English Quotes — page 7

to listen to stars and buds, to babes and sages, with open heart

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion: to he worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly

You know you haven't got a singing face.

Bom. So have I heard on Afric's burning shore A hungry lion give a grievous roar; The grievous roar echoed along the shore. Artax. So have I heard on Afric's burning shore Another lion give a grievous roar; And the first lion thought the …

Who dares this pair of boots displace, Must meet Bombastes face to face.

Can anything be more absurd than keeping women in a state of ignorance, and yet so vehemently to insist on their resisting temptation?

All sensible people agree in thinking that large seminaries of young ladies, though managed with all the vigilance and caution which human abilities can exert, are in danger of great corruption.

That learning belongs not to the female character, and that the female mind is not capable of a degree of improvement equal to that of the other sex, are narrow and unphilosophical prejudices.

Iceland, though it lies so far to the north that it is partly within the Arctic Circle, is, like Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, affected by the Gulf Stream, so that considerable portions of it are quite habitable.

In our land the educated poor, who at the most can only cycle or take short railway journeys into the country from an adjoining town, are fast losing their rightful heritage — the beauty of the country-side, which is rapidly disappearing …

It is the first rational exposition of the relations of mankind to the mystery which shrouds the how and wherefore of man's existence, the first honest protest against our long, long martyrdom.

Vermouth always makes me brilliant unless it makes me idiotic, but we'll hope for the best.

The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the time which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other

THOUGH the sun was hot on this July morning Mrs Lucas preferred to cover the half-mile that lay between the station and her house on her own brisk feet, and sent on her maid and her luggage in the fly that her husband had ordered to meet …

Death! Plop. The barges down in the river flop. Flop, plop, Above, beneath. From the slimy branches the grey drips drop...

“Ahoy! and Oho, and it’s who’s for the ferry?” (The brier’s in bud and the sun going down:) “And I’ll row ye so quick and I’ll row ye so steady, And ’t is but a penny to Twickenham Town.

And also there’s a little star So white a virgin’s it must be:— Perhaps the lamp my love in heaven Hangs out to light the way for me.

Let me draw your attention to Mzilikazi, when he fell upon us, murdering and pillaging – did he benefit from it, or suffer harm? Was he able to remain in his country, or did he have to flee? Let me draw your attention to our negotiations …

... he had a leather bag around one shoulder, which he still carried and which contained his papers, including Mr Retief's negotiated treaty with Dingane, the circumscription of the land – this was to us all a wonder to see, as the bodies …

I conceded in my weakness to the wish of all the officials, also was I aware that the majority of burghers were in favour of it. ... on a canon carriage [was the vow delivered] ... in a simple way, with as much dignity as the Lord enabled …

All those things that make a nation richer, stronger, or more happy; or that tend to exalt national character, but that will not pay individuals, deserve public encouragement.

Such is the disposition of men, that we value what is speculative and precarious, more than what is safe and beneficial.

Men in general are very slow to enter into what is reckoned a new thing; and there seems to be a very universal as well as great reluctance to undergo the drudgery of acquiring information that seems not to be absolutely necessary.

No bush shall boast in all the grove So fond a mate, so blest a wife.