text:
Lord Byron

George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22 1788 – April 19 1824), generally known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and leading figure in Romanticism. He was the father of the mathematician Ada Lovelace.
 * See also:
 * Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818)
 * Don Juan (1818-1824)

Quotes

 * When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past— For years fleet away with the wings of the dove— The dearest remembrance will still be the last, Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.
 * The First Kiss of Love, st. 7 (1806).

 * Farewell! if ever fondest prayer For other's weal avail'd on high, Mine will not all be lost in air, But waft thy name beyond the sky.
 * Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer (1808).

 * I only know we loved in vain; I only feel — farewell! farewell!
 * Farewell! If Ever Fondest Prayer (1808), st. 2.

 * When we two parted In silence and tears, Half brokenhearted, To sever for years.
 * When We Two Parted (1808), stanza 1.

 * In secret we met In silence I grieve, That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive. If I should meet thee After long years, How should I greet thee? With silence and tears.
 * When We Two Parted (1808), st. 4.

 * Near this spot Are deposited the Remains of one Who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, And all the virtues of Man, without his Vices. This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery If inscribed over human ashes, Is but a just tribute to the Memory of BOATSWAIN, a DOG
 * Inscription on the monument of a Newfoundland dog (1808).

 * The poor dog, in life the firmest friend, The first to welcome, foremost to defend.
 * Inscription on the monument of a Newfoundland dog (1808).

 * Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give, oh give me back my heart!
 * Maid of Athens, st. 1 (1810).

 * The love where Death has set his seal, Nor age can chill, nor rival steal, Nor falsehood disavow.
 * And Thou Art Dead as Young and Fair (1812).

 * And thou wert lovely to the last, Extinguish'd, not decay'd; As stars that shoot along the sky Shine brightest as they fall from high.
 * And Thou Art Dead as Young and Fair (1812).

 * If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.
 * Journal for Saturday, 27th November 1813; Quoted in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron by Thomas Moore (1830), Vol III, Chap. XVII, p. 208

 * Where may the wearied eye repose When gazing on the Great; Where neither guilty glory glows, Nor despicable state? Yes — one — the first — the last — the best — The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeath'd the name of Washington, To make man blush there was but one!
 * Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, st. 29 (1814).

 * You are the fools, not I — for I did dwell With a deep thought, and with a softened eye, On that Old Sexton's natural homily, In which there was Obscurity and Fame, The Glory and the Nothing of a Name.
 * Churchill's Grave, l. 43.

 * Who knows whether, when a comet shall approach this globe to destroy it, as it often has been and will be destroyed, men will not tear rocks from their foundations by means of steam, and hurl mountains, as the giants are said to have done, against the flaming mass?—and then we shall have traditions of Titans again, and of wars with Heaven.
 * As quoted in Conversations of Lord Byron with Thomas Medwin (1832).

 * My great comfort is, that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that tempted me.
 * Letter to Thomas Moore (9 April 1814).

 * Fare thee well! and if forever, Still forever, fare thee well: Even though unforgiving, never 'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.
 * Fare Thee Well, st. 1 (1816).

 * My hair is grey, but not with years, Nor grew it white In a single night, As men's have grown from sudden fears.
 * The Prisoner of Chillon, st. 1 (1816).

 * Oh, God! it is a fearful thing To see the human soul take wing In any shape, in any mood.
 * The Prisoner of Chillon, st. 8.

 * A light broke in upon my brain, — It was the carol of a bird; It ceased, and then it came again, The sweetest song ear ever heard.
 * The Prisoner of Chillon, st. 10.

 * There 's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.
 * Stanzas for Music (March 1815), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * There be none of Beauty's daughters With a magic like thee; And like music on the waters Is thy sweet voice to me.
 * Stanzas for Music, st. 1 (1816).

 * I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
 * Darkness, line 1 (1816).

 * Though the day of my Destiny's over, And the star of my Fate hath declined, Thy soft heart refused to discover The faults which so many could find.
 * Stanzas to Augusta, st. 1 (1816).

 * In the desert a fountain is springing, In the wide waste there still is a tree, And a bird in the solitude singing, Which speaks to my spirit of thee.
 * Stanzas to Augusta (1816), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * The careful pilot of my proper woe.
 * Epistle to Augusta, Stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * As the liberty lads o'er the sea Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood, So we, boys, we Shall die fighting or live free, And down with all kings but King Ludd!
 * Song for the Luddites (1816).

 * My boat is on the shore, And my bark is on the sea; But, before I go, Tom Moore. Here's a double health to thee!
 * To Thomas Moore, st. 1 (1817).

 * Here's a sigh to those who love me, And a smile to those who hate: And, whatever sky's above me, Here's a heart for every fate.
 * To Thomas Moore, st. 2.

 * Were't the last drop in the well, As I gasp'd upon the brink, Ere my fainting spirit fell 'T is to thee that I would drink.
 * To Thomas Moore, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * "Bring forth the horse!" — the horse was brought; In truth, he was a noble steed, A Tartar of the Ukraine breed, Who look'd as though the speed of thought Were in his limbs.
 * Mazeppa (1819), stanza 9.

 * And if we do but watch the hour, There never yet was human power Which could evade, if unforgiven, The patient search and vigil long Of him who treasures up a wrong.
 * Mazeppa (1819), stanza 10.

 * When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,   Let him combat for that of his neighbours; Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome    And get knock'd on the head for his labours. To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan,    And is always as nobly requited; Then battle for freedom wherever you can.    And, if not shot or hang'd, you'll get knighted.
 * Letter to Thomas Moore, 5 November 1820

 * Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story; The days of our youth are the days of our glory; And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.
 * Stanzas Written on the Road Between Florence and Pisa, st. 1 (1821).

 * The best of prophets of the future is the past.
 * Journal (28 January 1821).

 * The world is a bundle of hay, Mankind are the asses that pull, Each tugs in a different way— And the greatest of all is John Bull!
 * Letter to Thomas Moore (22 June 1821).

 * Send me no more reviews of any kind. — I will read no more of evil or good in that line. — Walter Scott has not read a review of himself for thirteen years.
 * Letter to his publisher, John Murray (3 November 1821).

 * Because He is all-powerful, must all-good, too, follow? I judge but by the fruits—and they are bitter— Which I must feed on for a fault not mine.
 * Cain (1821), Act I, sc. i.

But live to die: and, living, see no thing To make death hateful, save an innate clinging, A loathsome and yet all invincible Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I Despise myself, yet cannot overcome— And so I live. Would I had never lived!
 * I live,
 * Cain (1821), Act I, sc. i.

For life, nor did I make myself.
 * That which I am, I am; I did not seek
 * Cain (1821), Act III, sc. i.

 * Who killed John Keats? "I," says the Quarterly, So savage and Tartarly; "'Twas one of my feats."
 * John Keats (c. 1821).

 * He seems To have seen better days, as who has not Who has seen yesterday?
 * Werner, Act I, sc. i (1822).

 * Sublime tobacco! which from east to west Cheers the tar's labor or the Turkman's rest.
 * The Island (1823), Canto II, Stanza 19.

 * Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe When tipp'd with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe; Like other charmers, wooing the caress More dazzlingly when daring in full dress; Yet thy true lovers more admire by far Thy naked beauties—give me a cigar!
 * The Island (1823), Canto II, Stanza 19.

