THE HANDBOOK OF
QUOTATIONS

Absence.

Ye flowers that droop, forsaken by the spring;
Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing;
Ye trees that fade, when autumn heats remove,
Say, is not absence death to those who love?
Pope: Autumn.

There's not an hour

Of day or dreaming nights but I am with thee:
There's not a wind but whispers of thy name,
And not a flower that sleeps beneath the moon
But in its hues or fragrance tells a tale
Of thee.

Procter: Mirandola.

Though absent, present in desires they be;
Our souls much further than our eyes can see.

Though lost to sight, to memory dear
Thou ever wilt remain.

Drayton.

George Linley: Song.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Thomas Haynes Bayly: Isle of Beauty.

Oh! couldst thou but know

With what a deep devotedness of woe
I wept thy absence-o'er and o'er again
Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain,
And memory, like a drop that, night and day,
Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away!
Moore: Lalla Rookh.

Think'st thou that I could bear to part
From thee, and learn to halve my heart?
Years have not seen, time shall not see
The hour that tears my soul from thee.

Byron: Bride of Abydos.

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravel'd, fondly turns to thee.
Goldsmith: Traveller.

Action, Activity, Industry; see Labor.

Great things thro' greatest hazards are achiev'd,
And then they shine.

Beaumont and Fletcher: Loyal Subject.

Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.

Fletcher: On an Honest Man's Fortune.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.

Shakespeare: Macbeth.

Who does the best his circumstance allows,
Does well, acts nobly,-angels could no more.
Young: Night Thoughts.

How slow the time

To the warm soul, that, in the very instant
It forms, would execute a great design!

The keen spirit

Seizes the prompt occasion,-makes the thoughts
Start into instant action, and at once
Plans and performs, resolves and executes!

Hannah More.

Let us then be up and doing,

With a heart for every fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

Adversity, Affliction, Misfortune.

The good are better made by ill,
As odors crush'd are sweeter still.

Thomson.

Of all affliction taught a lover yet
'Tis sure the hardest science to forget!

Longfellow.

Rogers: Jacqueline.

So do the winds and thunder cleanse the air,
So working bees settle and purge the wine;
So lopp'd and pruned trees do flourish fair;
So doth the fire the drossy gold refine.
Spenser: Faërie Queene.

Pope.

Affliction is the good man's shining scene;
Prosperity conceals his brightest ray;
As night to stars, woe luster gives to man.
Young: Night Thoughts.

He went like one that hath been stunn'd,
And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man

He rose the morrow morn.

Coleridge: Ancient Mariner.

I have not quailed to danger's brow
When high and happy-need I now?

I am not now in fortune's power:
He that is down, can fall no lower.

Byron: Giaour.

Butler: Hudibras.

Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
Shakespeare: As You Like It.

Advice, Counsel.

Let me entreat

You to unfold the anguish of your heart;
Mishaps are master'd by advice discreet,
And counsel mitigates the greatest smart.

Spenser: Faërie Queene.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Shakespeare: Hamlet.

Love all, trust a few,

Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy

Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.

Shakespeare: All's Well That Ends Well.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel:
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade.

Shakespeare: Hamlet.

Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate
thee;

Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues.

Age, Old Age; see Time and Youth.

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in his hand

Shakespeare: Henry VIII.

Youth ended, I shall try

My gain or loss thereby;

Who saith, "A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"

Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold:

And I shall weigh the same,

Give life its praise or blame:

Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old.

Browning: Rabbi Ben Ezra.