Top 120 Quotes & Sayings by Martin Farquhar Tupper

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.

Memory is not wisdom; idiots can by rote repeat volumes. Yet what is wisdom without memory?

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

Pain adds rest unto pleasure, and teaches the luxury of health.

Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.

If thou art master to thyself, circumstances shall harm thee little.

God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love.

A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men.

Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.

He who does not tire, tires adversity.

A spark is a little thing, yet it may kindle the world.

To be accurate, write; to remember, write; to know thine own mind, write. And a written prayer is a prayer of faith, special, sure, and to be answered.

The pen has shaken nations.

Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the building up of character.

Solitude delighteth well to feed on many thoughts; There as thou sittest peaceful, communing with fancy, The precious poetry of life shall gild its leaden cares; There, as thou walkest by the sea beneath the gentle stars, Many kindling seeds of good will sprout within thy soul; Thou shalt weep in Solitude,--thou shalt pray in Solitude. Thou shalt sing for joy of heart, and praise the grace of Solitude.

Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume.

Who can wrestle against Sleep? - Yet is that giant very gentleness.

Extravagance is the rich man's pitfall.

Humility mainly becometh the converse of man with his Maker.

Wealth oft-times killeth, where want but hindered the budding.

He that is ambitious for his son, should give him untried names, For those have serv'd other men, haply may injure by their evils; Or otherwise may hinder by their glories; therefore set him by himself, To win for his individual name some clear praise.

Yet is beauty the pleasing trickery that cheateth half the world.

Hate furroweth the brow; and a man may frown till he hateth.

Thou hast seen many sorrows, travel-stained pilgrim of the world, But that which hath vexed thee most, hath been the looking for evil; And though calamities have crossed thee, and misery been heaped on thy head, Yet ills that never happened, have chiefly made thee wretched.

The seeds of first instructions are dropp'd into the deepest furrows.

The most wretched have yet hope.

A juggler's skill hath been long years alearning.

Labour is good for a man, bracing up his energies to conquest, And without it life is dull, the man perceiving himself useless.

Better is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the right with falsehood.

Lies can destroy, but not create.

Never give up! If adversity presses, Providence wisely has mingled the cup, And the best counsel, in all your distresses, Is the stout watchword of "Never give up."

Power is seldom innocent, and envy is the yokefellow of eminence.

Hatred is the atmosphere of hell.

Love is the weapon which Omnipotence reserved to conquer rebel man when all the rest had failed. Reason he parries; fear he answers blow for blow; future interest he meets with present pleasure; but love, that sun against whose melting beams the winter cannot stand--that soft subliming slumber which wrestles down the giant, there is not one human being in a million, nor a thousand men in all earth's huge quintillion, whose clay heart is hardened against love.

Thought paceth like a hoary sage, but imagination hath wings as an eagle.

Blunted unto goodness is the heart which anger never stirreth, but that which hatred swelleth, is keen to carve out evil.

Contend not in wisdom with a fool, for thy sense maketh much of his conceit; And some errors never would have thriven, had it not been for learned refutation.

Our cares are all To-day, our joys are all To-day; And in one little word, our life, what is it but--To-day?

Nature is the chart of God, mapping out all His attributes.

Never give up! it is wiser and betterAlways to hope, than once to despair.Fling off the load of Doubt's cankering fetter,And break the dark spell of tyrannical care.

How dear to the mind of the sage are the thoughts that are bred in loneliness; for there is as it were music at his heart, and he talketh within him as with friends.

Few and precious are the words which the lips of Wisdom utter: To what shall their rarity be likened? What prices shall count their worth? Perfect, and much to be desired, and giving joy with riches, No lovely thing on earth can picture their fair beauty. They be chance pearls, flung among the rocks by the sullen waters of Oblivion.

Many a beggar at the crossway, or gray-haired shepherd on the plain, hath more of the end of all wealth than hundreds who multiply the means.

Praise a fool, and slay him; for the canvas of his vanity is spread; His bark is shallow in the water, and a sudden gust shall sink it: Praise a wise man, and speed him on his way; for he carrieth the ballast of humility, And is glad when his course is cheered by the sympathy of brethren ashore.

Law hath dominion over all things, over universal mind and matter; For there are reciprocities of rights, which no creature can gainsay.

Confidence is conqueror of men; victorious both over them and in them; The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand quail; A feeble dwarf, dauntlessly resolved, will turn the tide of battle, And rally to a nobler strife the giants that had fled.

A man too careful of danger liveth in continual torment, But a cheerful expecter of the best hath a fountain of joy within him.

One single glance will conquer all descriptions.

Not few nor light are the burdens of life; then load it not with heaviness of spirit.

Deep is the sea, and deep is hell, but pride mineth deeper; it is coiled as a poisonous worm about the foundations of the soul.

To-morrow is that lamp upon the marsh, which a traveller never reacheth; To-morrow, the rainbow's cup, coveted prize of ignorance; To-morrow, the shifting anchorage, dangerous trust of manners; To-morrow, the wrecker's beacon, wily snare of the destroyer. Reconcile conviction with delay, and To-morrow is a fatal lie; Frighten resolutions into action, To-morrow is a wholesome truth.

Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen; Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions: For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will, But a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance.

Travel is a ceaseless fount of surface education, But its wisdom will be simply superficial, if thou add not thoughts to things.

Naples sitteth by the sea, keystone of an arch of azure.

A letter, timely writ, is a rivet to the chain of affection; And a letter, untimely delayed, is as rust to the solder.

When thou choosest a wife, think not only of thyself, but of those God may give thee of her, that they reproach thee not for their being.

It is sure to be dark if you shut your eyes.

Let the misanthrope shun men and abjure; the most are rather lovable than hateful.

A spark is a molecule of matter, yet may it kindle the world; vast is the mighty ocean, but drops have made it vast. Despise not thou small things, either for evil or for good; for a look may work thy ruin, or a word create thy wealth.

It is well to lie fallow for a while.