quotes from classic

To follow foolish precedents, and winkWith both our eyes, is easier than to think.

more quotes from William Cowper

If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.

more quotes from Gelett Burgess

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs, And works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His work in vain: God is His own interpreter, And he will make it plain.

more quotes from William Cowper

Visitors are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not visit, would do nothing.

more quotes from William Cowper

It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.

more quotes from William Cowper

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.

more quotes from William Cowper

Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind.

more quotes from William Cowper

You told me, I remember, glory, built On selfish principles, is shame and guilt; The deeds that men admire as half divine, Stark naught, because corrupt in their design. Strange doctrine this! that without scruple tears The laurel that the very lightning spares; Brings down the warrior

more quotes from William Cowper

Man is what he reads.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

Twentieth-century Russian literature has produced nothing special except perhaps one novel and two stories by Andrei Platonov, who ended his days sweeping streets.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

Robert Frost's triumph was not being at John Kennedy's inauguration ceremony, but the day when he put the last period on "West-Running Brook."

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

What should I say about life? That it's long and abhors transparence.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

This is the generation whose first cry of life was the Hungarian uprising.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

No matter under what circumstances you leave it, home does not cease to be home. No matter how you lived there-well or poorly.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

How delightful to find a friend in everyone.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky

I do not believe in political movements. I believe in personal movement, that movement of the soul when a man who looks at himself is so ashamed that he tries to make some sort of change - within himself, not on the outside.

more quotes from Joseph Brodsky