William Henry Davies

"Thou shalt not laugh, thou shalt not romp, Lets grimly kiss with bated breath; As quietly and solemnly As Life when it is kissing Death."

"this extraordinary and memorable being, who, for all his humility, bore about him something of the primitive splendour and directness of the Elizabethan age"

"Autumn grows old: he, like some simple one, In Summers castaway is strangely clad"

"This man has talent, that man genius, And heres the strange and cruel difference: Talent gives pence and his reward is gold, Genius gives gold and gets no more than pence."

"They sniffed, poor things, for their green fields, They cried so loud I could not sleep: For fifty thousand shillings down I would not sail again with sheep."

"The colliers wife had four tall sons Brought from the pits mouth dead, And crushed from foot to head"

"Cats — by day the most docile of Gods creatures, everyone of them in the night enlisting under the devils banner — took the place by storm after the human voice had ceased."

"People are not to be blamed for their doubts, but that they make no effort to arrive at the truth."

"Let us not judge life by its number of breaths, but by the number of times that breath is held, or lost, either under a deep emotion caused by love, or when we stand before an object of interest or beauty."

"What a glorious time of the year is this [Spring]! With the warm sun travelling through serene skies, the air clear and fresh above you, which instils new blood in the body, making one defiantly tramp the earth, kicking the snows aside in the scorn of action."

"What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare."

"Go you and, with such glorious hues, Live with proud peacocks in green parks."