 * Jack was embarrassed — never hero more, And as he knew not what to say, he swore.
 * The Island (1823), Canto III, Stanza 5.

 * What's drinking? A mere pause from thinking!
 * The Deformed Transformed, Act III, sc. i (1824).

 * My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of Love are gone; The worm — the canker, and the grief Are mine alone!
 * On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year, st. 2 (1824).

 * Seek out — less often sought than found — A Soldier's Grave, for thee the best; Then look around and choose thy Ground, And take thy Rest.
 * On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year, st. 10.

 * I awoke one morning and found myself famous.
 * Memorandum reference to the instantaneous success of Childe Harold and quoted in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron by Thomas Moore (1830), chapter 14.

 * A great poet belongs to no country; his works are public property, and his Memoirs the inheritance of the public.
 * As quoted in Conversations of Lord Byron with Thomas Medwin (1832), Preface.

 * Hands promiscuously applied, Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side.
 * The Waltz, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * They never fail who die In a great cause.
 * Marino Faliero, Act II, Scene 2, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship.
 * Quoted by Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington in Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington (1834).

 * Lord of himself,—that heritage of woe!
 * Lara, Canto I, Stanza 2, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * It is the hour when from the boughs The nightingale's high note is heard; It is the hour when lovers' vows Seem sweet in every whisper'd word.
 * Parisina, Stanza 1, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * Yet in my lineaments they trace Some features of my father's face.
 * Parisina, Stanza 13, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred.
 * A Sketch, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * Whose game was empires and whose stakes were thrones, Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones.
 * Age of Bronze, Stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * I loved my country, and I hated him.
 * The Vision of Judgment, lxxxiii, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * Friendship is Love without wings.
 * L'Amitié est l'Amour sans Ailes, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * What say you to such a supper with such a woman?
 * Note to a Letter on Bowles's Strictures, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809)

 * Text at readytogoebooks.com.

 * I'll publish right or wrong: Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.
 * Line 5.

 * 'Tis pleasure, sure, to see one's name in print; A book's a book, although there's nothing in 't.
 * Line 51.

 * A man must serve his time to every trade Save censure — critics are ready-made.
 * Line 63.

 * With just enough of learning to misquote.
 * Line 66.

 * As soon Seek roses in December, ice in June; Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff; Believe a woman or an epitaph, Or any other thing that's false, before You trust in critics, who themselves are sore.
 * Line 75.

 * Better to err with Pope, than shine with Pye.
 * Line 102.

 * Perverts the Prophets and purloins the Psalms.
 * Line 326.

 * Oh, Amos Cottle! Phœbus! what a name!
 * Line 399.

 * 'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low: So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.
 * Line 826. A number of authors have addressed this common motif of an eagle shot with an eagle-feather arrow

 * Yet truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires, And decorate the verse herself inspires: This fact, in virtue's name, let Crabbe attest,— Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.
 * Line 839.

The Bride of Abydos (1813)

 * Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime!
 * Canto I, stanza 1; this can be compared to: "Know'st thou the land where the lemon-trees bloom, / Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom, / Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows, / And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose!" Goethe, Wilhelm Meister.

 * Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, And all, save the spirit of man, is divine?
 * Canto I, stanza 1.

 * The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face, 19 The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,— And oh, that eye was in itself a soul!
 * Canto I, Stanza 6; this can be compared to: "The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love", Thomas Gray, The Progress of Poesy I. 3, line 16; also: "Oh, could you view the melody / Of every grace / And music of her face", Richard Lovelace, Orpheus to Beasts; "There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument", Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part ii, Section ix.

 * Who hath not proved how feebly words essay To fix one spark of beauty's heavenly ray? Who doth not feel, until his failing sight Faints into dimness with its own delight, His changing cheek, his sinking heart, confess The might, the majesty of loveliness?
 * Canto I, stanza 6.

 * The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.
 * Canto II, stanza 2.

 * Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life, The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!
 * Canto II, stanza 20.

 * Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace!
 * Canto II, stanza 20. Here Byron is using an adaptation of a quote from Agricola by the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 30). The original words in the text are Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a wilderness, and call it peace). This has also been reported as Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (They make solitude, which they call peace).

 * Hark! to the hurried question of despair: "Where is my child?"—an echo answers, "Where?"
 * Canto II, stanza 27; this can be compared to: I came to the place of my birth, and cried, "The friends of my youth, where are they?" And echo answered, "Where are they?", Anonymous Arabic manuscript

The Giaour (1813)

 * He who hath bent him o'er the dead Ere the first day of death is fled,— The first dark day of nothingness, The last of danger and distress, Before decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.
 * Line 68.

 * Such is the aspect of this shore; 'T is Greece, but living Greece no more! So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start, for soul is wanting there.
 * Line 90.

 * Shrine of the mighty! can it be That this is all remains of thee?
 * Line 106.

 * For freedom's battle, once begun, Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won.
 * Line 123.

 * And lovelier things have mercy shown To every failing but their own, And every woe a tear can claim Except an erring sister's shame.
 * Line 418.

 * The keenest pangs the wretched find Are rapture to the dreary void, The leafless desert of the mind,  The waste of feelings unemployed.
 * Line 957.

 * Better to sink beneath the shock Than moulder piecemeal on the rock.
 * Line 969.

 * The cold in clime are cold in blood, Their love can scarce deserve the name.
 * Line 1099.

 * I die — but first I have possessed, And come what may, I have been blessed.
 * Line 1114.

 * She was a form of life and light That seen, became a part of sight, And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye, The morning-star of memory! Yes, love indeed is light from heaven; A spark of that immortal fire With angels shared, by Alla given, To lift from earth our low desire.
 * Line 1127.

The Corsair (1814)

 * The fatal facility of the octosyllabic verse.
 * Dedication.

 * Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried.
 * Canto I, stanza 1; this can be compared to: "To all nations their empire will be dreadful, because their ships will sail wherever billows roll or winds can waft them", Dalrymple, Memoirs, vol. iii, p. 152; "Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow", Charles Churchill, The Farewell, Line 38.

 * O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, 22 Survey our empire, and behold our home! These are our realms, no limit to their sway,— Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey.
 * Canto I, stanza 1.

 * She walks the waters like a thing of life, And seems to dare the elements to strife.
 * Canto I, stanza 3.

 * The power of thought,—the magic of the mind!
 * Canto I, stanza 8.

 * Such hath it been — shall be — beneath the sun The many still must labour for the one!
 * Canto I, stanza 8.

 * There was a laughing devil in his sneer.
 * Canto I, stanza 9.

 * Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!
 * Canto I, stanza 9.

 * Farewell! For in that word, that fatal word,—howe'er We promise, hope, believe,—there breathes despair.
 * Canto I, stanza 15.

 * No words suffice the secret soul to show, For truth denies all eloquence to woe.
 * Canto III, stanza 22.

 * He left a corsair's name to other times, Linked with one virtue, and a thousand crimes.
 * Canto III, stanza 24; this can be compared to: "Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; he had two distinct persons in him", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, "Democritus to the Reader".

Hebrew Melodies (1815)

 * She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
 * She Walks in Beauty, st. 1. The subject of these lines was Mrs. R. Wilmot.—Berry Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 7.

 * Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom, On thee shall press no ponderous tomb; But on thy turf shall roses rear Their leaves, the earliest of the year; And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom. And oft by yon blue gushing stream Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head, And feed deep thought with many a dream, And lingering pause and lightly tread; Fond wretch! as if her step disturb'd the dead! Away; we know that tears are vain, That death nor heeds nor hears distress; Will this unteach us to complain? Or make one mourner weep the less? And thou—who tell'st me to forget, Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet.
 * Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom, from Hebrew Melodies

 * So gleams the past, the light of other days, Which shines, but warms not with its powerless rays.
 * Sun of the Sleepless, from Hebrew Melodies

 * The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
 * The Destruction of Sennacherib, st. 1.

 * For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast.
 * The Destruction of Sennacherib, st. 3.

 * And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
 * The Destruction of Sennacherib, st. 6.

Monody on the Death of Sheridan (1816)

 * When all of genius which can perish dies.
 * Line 22.

 * Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.
 * Line 68.

 * Who track the steps of glory to the grave.
 * Line 74.

 * Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, And broke the die, in molding Sheridan.
 * Line 117; this can be compared to: "Natura il fece, e poi ruppe la stampa" (translated: "Nature made him, and then broke the mould"), Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, canto x, stanza 84; "The idea that Nature lost the perfect mould has been a favorite one with all song-writers and poets, and is found in the literature of all European nations", Book of English Songs, p. 28.

The Dream (1816)

 * And both were young, and one was beautiful.
 * Stanza 2.

 * And to his eye There was but one beloved face on earth, And that was shining on him.
 * Stanza 2.

 * She was his life, The ocean to the river of his thoughts, Which terminated all.
 * Stanza 2; this can be compared to: "She floats upon the river of his thoughts", Henry W. Longfellow, The Spanish Student, act ii, scene 3.

 * A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
 * Stanza 3.

 * And they were canopied by the blue sky, So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful That God alone was to be seen in heaven.
 * Stanza 4.

Prometheus (1816)

 * Prometheus (1816)

 * Titan! to whom immortal eyes The sufferings of mortality Seen in their sad reality, Were not as things that gods despise; What was thy pity's recompense? A silent suffering, and intense; The rock, the vulture, and the chain, All that the proud can feel of pain, The agony they do not show, The suffocating sense of woe, Which speaks but in its loneliness, And then is jealous lest the sky Should have a listener, nor will sigh Until its voice is echoless.
 * I.

 * Titan! to thee the strife was given Between the suffering and the will, Which torture where they cannot kill; And the inexorable Heaven, And the deaf tyranny of Fate, The ruling principle of Hate, Which for its pleasure doth create The things it may annihilate, Refused thee even the boon to die: The wretched gift eternity Was thine — and thou hast borne it well. All that the Thunderer wrung from thee Was but the menace which flung back On him the torments of thy rack; The fate thou didst so well foresee, But would not to appease him tell; And in thy Silence was his Sentence, And in his Soul a vain repentance, And evil dread so ill dissembled, That in his hand the lightnings trembled.
 * II.

 * Thy Godlike crime was to be kind, To render with thy precepts less The sum of human wretchedness, And strengthen Man with his own mind; But baffled as thou wert from high, Still in thy patient energy, In the endurance, and repulse Of thine impenetrable Spirit, Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse, A mighty lesson we inherit: Thou art a symbol and a sign To Mortals of their fate and force; Like thee, Man is in part divine, A troubled stream from a pure source; And Man in portions can foresee His own funereal destiny; His wretchedness, and his resistance, And his sad unallied existence: To which his Spirit may oppose Itself — and equal to all woes, And a firm will, and a deep sense, Which even in torture can decry Its own concenter'd recompense, Triumphant where it dares defy, And making Death a Victory.
 * III.

Manfred (1817)

 * Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth, The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.
 * Act I, scene i.

 * Mont Blanc is the Monarch of mountains; They crowned him long ago, On a throne of rocks — in a robe of clouds – With a Diadem of Snow.
 * Act I, scene i.

By thy unfathom'd gulfs of guile, By that most seeming virtuous eye, By thy shut soul's hypocrisy; By the perfection of thine art Which pass'd for human thine own heart; By thy delight in others' pain, And by thy brotherhood of Cain, I call upon thee! and compel Thyself to be thy proper Hell!
 * By thy cold breast and serpent smile,
 * Act I, scene i.

And thou fresh breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains, Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye. And thou, the bright eye of the universe, That openest over all, and unto all Art a delight—thou shin'st not on my heart.
 * My mother Earth!
 * Act I, scene ii.

 * But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity, alike unfit To sink or soar.
 * Act I, scene ii.

Grey-hair'd with anguish, like these blasted pines, Wrecks of a single winter, barkless, branchless, A blighted trunk upon a cursed root, Which but supplies a feeling to decay— And to be thus, eternally but thus, Having been otherwise! Now furrow'd o'er With wrinkles, plough'd by moments, not by years And hours—all tortured into ages—hours Which I outlive!—Ye toppling crags of ice! Ye avalanches, whom a breath draws down In mountainous o'erwhelming, come and crush me! I hear ye momently above, beneath, Crash with a frequent conflict; but ye pass, And only fall on things that still would live.
 * To be thus—
 * Act I, scene ii.

For brutes of burthen, not for birds of prey; Preach it to mortals of a dust like thine,— I am not of thine order.
 * Patience! Hence—that word was made
 * Act II, scene i.

 * Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? It doth; but actions are our epochs: mine Have made my days and nights imperishable Endless, and all alike, as sands on the shore Innumerable atoms; and one desert Barren and cold, on which the wild waves break, But nothing rests, save carcases and wrecks, Rocks, and the salt-surf weeds of bitterness.
 * Act II, scene i.

My spirit walk'd not with the souls of men, Nor look'd upon the earth with human eyes; The thirst of their ambition was not mine, The aim of their existence was not mine; My joys, my griefs, my passions, and my powers Made me a stranger.
 * From my youth upwards
 * Act II, scene ii.

But an exchange of ignorance for that Which is another kind of ignorance.
 * Knowledge is not happiness, and science
 * Act II, scene iv.

I may have been, or am, doth rest between Heaven and myself; I shall not choose a mortal To be my mediator.
 * Whate'er
 * Act III, scene i.

Nor charm in prayer, nor purifying form Of penitence, nor outward look, nor fast, Nor agony—nor, greater than all these, The innate tortures of that deep despair, Which is remorse without the fear of hell, But all in all sufficient to itself Would make a hell of heaven,—can exorcise From out the unbounded spirit the quick sense Of its own sins, wrongs, sufferance, and revenge Upon itself; there is no future pang Can deal that justice on the self—condemn'd He deals on his own soul.
 * There is no power in holy men,
 * Act III, scene i.

Of the snow-shining mountains. Beautiful! I linger yet with Nature, for the Night Hath been to me a more familiar face Than that of man; and in her starry shade Of dim and solitary loveliness, I learn'd the language of another world.
 * The stars are forth, the moon above the tops
 * Act III, scene iv.

 * The heart ran o'er With silent worship of the great of old! The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule Our spirits from their urns.
 * Act III, scene iv.

 * Old man! ’tis not so difficult to die.
 * Act III, scene iv

So, We'll Go No More A-Roving (1817)

 * Text at readytogoebooks.com.

 * So, we'll go no more a roving So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright.
 * St. 1.

 * For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe, And love itself have rest.
 * St. 2.

 * Though the night was made for loving, And the day returns too soon, Yet we'll go no more a roving By the light of the moon.
 * St. 3.

