And In Another Sense In The Conclusion.

Iago's Soliloquy - The Motive-hunting Of A Motiveless Malignity - How Awful It Is!

Deep Thinking Is Attainable Only By A Man Of Deep Feeling, And All Truth Is A Species Of Revelation

Fellows Of Colleges In The Universities Are In One Sense The Recipients Of Alms, Because They Receive Funds Which Originally Were Of An Eleemosynary Character.

Reviewers Are Usually People Who Would Have Been, Poets, Historians, Biographer, If They Could. They Have Tried Their Talents At One Thing Or Another And Have Failed; Therefore They Turn Critic.

Show Me One Couple Unhappy Merely On Account Of Their Limited Circumstances, And I Will Show You Ten Who Are Wretched From Other Causes.

Every Crime Has, In The Moment Of Its Perpetration, Its Own Avenging Angel-dark Misgiving, An Ominous Sinking At The Inmost Heart.

Exclusively Of The Abstract Sciences, The Largest And Worthiest Portion Of Our Knowledge Consists Of Aphorisms: And The Greatest And Best Of Men Is But An Aphorism.

Men Of Genius Are Rarely Much Annoyed By The Company Of Vulgar People, Because They Have A Power Of Looking At Such Persons As Objects Of Amusement Of Another Race Altogether.

Ancestral Voices Prophesying War.

Ah! Well A-day! What Evil Looks / Had I From Old And Young! / Instead Of The Cross, The Albatross / About My Neck Was Hung.

Common Sense In An Uncommon Degree Is What The World Calls Wisdom.

With No Other Privilege Than That Of Sympathy And Sincere Good Wishes, I Would Address An Affectionate Exhortation To The Youthful Literati, Grounded On My Own Experience. It Will Be But Short; For The Beginning, Middle, And End Converge To One Charge: Never Pursue Literature As A Trade.

Beginning Middle And End

Language Is The Armory Of The Human Mind, And At Once Contains The Trophies Of Its Past And The Weapons Of Its Future Conquests.

All Nature Seems At Work.

Clergymen Who Publish Pious Frauds In The Interest Of The Church Are The Orthodox Liars Of God.

The Beautiful Arises From The Perceived Harmony Of An Object, Whether Sight Or Sound, With The Inborn And Constitutive Rules Of The Judgment And Imagination: And It Is Always Intuitive.

There Is One Art Of Which People Should Be Masters - The Art Of Reflection.

Joy Rises In Me, Like A Summer's Morn.

So Lonely 'twas That God Himself Scarce Seemed There To Be.

So Will I Build My Altar In The Fields, And The Blue Sky My Fretted Dome Shall Be, And The Sweet Fragrance That The Wild Flower Yields Shall Be The Incense I Will Yield To Thee.

Trochee Trips From Long To Short; From Long To Long In Solemn Sort Slow Spondee Stalks.

To Know, To Esteem, To Love,-and Then To Part, Makes Up Life's Tale To Many A Feeling Heart.

The Curiosity Of An Honorable Mind Willingly Rests There, Where The Love Of Truth Does Not Urge It Farther Onward, And The Love Of Its Neighbor Bids It Stop; In Other Words, It Willingly Stops At The Point Where The Interests Of Truth Do Not Beckon It Onward, And Charity Cries, Halt!

Guilt Is A Timorous Thing Ere Perpetration; Despair Alone Makes Guilty Men Be Bold.

We Have To Administer The Law Whether We Like It Or No.

Brute Animals Have The Vowel Sounds; Man Only Can Utter Consonants.

Courage Multiplies The Chances Of Success By Sometimes Making Opportunities, And Always Availing Itself Of Them; And In This Sense Fortune May Be Said To Favor Fools By Those Who, However Prudent In Their Opinion, Are Deficient In Valor And Enterprise.

The Best Part Of Human Language, Properly So Called, Is Derived From Reflection On The Acts Of The Mind Itself.

The Happiness Of Life Is Made Up Of Minute Fractions - The Little, Soon Forgotten Charities Of A Kiss Or A Smile, A Kind Look Or Heartfelt Compliment.

Ignorance Seldom Vaults Into Knowledge, But Passes Into It Through An Intermediate State Of Obscurity, Even As Night Into Day Through Twilight.

The Book Of Job Is Pure Arab Poetry Of The Highest And Most Antique Cast.

Swiftly, Swiftly Flew The Ship, Yet She Sailed Softly Too: Sweetly, Sweetly Blew The Breeze - On Me Alone It Blew.

The History Of All The World Tells Us That Immoral Means Will Ever Intercept Good Ends.

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 By Slow Stream, Or Pebbly Spring, Or Chasms And Watery Depths, All These Have Vanished; They Live No Longer In The Faith Of Reason.

No Voice; But Oh - The Silence Sank Like Music On My Heart.

That Passage Is What I Call The Sublime Dashed To Pieces By Cutting Too Close With The Fiery Four-in-hand Round The Corner Of Nonsense.

Never Yet Did There Exist A Full Faith In The Divine Word (by Whom Light As Well As Immortality Was Brought Into The World) Which Did Not Expand The Intellect, While It Purified The Heart--which Did Not Multiply The Aims And Objects Of The Understanding, While It Fixed And Simplified Those Of The Desires And Passions.

In Politics, What Begins In Fear Usually Ends In Folly.

One Thought Includes All Thought, In The Sense That A Grain Of Sand Includes The Universe.

He Is The Best Physician Who Is The Most Ingenious Inspirer Of Hope.

In What Way, Or By What Manner Of Working, God Changes A Soul From Evil To Good, How He Impregnates The Barren Rock--the Priceless Gems And Gold--is To The Human Mind An Impenetrable Mystery, In All Cases Alike.

A Woman In A Single State May Be Happy And May Be Miserable; But Most Happy, Most Miserable, These Are Epithets Belonging To A Wife.

Hamlet 's Character Is The Prevalence Of The Abstracting And Generalizing Habit Over The Practical. He Does Not Want Courage, Skill, Will, Or Opportunity; But Every Incident Sets Him Thinking; And It Is Curious, And At The Same Time Strictly Natural, That Hamlet, Who All The Play Seems Reason Itself, Should He Impelled, At Last, By Mere Accident To Effect His Object. I Have A Smack Of Hamlet Myself, If I May Say So.

For Compassion A Human Heart Suffices, But For Full And Adequate Sympathy, With Joy, An Angel's Only.

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