- 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, from 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, from The Knight of the Burning Pestle
- If I die, you say you will let your hair
turn silver, grow long, and you will go
into the dark place, for you’ve already begun
to forget what Mecca means.
Zeina Hashem Beck, from Maquam
- This came to less yes than an ice cream cone
Let stand . . . .
John Berryman, from "Sonnet 1," 9-10
- Listen, for poets are feigned to lie, and I
For you a liar am a thousand times . . . .
John Berryman, from "Sonnet 43," 9-10
- Loves are the summer's. Summer like a bee
Sucks our best off, thigh-brushes, and is gone.
John Berryman, from "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, from 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, from The rain was ending, and light
- The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
Elizabeth Bishop, from "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, from "One Art," 1-3
- Nature repeats herself, or almost does:
repeat, repeat, repeat, revise, revise, revise.
Elizabeth Bishop, from "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, from Sonnet, with Esther
- How do I love thee? let me count the ways.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from 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, from 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, from Rabbi Ben Ezra lines 1-3
- Oh,to be in England
Now that April's there . . . .
Robert Browning, from Home-Thoughts from Abroad lines 1-2
- God's in his heaven--
All"s right with the world!
Robert Browning, from 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, from Fra Lippo Lippi 313-315
- Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a Heaven for?
Robert Browning, from Andrea del Sarto, lines 97-98
- We substitute, in a fashion,
For Heaven--poetry. . . .
Robert Browning, from 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, from 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, from 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, from 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, from 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, from 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, from My Handsome Nell
- Pleasures are like poppies spread--
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.
Robert Burns, from 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, from 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, from Hudibras, Part II, canto ii, line 197
- Oaths are but words, and words but wind,
Too feeble implements to bind.
Samuel Butler, from 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, from 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, from Don Juan, Canto II, Stanza 34
- Truth is always strange,--
Stranger than fiction.
Lord Byron, from 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, from 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, from She Walks in Beauty
- The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold
Lord Byron, from 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, from 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, from Stanzas for Music
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