Beppo (1818)

 * For most men (till by losing rendered sager) Will back their own opinions by a wager.
 * Stanza 27.

 * Soprano, basso, even the contra-alto, Wished him five fathom under the Rialto.
 * Stanza 32.

 * His heart was one of those which most enamour us, Wax to receive, and marble to retain: He was a lover of the good old school, Who still become more constant as they cool.
 * Stanza 34; this can be compared to: "My heart is wax to be moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain", Miguel de Cervantes, The Little Gypsy.

 * Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.
 * Stanza 39.

 * I love the language, that soft bastard Latin, Which melts like kisses from a female mouth, And sounds as if it should be writ on satin, With syllables which breathe of the sweet South, And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in, That not a single accent seems uncouth, Like our harsh northern whistling, grunting guttural, Which we're obliged to hiss, and spit, and sputter all.
 * Stanza 44.

 * Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes, Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.
 * Stanza 45.

 * O Mirth and Innocence! O milk and water! Ye happy mixtures of more happy days.
 * Stanza 80.

Sardanapalus (1821)

 * How my soul hates This language, Which makes life itself a lie, Flattering dust with eternity.
 * Act I, scene 2.

 * By all that's good and glorious.
 * Act I, scene 2.

 * Eat, drink, and love; the rest's not worth a fillip.
 * Act I, scene 2.

 * I am the very slave of circumstance And impulse — borne away with every breath! Misplaced upon the throne — misplaced in life. I know not what I could have been, but feel I am not what I should be — let it end.
 * Act IV, scene 1.

 * But take this with thee: if I was not form'd To prize a love like thine, a mind like thine, Nor dote even on thy beauty — as I've doted On lesser charms, for no cause save that such Devotion was a duty, and I hated All that look'd like a chain for me or others (This even rebellion must avouch); yet hear These words, perhaps among my last — that none E'er valued more thy virtues, though he knew not To profit by them…
 * Act IV, scene 1.

 * Oh! if thou hast at length Discover'd that my love is worth esteem, I ask no more—but let us hence together, And I — let me say we — shall yet be happy. Assyria is not all the earth—we'll find A world out of our own — and be more bless'd Than I have ever been, or thou, with all An empire to indulge thee.
 * Act IV, scene 1.

 * The dust we tread upon was once alive.
 * Act IV, scene 1.

 * My best! my last friends! Let's not unman each other: part at once: All farewells should be sudden, when for ever, Else they make an eternity of moments, And clog the last sad sands of life with tears. Hence, and be happy: trust me, I am not Now to be pitied; or far more for what Is past than present; — for the future, 'tis In the hands of the deities, if such There be: I shall know soon. Farewell — Farewell.
 * Act V

The Age of Bronze (1823)

 * Text at readytogoebooks.com.

 * The "good old times" — all times when old are good — Are gone.
 * St. 1.

 * Where is he, the champion and the child Of all that's great or little, wise or wild; Whose game was empires, and whose stakes were thrones; Whose table earth — whose dice were human bones?
 * St. 3.

 * While Franklin's quiet memory climbs to heaven, Calming the lightning which he thence hath riven, Or drawing from the no less kindled earth Freedom and peace to that which boasts his birth; While Washington's a watchword, such as ne'er Shall sink while there's an echo left to air.
 * St. 5.

Don Juan (1818-1824)

 * She thought of her own strength, and Juan's youth, And of the folly of all prudish fears, Victorious virtue, and domestic truth, And then of Don Alfonso's fifty years: [...] When people say, "I've told you fifty times," They mean to scold, and very often do: When poets say, "I've written fifty rhymes," They make you dread that they'll recite them too; In gangs of fifty thieves commit their crimes: At fifty love for love is rare, 'tis true, But then, no doubt, it equally as true is, A good deal may be bought for fifty louis.
 * Canto I, stanzas 107-108

 * But now at thirty years my hair is gray–– (I wonder what it will be like at forty? I thought of a peruke the other day) My heart is not much greener; and, in short, I Have squander'd my whole summer while 'twas May, And feel no more the spirit to retort; I Have spent my life, both interest and principal, And deem not, what I deem'd my soul invincible.
 * Canto I, stanza 213.

 * What is the end of fame? 'tis but to fill A certain portion of uncertain paper: Some liken it to climbing up a hill, Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour; For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, And bards burn what they call their "midnight taper," To have, when the original is dust, A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.
 * Canto I, stanza 218.
 * Both were so young, and one so innocent, That bathing pass'd for nothing; Juan seem'd To her, as 'twere, the kind of being sent, Of whom these two years she had nightly dream'd, A something to be loved, a creature meant To be her happiness, and whom she deem'd To render happy; all who joy would win Must share it,––Happiness was born a twin.
 * Canto II, stanza 172.

Lord Byron's Armenian Exercises and Poetry (1870)

 * Text at archive.org.

 * It would be difficult, perhaps, to find the annals of a nation less stained with crimes than those of the Armenians, whose virtues have been those of peace, and their vices those of compulsion. But whatever may have been their destiny — and it has been bitter — whatever it may be in future, their country must ever be one of the most interesting on the globe.
 * From the Letters of Lord Byron (2 January 1817), p. 6.

 * [Armenian] is a rich language, however, and would amply repay any one the trouble of learning it.
 * "To Mr. Moore", From the Letters of Lord Byron, 5 December 1816, p. 12.

Quotes about Lord Byron

 * Alphabetized by author

 * What helps it now, that Byron bore, With haughty scorn which mocked the smart, Through Europe to the Aetolian shore The pageant of his bleeding heart? That thousands counted every groan, And Europe made his woe her own?
 * Matthew Arnold, "Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse," Fraser's Magazine (April 1855); reprinted in New Poems (1867).

 * If they had said that the sun or the moon had gone out of the heavens, it could not have struck me with the idea of a more awful and dreary blank in creation than the words: "Byron is dead!"
 * Jane Welsh Carlyle, letter to Thomas Carlyle (20 May 1824).

 * The world is rid of Lord Byron, but the deadly slime of his touch still remains.
 * John Constable, letter to the Rev. John Fisher (May 1824).

 * Lord Byron is great only as a poet; as soon as he reflects, he is a child.
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, said in conversation (18 January 1825) with Johann Peter Eckermann, quoted in Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe (1836).

 * It still saddens me that Lord Byron, who showed such impatience with the fickle public, wasn't aware of how well the Germans can understand him and how highly they esteem him. With us the moral and political tittle-tattle of the day falls away, leaving the man and the talent standing alone in all their brilliance.
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, letter to John Murray (29 March 1831).

 * Emotional sorrow has inspired many sublime lyrics, much profound insight and poetic exultation of a Byron, Shelley, Heine, and their kind.
 * Emma Goldman "Jealousy: Causes and a Possible Cure" (1910)

 * Lord Byron makes man after his own image, woman after his own heart; the one is a capricious tyrant, the other a yielding slave.
 * William Hazlitt, "Lord Byron," The Spirit of the Age (1825).

 * Whatever he does, he must do in a more decided and daring manner than any one else; he lounges with extravagance, and yawns so as to alarm the reader!
 * William Hazlitt, "Lord Byron," The Spirit of the Age (1825).

 * In a room at the end of the garden to this house was a magnificent rocking-horse, which a friend had given my little boy; and Lord Byron, with a childish glee becoming a poet, would ride upon it. Ah! why did he ever ride his Pegasus to less advantage?
 * Leigh Hunt, Autobiography (1850), vol. II, ch. XV.

