Quote#Love
O wiselier then, from feeble yearnings freed
Quote bySamuel Taylor Coleridge · 1772–1834
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Duty surviving Self-Love (1826).
English (original)
O wiselier then, from feeble yearnings freed, While, and on whom, thou may'st — shine on! nor heed Whether the object by reflected light Return thy radiance or absorb it quite: And tho' thou notest from thy safe recess Old Friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air, Love them for what they are; nor love them less, Because to thee they are not what they were.
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
And what if all of animated nature Be but organic harps diversly fram'd, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of All?
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw
And this reft house is that the which he built, Lamented Jack!
Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn.
O! I do love thee, meek Simplicity!
Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care; The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bade it blossom there.