- B -
- We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial;
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best
P.J. Bailey, Festus
- We do not fight for the real but for shadows we make.
A flag is a piece of cloth and a word is a sound,
But we make them something neither cloth nor sound
Tokens of love an hate, black sorcery stones.
Stephen Vincent Benét
- Wicked mirth never true pleasure brings
But honest minds are pleased with honest things.
Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight of the Burning Pestle
- This came to less yes than an ice cream cone
Let stand . . . .
John Berryman, "Sonnet 1," 9-10
- Listen, for poets are feigned to lie, and I
For you a liar am a thousand times . . . .
John Berryman, "Sonnet 43," 9-10
- Loves are the summer's. Summer like a bee
Sucks our best off, thigh-brushes, and is gone.
John Berryman, "Sonnet 59," 1-2
- She screams whenever monarchs meet,
And parliaments as well,
To bind the chains about her feet
And toll her knell.
Ambrose Bierce, Freedom
- I'll choose this moment and keep it,
He said to himself, for a vow,
To remember for ever and ever
As if it were always now.
Laurence Binyon, The rain was ending, and light
- The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
Elizabeth Bishop, "The Man-Moth," 3
- The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art," 1-3
- Nature repeats herself, or almost does:
repeat, repeat, repeat, revise, revise, revise.
Elizabeth Bishop, "North Haven," 19-20<
- To see the World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour...
William Blake, from Auguries of Innocence
- He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.
William Blake
- He who hs once been happy is for aye
Out of destruction's reach.
Wilfrid Scant Blunt, Sonnet, with Esther
- How do I love thee? let me count the ways.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet XLIII
- And nobody calls you a dunce,
And people suppose me clever:
This could have happened once,
Ans we missed it, lost it forever.
Robert Browning, Youth and Art
- Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made . . . .
Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra lines 1-3
- Oh,to be in England
Now that April's there . . . .
Robert Browning, Home-Thoughts from Abroad lines 1-2
- God's in his heaven--
All"s right with the world!
Robert Browning, Song from Pippa Passes
- This world's no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good:
To find its meaning is my meat and drink."
Robert Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi 313-315
- Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a Heaven for?
Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto, lines 97-98
- We substitute, in a fashion,
For Heaven--poetry. . . .
Robert Browning, Amphibian, lines 55-56
- Once to have hoped is no matter for scorning!
Love once--e'en love's disappointment endears!
A minute's success pays the failure of years.
Robert Browning, Apollo and the Fates lines 208-210
- Loveliest of lovely things are they,
On earth, that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculpted flower.
William Cullen Bryant, A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson
- Beneath the rule of men entirely great
Te pen is mightier than the sword.
Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu
- Take away these rosy lips,
Rich with balmy treasure !
Turn away thine eyes of love,
Lest I die with pleasure !
What is life when wanting love ?
Night without a morning !
Love's the cloudless summer sun,
Nature gay adorning.
Robert Burns, from Thine Am I
- Here's a bottle and an honest friend !
What wad ye wish for mair, man ?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o' care, man ?
Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man :
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And come not aye when sought, man.
Robert Burns, A Bottle and a Friend
- The warly race may riches chase,
An' riches still may fly them O;
An' tho' at last they catch them fast,
Their hearts can ne'er enjoy them O.
Robert Burns, Green Grow the Rashes
- A gaudy dress and gentle air
May slightly touch the heart,
But it's innocence and modesty
That polishes the dart.
Robert Burns, My Handsome Nell
- Pleasures are like poppies spread--
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.
Robert Burns, Tam o' Shanter
- Loyalty is still the same,
Whether it win or lose the game;
True as a dial to the sun,
Although it not be shined upon.
Samuel Butler
- There's but the twinkling of a star
Between a man of peace and war.
Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part III, Canto I
- Oaths were not purpos'd, more than law,
To keep the just and good in awe,
But to confine the bad and sinful,
Like moral cattle, in a pinfold.
Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part II, canto ii, line 197
- Oaths are but words, and words but wind,
Too feeble implements to bind.
Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part II, canto ii, line 107
- One taper lights a thousand,
Yet shines as it has shown;
And the humblest light may kindle
A brighter than its own.
Between a man of peace and war.
Hezekiah Butterworth, The Taper stanza 10
- Lytle money, lytle law.
The Parlement of Byrdes
- There's naught no doubt so much the spirit calms
As rum and true religion.
Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto II, Stanza 34
- Truth is always strange,--
Stranger than fiction.
Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto 14, stanza 101
- For pleasures past I do not grieve,
Nor perils gathering near;
My greatest grief is that I leave
No thing that claims a tear.
Lord Byron, Childe Harold, Canto 1, stanza 13
- 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;
Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty
- The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold
Lord Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib
- They never fail who die
In a great cause; the block may soak thir gore;
Their heads may sodded in the sun; thier limbs
Be strung to castle gates and city walls--
But still their spirit walks abroad.
Lord Byron, Marino Falierno
- There be none of beauty's daughters
With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters
Is thy sweet voice to me:
Lord Byron, Stanzas for Music
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