 * The list of writers, artists, and composers who were directly inspired by Byron's life and poetry is almost without peer; it includes Hector Berlioz, Alexander Pushkin, J. M. W. Turner, Robert Schumann, Victor Hugo, Alfred-Victor de Vigny, Alfred de Musset, Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Franz Liszt, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Gioacchino Rossini, Charles Baudelaire, and Virgil Thomson. Not surprisingly, most of these influenced by Byron were themselves intensely emotional and inclined toward the Romantic.

 * You speak of Lord Byron and me — there is this great difference between us. He describes what he sees — I describe what I imagine. Mine is the hardest task.
 * John Keats, letter to George and Georgiana Keats (September 1819).

 * Mad, bad and dangerous to know.
 * Lady Caroline Lamb, written in her journal upon their first meeting at a ball (March 1812)

 * From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics, compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness, a system in which the two great commandments were, to hate your neighbour, and to love your neighbour's wife.
 * Thomas Babington Macaulay, in "Moore's Life of Lord Byron" (June 1830), from Critical and Historical Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review (1843), vol. I.

 * I never heard a single expression of fondness for him fall from the lips of any of those who knew him well.
 * Thomas Babington Macaulay, letter to Hannah and Margaret Macaulay (7 June 1831).

 * Tragedy of childhood. Not infrequently, noble-minded and ambitious men have to endure their harshest struggle in childhood, perhaps by having to assert their characters against a low-minded father, who is devoted to pretense and mendacity, or by living, like Lord Byron, in continual struggle with a childish and wrathful mother. If one has experienced such struggles, for the rest of his life he will never get over knowing who has been in reality his greatest and most dangerous enemy.
 * Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

 * Always looking at himself in mirrors to make sure he was sufficiently outrageous.
 * Enoch Powell, Sunday Times (8 May 1988).

 * Had Byron never written a line of poetry, his letters would give him a place in literature.
 * Rowland Prothero, 1st Baron Ernle, April 1922, quote p. 433

 * Our Lord Byron — the fascinating — faulty — childish — philosophical being — daring the world — docile to a private circle — impetuous and indolent — gloomy and yet more gay than any other.
 * Mary Shelley, letter to John Murray (19 January 1830).

 * If I could envy any man for successful ill nature I should envy Lord Byron for his skill in satirical nomenclature.
 * Sydney Smith, letter to Elizabeth Vassal Fox, Lady Holland (June 1810).

 * The news came to the village — the dire news which spread across the land, filling men's hearts with consternation — that Byron was dead. Tennyson was then about a boy of fifteen.  "Byron was dead!  I thought the whole world was at an end," he once said, speaking of those bygone days.  "I thought everything was over and finished for everyone — that nothing else mattered.  I remembered I walked out alone, and carved 'Byron is dead' into the sandstone."
 * Anne Isabella Thackeray, Lady Ritchie, Records of Tennyson, Ruskin, and Robert and Elizabeth Browning (1892).

title: Lord Byron


text:
Robert Browning

Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and husband of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Quotes

They fought the dogs and killed the cats''', And bit the babies in the cradles, And ate the cheeses out of the vats, And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles, Split open the kegs of salted sprats, Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, And even spoiled the women's chats By drowning their speaking With shrieking and squeaking In fifty different sharps and flats.
 * '''Rats!
 * The Pied Piper of Hamelin, line 10 (1842).

You were not sure, this eve, How my face, your flower, had pursed It's petals up.
 * Kiss me as if you made believe
 * "In a Gondola", line 49 (1842).

And damned, and truth stood up instead.
 * The lie was dead
 * Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics: Count Gismond (1842), xiii.

Against the world.
 * Over my head his arm he flung
 * Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics: Count Gismond (1842), xix.

 * There's a woman like a dewdrop, she's so purer than the purest.
 * Bells and Pomegranates No. V: A Blot in the 'Scutcheon (1843), Act i, scene iii.

Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant And Autumn garner to the end of time. I trust in God,—the right shall be the right And other than the wrong, while he endures. I trust in my own soul, that can perceive The outward and the inward,—Nature's good And God's.
 * I trust in Nature for the stable laws
 * A Soul's Tragedy (1846), Act. i.

 * I judge people by what they might be,—not are, nor will be.
 * A Soul's Tragedy (1846), Act ii.

 * Sing, riding's a joy! For me I ride.
 * Men and Women (1855), The last Ride together'', vii.

I dare at times imagine to my need Some future state revealed to us by Zeus
 * It is so horrible,
 * From Cleon; regarding death and afterlife

Why, all men strive and who succeeds?
 * Fail I alone, in words and deeds?
 * "The Last Ride Together", line 67 (1859).

How sad and bad and mad it was — But then, how it was sweet!
 * We loved, sir — used to meet:
 * "Confessions", line 34 (1864).

Peopled at once.'''
 * '''Who hears music feels his solitude
 * Balaustion's Adventure, line 323 (1871).

All love begins and ends there.
 * Womanliness means only motherhood;
 * The Inn Album (1875).

My life did and does smack sweet.''' Was your youth of pleasure wasteful? Mine I save and hold complete. Do your joys with age diminish? When mine fail me, I'll complain. Must in death your daylight finish? My sun sets to rise again.
 * '''Have you found your life distasteful?
 * "At the 'Mermaid'"(1876)

Heaven not grim but fair of hue.''' Do I stoop? I pluck a posy; Do I stand and stare? All's blue.
 * '''I find earth not gray but rosy;
 * "At the 'Mermaid'"(1876).

And the loved one all together!'''
 * '''Never the time and the place
 * "Never the Time and the Place" (1883).

Age finds out was dew.'''
 * '''What Youth deemed crystal,
 * "Jochanan Hakkadosh" (1883).

 * A minute's success pays the failure of years.
 * "Apollo and the Fates", line 210 (1887).

All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem''': In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea: Breath and bloom, shade and shine, — wonder, wealth, and — how far above them —
 * '''All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:
 * Truth, that's brighter than gem,
 * Trust, that's purer than pearl, —
 * Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe, — all were for me
 * In the kiss of one girl.
 * "Summum Bonum" (1889).

When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut and lips meet!'''
 * '''The moment eternal — just that and no more —
 * "Now", line 12 (1889).

Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake.
 * One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
 * Asolando, "Epilogue" (1889).

 * Strive and thrive!
 * Asolando, "Epilogue" (1889).

Paracelsus (1835)

 * Autumn wins you best by this its mute Appeal to sympathy for its decay.
 * Part 1.

In living just as though no God there were.
 * That we devote ourselves to God, is seen
 * Part 1.

Ne'er dooms to waste the strength he deigns impart.
 * Be sure that God
 * Part 1.

I shall arrive,—what time, what circuit first, I ask not; but unless God send his hail Or blinding fire-balls, sleet or stifling snow, In some time, his good time, I shall arrive: He guides me and the bird. In his good time.
 * I see my way as birds their trackless way.
 * Part 1.

 * Truth is within ourselves.
 * Part 1.

Two points in the adventure of the diver,— One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge; One, when a prince he rises with his pearl? Festus, I plunge.
 * ''Are there not, dear Michal,
 * Part 1.

Who in his person acts his own creations.'''
 * '''God is the perfect poet,
 * Part 2.

