Quote#Time
If you will observe, it doesn’t take
Quote byJohn Townsend Trowbridge · 1827–1916
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Authors’ Night..
English (original)
If you will observe, it doesn’t take A man of giant mould to make A giant shadow on the wall; And he who in our daily sight Seems but a figure mean and small, Outlined in Fame’s illusive light, May stalk, a silhouette sublime, Across the canvas of his time.
— John Townsend Trowbridge
More from John Townsend Trowbridge
The birds can fly, An' why can't I?
Men are polished, through act and speech, Each by each, As pebbles are smoothed on the rolling beach.
For me the diamond dawns are set In rings of beauty, And all my ways are dewy wet With pleasant duty.
Darius was clearly of the opinion That the air is also man’s dominion, And that, with paddle or fin or pinion, We soon or late Shall navigate The azure, as now we sail the sea.
Of nothing comes nothing: springs rise not above Their source in the far-hidden heart of the mountains: Whence then have descended the Wisdom and Love That in man leap to light in intelligent fountains?
Our days, our deeds, all we achieve or are, Lay folded in our infancy; the things Of good or ill we choose while yet unborn.