Quote#Truth
When I was one-and-twenty
Quote byAlfred Edward Housman · 1859–1936
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: A Shropshire Lad (1896), No. 13, st. 2.
English (original)
When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, "The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue." And I am two-and-twenty And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
— Alfred Edward Housman
More from Alfred Edward Housman
Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room,
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Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough.
Three minutes' thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.
The most important truth which has ever been uttered, and the greatest discovery ever made in the moral world.
Clay lies still, but blood's a rover; Breath's a ware that will not keep. Up, lad: when the journey's over There'll be time enough to sleep.