Quote#Wisdom
A thing that is very unexpected and moderately strange, we meet with…
Quote byJean Ingelow · 1820–1897
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Fated to Be Free: A Novel (1875), Ch. 9, p. 107..
English (original)
A thing that is very unexpected and moderately strange, we meet with wide-opened eyes, with a start and perhaps exclamations; but a thing more than strange, utterly unaccounted for, quite unreasonable, and the last thing one could have supposed possible as coming from the person who demanded it, is met in far quieter fashion.
— Jean Ingelow
More from Jean Ingelow
Let me be only sure; for sooth to tell The sorest dole is doubt.
The while He sits whose name is Love, And waits, as Noah did, for the dove, To wit if she would fly to him.He waits for us, while, houseless things, We beat about with bruised wings On the dark floods and water-springs, The ruined world, …
Crowds of bees are giddy with clover Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet, Crowds of larks at their matins hang over, Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet.
But two are walking apart forever And wave their hands for a mute farewell.
Is there never a chink in the world above Where they listen for words from below?
And sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.