45 quotes
English poet, literary critic and philosopher (1772–1834)
“Hence, viper thoughts, that coil around my mind, Reality's dark dream! I turn from you, and listen to the wind.”
"Language is the armoury of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests."
on Language
"How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them."
on Philosophy
"Our own heart, and not other men's opinions, forms our true honor."
on Honor
"Poetry: the best words in the best order."
on Writing
"Works of imagination should be written in very plain language the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain."
"He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration."
on Inspirational
"Friendship is a sheltering tree."
on Relationships
"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom."
on Wisdom
"The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman."
on Love
"To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illuminate only the track it has passed."
"Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing did certain persons die before they sing."
on Death
"What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole its body brevity and wit its soul."
"The wise only possess ideas the greater part of mankind are possessed by them."
"He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope."
on Hope
"As I live and am a man, this is an unexaggerated tale - my dreams become the substances of my life."
on Dreams
"People of humor are always in some degree people of genius."
on Humor
"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."
on Happiness
"In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure."
on Politics
"Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing."
"Swans sing before they die— 't were no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing."