Who blabs so oft the follies of this world.
 * Strange secrets are let out by Death
 * Part 2, line 112.

 * Error has no end.
 * Part 3.

To their first fault, and withered in their pride.
 * The sad rhyme of the men who proudly clung
 * Part 4.

And gain is gain, however small.
 * Every joy is gain
 * Part 4.

Not when they set about their mountain-piling But when another rock would crown the work.
 * Jove strikes the Titans down
 * Part 4.

Of the lake-lily is an urn some nymph Swims bearing high above her head.
 * The peerless cup afloat
 * Part 4.

A privacy, an obscure nook for me. I want to be forgotten even by God.
 * I give the fight up: let there be an end,
 * Part 5.

The law of life: man is not Man as yet.
 * Progress is
 * Part 5.

Sordello (1840)

 * But, gathering in its ancient market-place, Talked group with restless group ; and not a face But wrath made livid, for among them were Death's staunch purveyors, such as have in care To feast him. Fear had long since taken root In every breast, and now these crushed its fruit, The ripe hate, like a wine: to note the way It worked while each grew drunk ! men grave and grey Stood, with shut eyelids, rocking to and fro. Letting the silent luxury trickle slow About the hollows where a heart should be; But the young gulped with a delirious glee Some foretaste of their first debauch in blood At the fierce news
 * Book the First

 * over zealous in the feat And stumbling on a peril unaware. Was captive, "trammelled in his proper snare," They phrase it, "taken by his own intrigue"
 * Book the First

Some stealthy tricks to better beasts unknown That quick with prey enough her hunger blunts And feeds her fat while gaunt the lion hunts.
 * The hill-cat boasts some cunning of her own,
 * Book the First

 * [...]his back is fairly turned? The pair of goodly palaces are burned, The gardens ravaged, and your Guelf is drunk A week with joy ; the next, his laughter sunk In sobs of blood, for he found, some strange way, Old Salinguerra back again; I say Old Salinguerra in the town once more Uprooting, overturning, flame before Blood fetlock-high beneath him; Azzo fled; Who scaped the carnage followed; then the dead Were pushed aside from Salinguerra's throne. He ruled once more Ferrara, all alone. Till Azzo, stunned awhile, revived, would pounce; Coupled with Boniface, like lynx and ounce.
 * Book the First

 * So men believe And worship what they know not, nor receive Delight from.
 * Book the Second

 * Have they fancies — slow, perchance, Not at their beck, which indistinctly glance Until by song each floating part be linked To each, and all grow palpable, distinct? He pondered this.
 * Book the Second

 * Deeds let escape are never to be done.
 * Book the Third

 * Each a God's germ, but doomed remain a germ In unexpanded infancy
 * Book the Third

May ravage with impunity a rose.
 * Any nose
 * Book the Sixth

Pippa Passes (1841)
Costs it more pain that this ye call A "great event" should come to pass From that? Untwine me from the mass Of deeds which make up life, one deed Power shall fall short in or exceed!
 * Say not "a small event!" Why "small"?
 * Introduction.

And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearl'd; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn; '''God's in His heaven— All's right with the world!'''
 * The year's at the spring,
 * Part I, line 221.

Some unsuspected isle in far-off seas.
 * Some unsuspected isle in the far seas,—
 * Part II.

When earth was nigher heaven than now.
 * In the morning of the world,
 * Part III.

With God, whose puppets, best and worst, Are we: there is no last nor first.
 * All service ranks the same with God,—
 * Part IV.

Colombe's Birthday (1844)

 * When is man strong until he feels alone?
 * Act III.

Beats as it beat: the truth remains the truth. '''
 * '''The heavens and earth stay as they were; my heart
 * Valence, in Act IV.

Standing, as man now, stately, strong and wise, Marching to fortune, not surprised by her.''' One great aim, like a guiding-star, above— Which tasks strength, wisdom, stateliness, to lift His manhood to the height that takes the prize; A prize not near — lest overlooking earth He rashly spring to seize it — nor remote, So that he rest upon his path content: But day by day, while shimmering grows shine, And the faint circlet prophesies the orb, He sees so much as, just evolving these, The stateliness, the wisdom and the strength, To due completion, will suffice this life, And lead him at his grandest to the grave. After this star, out of a night he springs; A beggar's cradle for the throne of thrones He quits; so, mounting, feels each step he mounts, Nor, as from each to each exultingly He passes, overleaps one grade of joy. This, for his own good: — '''with the world, each gift Of God and man, — reality, tradition, Fancy and fact — so well environ him, That as a mystic panoply they serve — Of force, untenanted, to awe mankind, And work his purpose out with half the world''', While he, their master, dexterously slipt From such encumbrance, is meantime employed With his own prowess on the other half. '''Thus shall he prosper, every day's success Adding, to what is he, a solid strength — An aery might to what encircles him, Till at the last, so life's routine lends help, That as the Emperor only breathes and moves, His shadow shall be watched, his step or stalk Become a comfort or a portent, how He trails his ermine take significance, — Till even his power shall cease to be most power, And men shall dread his weakness more, nor dare Peril their earth its bravest, first and best, Its typified invincibility. Thus shall he go on, greatening, till he ends— The man of men, the spirit of all flesh, The fiery centre of an earthly world!'''
 * '''He gathers earth's whole good into his arms;
 * Valence of Prince Berthold, in Act IV.

Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845)
Cram in a day, what his youth took a year to hold:
 * What's a man's age? He must hurry more, that's all;
 * "The Flight of the Duchess", line 881.

Now that April's there''', And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brush-wood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf.
 * '''Oh, to be in England
 * "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad", line 1.

Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!
 * That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
 * "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad", line 14.

To give sign we and they are his children, one family here.
 * God made all the creatures, and gave them our love and our fear,
 * "Saul", vi.

How fit to employ All the heart and the soul and the senses Forever in joy!'''
 * '''How good is man's life, the mere living!
 * "Saul", ix.

 * 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do!
 * "Saul", xviii.

Men and Women (1855)

 * I do what many dream of, all their lives, — Dream? strive to do, and agonize to do, And fail in doing. I could count twenty such On twice your fingers, and not leave this town, Who strive — you don't know how the others strive To paint a little thing like that you smeared Carelessly passing with your robes afloat — Yet do much less, so much less, Someone says, (I know his name, no matter) — so much less! Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged.  There burns a truer light of God in them, In their vexed beating stuffed and stopped-up brain, Heart, or whate'er else, than goes on to prompt This low-pulsed forthright craftsman's hand of mine.
 * "Andrea del Sarto", line 70
 * "Less is more" is often misattributed to architects Buckminster Fuller or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It is something of a motto for minimalist philosophy. It was used in 1774 by Christoph Martin Wieland.

Or what's a heaven for?'''
 * '''Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
 * "Andrea del Sarto", line 98.

 * Take away love, and our earth is a tomb!
 * "Fra Lippo Lippi, line 54.

You get about the best thing God invents.'''
 * '''If you get simple beauty and naught else,
 * "Fra Lippo Lippi", line 217.

And make him swear to never kiss the girls.'''
 * '''You should not take a fellow eight years old
 * "Fra Lippo Lippi", line 224.

To try the soul's strength on.
 * I count life just a stuff
 * "In a Balcony", line 651.

 * What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?
 * "A Toccata of Galuppi's", line 42.

