The first duty of a wise advocate is to convince his opponents that he understands their arguments, and sympathies with their just feelings.
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel-dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
An orphan’s curse would drag to hell, a spirit from on high; but oh! more horrible than that, is a curse in a dead man’s eye!
This is the course of every evil deed, that, propagating still it brings forth evil.
Painting is the intermediate between a thought and a thing.
I have found in the Bible words for my inmost thoughts, songs for my joy, utterance for my hidden griefs and pleadings for my shame and feebleness.
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 sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; With far-heard whisper o’er the sea, Off shot the spectre-bark.
And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.
A spring of love gush’d from my heart, And I bless’d them unaware.
About, about, in reel and rout the death fires danced at night.
Poetry is certainly something more than good sense, but it must be good sense, at all events, just as a palace is more than a house, but it must be a house, at least.
Real pain can alone cure us of imaginary ills. We feel a thousand miseries till we are lucky enough to feel misery.
Boys and girls, And women, that would groan to see a child Pull off an insect’s leg, all read of war, The best amusement for our morning meal.
I know the Bible is inspired because it finds me at greater depths of my being than any other book.
You do not believe, you only believe that you believe.
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.
To all new truths, or renovation of old truths, it must be as in the ark between the destroyed and the about-to-be renovated world. The raven must be sent out before the dove, and ominous controversy must precede peace and the olive wreath.
The love of indolence is universal, or next to it.