The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
.pdfThe time has come for all good men to rise above principle.
In T. Harry Williams ‘Huey Long’ (1969)
Hell, I was born barefoot.
To a rival candidate, who had claimed he never wore shoes until he was eight, in T. Harry Williams ‘Huey Long’ (1969)
12.120 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-82
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where.
‘The Arrow and the Song’ (1845)
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
‘The Building of the Ship’ (1849)
Ye are better than all the ballads That ever were sung or said; For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.
‘Children’ (1849)
Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, Comes a pause in the day’s occupations, That is known as the Children’s Hour.
‘The Children’s Hour’ (1859)
The cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away.
‘The Day is Done’ (1844)
If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.
‘Elegiac Verse’ (1880)
This is the forest primeval.
‘Evangeline’ (1847) introduction
Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.
‘Evangeline’ (1847) pt. 2, l. 60
The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine village passed A youth, who bore, ’mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
‘Excelsior’ (1841)
‘Try not the Pass!’ the old man said; ‘Dark lowers the tempest overhead.’
‘Excelsior’ (1841)
A traveller, by the faithful hound, Half-buried in the snow was found.
‘Excelsior’ (1841)
Giotto’s tower,
The lily of Florence blossoming in stone.
‘Giotto’s Tower’ (1866)
I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls The burial-ground God’s-Acre!
‘God’s-Acre’ (1841)
The holiest of all holidays are those Kept by ourselves in silence and apart; The secret anniversaries of the heart.
‘Holidays’
The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.
‘The Ladder of Saint Augustine’ (1850)
Standing, with reluctant feet, Where the brook and river meet, Womanhood and childhood fleet!
‘Maidenhood’ (1841)
The men that women marry,
And why they marry them, will always be A marvel and a mystery to the world.
‘Michael Angelo’ (1883) pt. 1, sect. 5
I remember the black wharves and the slips, And the sea-rides tossing free;
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, And the beauty and mystery of the ships, And the magic of the sea.
And the voice of that wayward song Is singing and saying still:
‘A boy’s will is the wind’s will