Not God's, and not the beasts': God is, they are, Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.'''
 * '''Progress, man's distinctive mark alone,
 * "De Gustibus", line 586.

Queen Mary's saying serves for me (When fortune's malice Lost her Calais): "Open my heart, and you will see Graved inside of it ‘Italy.'"
 * Italy, my Italy!
 * "De Gustibus", ii.

The honest thief, the tender murderer, The superstitious atheist.'''
 * '''Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things.
 * "Bishop Blougram’s Apology", line 395; cited by Graham Greene as the epigraph he would choose for his novels.

A man's worth something.
 * When the fight begins within himself,
 * "Bishop Blougram's Apology", line 693.

 * He said true things, but called them by the wrong names.
 * "Bishop Blougram's Apology", line 996.

Sees it and does it. This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it.''' That low man goes on adding one to one,— His hundred's soon hit; This high man, aiming at a million, Misses an unit. That has the world here—should he need the next, Let the world mind him! This throws himself on God, and unperplexed Seeking shall find him.
 * '''That low man seeks a little thing to do,
 * "A Grammarian's Funeral", line 115.

 * Lofty designs must close in like effects.
 * "A Grammarian's Funeral".

One Word More (1855)

 * Rafael made a century of sonnets.
 * Stanza ii.

 * Other heights in other lives, God willing.
 * Stanza xii.

Boasts two soul-sides,—one to face the world with, One to show a woman when he loves her!
 * God be thanked, the meanest of his creatures
 * Stanza xvii.

Oh their Dante of the dread Inferno, Wrote one song—and in my brain I sing it; Drew one angel—borne, see, on my bosom!
 * Oh their Rafael of the dear Madonnas,
 * Stanza xix.

A Death in the Desert (1864)

 * Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought.
 * Line 59.

And hope and fear (believe the aged friend), Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love,— How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.
 * For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,

At once to the height, and stayed; but the soul,—no!
 * The body sprang

And be discharged, and straight wound up anew? No! grown, his growth lasts; taught, he ne'er forgets: May learn a thousand things, not twice the same.
 * What? Was man made a wheel-work to wind up,

When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, And lack of love from love made manifest.
 * For I say this is death and the sole death,—

Not God's, and not the beasts': God is, they are; Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be.
 * Progress, man's distinctive mark alone,

Indulging every instinct of the soul There where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing!
 * The ultimate, angels' law,

Rabbi Ben Ezra
The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made:''' '''Our times are in his hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!" '''
 * '''Grow old along with me!
 * Line 1.

Not for such hopes and fears Annulling youth's brief years, Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark! '''Rather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without, Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.''' Poor vaunt of life indeed, Were man but formed to feed On joy, to solely seek and find and feast; Such feasting ended, then As sure an end to men.
 * Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!
 * Line 12.

Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!'''"
 * Let us cry, "'''All good things
 * Line 70.

Severed great minds from small, Announced to each his station in the Past!''' '''Was I, the world arraigned, Were they, my soul disdained, Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last! ''' Now, who shall arbitrate? Ten men love what I hate, Shun what I follow, slight what I receive; Ten, who in ears and eyes Match me: we all surmise, They this thing, I that: whom shall my soul believe?
 * '''Be there, for once and all,
 * Line 121.

All purposes unsure, That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount: Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act, '''Fancies that broke through language and escaped; All I could never be, All, men ignored in me, This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'''
 * All instincts immature,
 * Line 142.

Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: What entered into thee, That was, is, and shall be: Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.'''
 * '''Fool! All that is, at all,
 * Line 157.

To uses of a cup.'''
 * '''Look not thou down but up!
 * Line 175.

But I need, now as then, Thee, God, who mouldest men.
 * Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst thou with earth's wheel?
 * Line 180.

Amend what flaws may lurk, What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim! '''My times be in thy hand! Perfect the cup as planned!''' Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!
 * So, take, and use thy work:
 * Line 187.

The Ring and the Book (1868-69)

 * Full text online at Wikisource

Prime nature with an added artistry — No carat lost, and you have gained a ring.''' What of it? 'T is a figure, a symbol, say; A thing's sign: now for the thing signified.
 * '''Gold as it was, is, shall be evermore:
 * Book I : The Ring and the Book.

Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard, And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since. Give it me back! The thing's restorative I'the touch and sight.
 * A book in shape but, really, pure crude fact
 * Book I : The Ring and the Book.

 * A ring without a posy, and that ring mine?
 * Book I : The Ring and the Book.

And all a wonder and a wild desire''', — Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun, Took sanctuary within the holier blue, And sang a kindred soul out to his face, — Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart— When the first summons from the darkling earth Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, And bared them of the glory — to drop down, To toil for man, to suffer or to die, — This is the same voice: can thy soul know change? Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help!
 * '''O lyric Love, half angel and half bird
 * Book I : The Ring and the Book.

With men and women: leave a child alone For Christ's particular love's sake!
 * Go practise if you please
 * Book III : The Other Half-Rome, line 88.

 * In the great right of an excessive wrong.
 * Book III: The Other Half-Rome, line 1055.

But seemed far beautifuller than its day.
 * Was never evening yet
 * Book VII: Pompilia, line 357.

Entranced awhile at Law's first beam, outbreak O' the business, when the Count's good angel bade "Put up thy sword, born enemy to the ear, "And let Law listen to thy difference!" And Law does listen and compose the strife, Settle the suit, how wisely and how well! On our Pompilia, faultless to a fault, Law bends a brow maternally severe, Implies the worth of perfect chastity, By fancying the flaw she cannot find.
 * Forgive me this digression — that I stand
 * Book IX : Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. Cam. Apostol. Advocatus.

When it seemed only thine to keep or lose, How the fine ear felt fall the first low word "Value life, and preserve life for My sake!"
 * Oh child that didst despise thy life so much
 * Book X : The Pope.

With old requirement, seemed to supersede Too much the customary law? '''But, brave, Thou at first prompting of what I call God, And fools call Nature, didst hear, comprehend, Accept the obligation laid on thee, Mother elect, to save the unborn child, As brute and bird do, reptile and the fly, Ay and, I nothing doubt, even tree, shrub, plant And flower o' the field, all in a common pact To worthily defend the trust of trusts, Life from the Ever Living''': — didst resist — Anticipate the office that is mine — And with his own sword stay the upraised arm, The endeavour of the wicked, and defend Him who, — again in my default, — was there For visible providence: one less true than thou To touch, i' the past, less practised in the right, Approved less far in all docility To all instruction, — how had such an one Made scruple "Is this motion a decree?"
 * What wonder if the novel claim had clashed
 * Book X : The Pope.

Felicity and flower of wickedness.
 * The curious crime, the fine
 * Book X: The Pope, line 590.

And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?
 * Why comes temptation, but for man to meet
 * Book X: The Pope, line 1185.

Compensate bad in man, absolve him so: Life's business being just the terrible choice.
 * White shall not neutralize the black, nor good
 * Book X: The Pope.

Artistry's haunting curse, the Incomplete!
 * Inscribe all human effort with one word,
 * Book XI, line 1560.

That Art remains the one way possible Of speaking truth,—to mouths like mine, at least.
 * It is the glory and good of Art
 * Book XII: The Book and the Ring, line 842.

Linking our England to his Italy.
 * Thy rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised)
 * Book XII: The Book and the Ring, line 873.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Lily on lily, that o'erlace the sea.
 * The sprinkled isles,
 * Cleon.

Proving absurd all written hitherto, And putting us to ignorance again.
 * And I have written three books on the soul,
 * Cleon.

The man sprang to his feet, Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed! So, I was afraid!
 * Just my vengeance complete,
 * Instans Tyrannus, vii.

Was lost here but it rose afar.
 * Oh never star
 * Waring, ii.

 * When the liquor's out, why clink the cannikin?
 * The Flight of the Duchess, xvi.

Is—the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin, Though the end in sight was a vice, I say.
 * The sin I impute to each frustrute ghost
 * The Statue and the Bust.

 * Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.
 * Childe Roland to the dark Tower came, xxxiii.

Just for a riband to stick in his coat.
 * Just for a handful of silver he left us,
 * The lost Leader, i.

Songs may inspirit us,—not from his lyre; Deeds will be done,—while he boasts his quiescence, Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire.
 * We shall march prospering,—not thro' his presence;
 * The lost Leader, ii.

We are faulty; why not?—we have time in store.
 * They are perfect; how else?—they shall never change:
 * Old Pictures in Florence, xvi.

Things learned on earth we shall practise in heaven; Works done least rapidly Art most cherishes.
 * ''What's come to perfection perishes.
 * Old Pictures in Florence, xvii.

Loved all the more by earth's male-lands, Laid to their hearts instead.
 * O woman-country! wooed not wed,
 * By the Fireside, vi.

And the spirit-small hand propping it.
 * That great brow
 * By the Fireside, xxiii.

They are one and one, with a shadowy third; One near one is too far.
 * If two lives join, there is oft a scar.
 * By the Fireside, xlvi.

Infinite passion, and the pain Of finite hearts that yearn.
 * Only I discern
 * Two in the Campagna, xii.

In a dazzling drift, as its guardians, go Floating the women faded for ages, Sculptured in stone on the poet's pages.
 * Round and round, like a dance of snow
 * Women and Roses.

Death has done all death can. And absorbed in the new life he leads, He recks not, he heeds Nor his wrong nor my vengeance; both strike On his senses alike, And are lost in the solemn and strange Surprise of the change.
 * How he lies in his rights of a man!
 * After.

And did he stop and speak to you, And did you speak to him again? How strange it seems, and new!
 * Ah, did you once see Shelley plain,
 * Memorabilia, i.

To begin doing well in peace.
 * He who did well in war just earns the right
 * Luria, Act ii.

Is quick and transient,—comes, and lo! is gone, While Northern thought is slow and durable.
 * And inasmuch as feeling, the East's gift,
 * Luria, Act v.

To rise to the completer life of one; And those who live as models for the mass Are singly of more value than they all.
 * A people is but the attempt of many
 * Luria, Act v.

To try the soul's strength on.
 * I count life just a stuff
 * In a Balcony.

No feat which, done, would make time break, And let us pent-up creatures through Into eternity, our due? No forcing earth teach heaven's employ?
 * Was there nought better than to enjoy?
 * Dis aliter visum; or, Le Byron de nos Jours.

The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound; What was good shall be good, with for evil so much good more; On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.
 * There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;
 * Abt Vogler, ix.

That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go! Be our joys three-parts pain! Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!
 * Then welcome each rebuff
 * Rabbi Ben Ezra.

And was not, comforts me.
 * What I aspired to be,
 * Rabbi Ben Ezra.

But then, how it was sweet!
 * How sad and bad and mad it was!
 * Confessions, ix.

 * So may a glory from defect arise.
 * Deaf and Dumb.

And we missed it, lost it forever.
 * This could but have happened once,—
 * Youth and Art, xvii.

The mist in my face. .   .    .    .    .    .    . No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, The heroes of old; Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears
 * Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,

Of pain, darkness, and cold.
 * Prospice.

It's safer being meek than fierce; It's fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That after Last returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched; That what began best can't end worst, Nor what God blessed once prove accurst.
 * It's wiser being good than bad;
 * Apparent Failure, vii.

If bent on groaning ever for the past?
 * But how carve way i' the life that lies before,
 * Balaustion's Adventure.

Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed,— As, God be thanked! I do not.
 * Better have failed in the high aim, as I,
 * The Inn Album, iv.

Shakespeare unlocked his heart" once more! Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!
 * "With this same key
 * House, x.

Rests never on the track until it reach Delinquency.
 * God's justice, tardy though it prove perchance,
 * Cenciaja.

Best, to forget! Living, we fret; Dying, we live.
 * Good, to forgive;
 * Dedication to La Saisiaz.

 * Can we love but on condition that the thing we love must die?
 * La Saisiaz.

Till, near and far, Ray on ray split the shroud: Splendid, a star!
 * Sky—what a scowl of cloud
 * The two Poets of Croisic.

Were not also humble!
 * As if true pride
 * In an Album.

Summer redundant, Blueness abundant, Where is the blot?
 * Wanting is—what?
 * Wanting—is what?

That little is achieved through Liberty.
 * But little do or can the best of us:
 * Why I am a Liberal.

By Man than comes of music.
 * There is no truer truth obtainable
 * Charles Avison.

Disputed

 * Love is energy of life.
 * As quoted in Love's Way (1918) by Orison Swett Marden, p. 175; no earlier citation of this to Browning has been located.

Misattributed

 * Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top.
 * Sometimes ascribed to Robert Browning, this is in fact a misquotation from Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621): "They [i.e. ambitious men] may not cease, but as a dog in a wheel, a bird in a cage, or a squirrel in a chain, so Budaeus compares them; they climb and climb still, with much labour, but never make an end, never at the top".

 * Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked.
 * Not Browning, but a misquotation from Pearl Buck's China, Past and Present: "Ah well, perhaps one has to be very old before one learns how to be amused rather than shocked".

Quotes about Browning

 * He concentrated on the special souls of men; seeking God in a series of personal interviews.
 * G. K. Chesterton, The Victorian Age in Literature (1913) [University of Notre Dame Press, 1963], Ch. I: The Victorian Compromise and Its Enemies (p. 19).

 * He is called an optimist; but the word suggests a calculated contentment which was not in the least one of his vices. What he really was was a romantic. He offered the cosmos as an adventure rather than a scheme. He did not explain evil, far less explain it away: he enjoyed defying it. He was a troubadour even in theology and metaphysics: like the Jongleurs de Dieu of St. Francis. He may be said to have serenaded heaven with a guitar, and even, so to speak, tried to climb there with a rope ladder.
 * G. K. Chesterton, The Victorian Age in Literature (1913), Ch. III: The Great Victorian Poets (p. 89).

 * If Browning were less difficult to read, he would surely be the dominant poet in this century. I feel the ecstasy with which he exclaims, “Oh, good gigantic smile o’ the brown old earth this autumn morning!" And how he sets my brain going when he says, because there is imperfection, there must be perfection; completeness must come of incompleteness; failure is an evidence of triumph for the fulness of the days. Yes, discord is, that harmony may be; pain destroys, that health may renew; perhaps I am deaf and blind that others likewise afflicted may see and hear with a more perfect sense! From Browning I learn that there is no lost good, and that makes it easier for me to go at life, right or wrong, do the best I know, and fear not. My heart responds proudly to his exhortation to pay gladly life's debt of pain, darkness and cold. Lift up your burden, it is God's gift, bear it nobly.
 * Helen Keller, Optimism (1903).

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Robert Browning