Top 120 Quotes & Sayings by Martin Farquhar Tupper - Page 2

Clamorous pauperism feastest While honest Labor, pining, hideth his sharp ribs.

O Death, what are thou? nurse of dreamless slumbers freshening the fevered flesh to a wakefulness eternal.

If wealth come, beware of him, the smooth, false friend! There is treachery in his proffered hand; his tongue is eloquent to tempt; lust of many harms is lurking in his eye; he hath a hollow heart; use him cautiously.

Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man.

None is poor but the mean in mind, the timorous, the weak, and unbelieving; none is wealthy but the affluent in soul, who is satisfied and floweth over.

Betray mean terror of ridicule, thou shalt find fools enough to mock thee; but answer thou their language with contempt, and the scoffers will lick thy feet.

Every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man.

To despond is to lie ungrateful beforehand. Be not looking for evil. Often thou drainest the gall of fear while evil is passing by thy dwelling.

Be understood in thy teaching, and instruct to this measure of capacity; precepts and rules are repulsive to a child, but happy illustration winneth him.

How beautiful is modesty! It winneth upon all beholders; but a word or a glance may destroy the pure love that should have been for thee.

It is the cringer to his equal that is chiefly seen bold to his God.

Love with life is heaven; and life, unloving, hell.

Humility is the softening shadow before the stature of Excellence, And lieth lowly on the ground, beloved and lovely as the violet.

Knowledge is leagued with the universe, and findeth a friend in all things; but ignorance is everywhere a stranger, unwelcome; ill at ease and out of place.

As frost to the bud, and blight to the blossom, even such is self-interest to friendship; for confidence cannot dwell where selfishness is porter at the gate.

Age hath its quiet calm, and youth enjoyeth not for haste.

Men scanning the surface count the wicked happy; they see not the frightful dreams that crowd a bad man's pillow.

Happiness is a roadside flower growing on the highways of usefulness; plucked, it shall wither in thy hand; passed by, it is fragrance to thy spirit. Trample the thyme beneath thy feet; be useful, be happy.

Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil.

Alike to the slave and his oppressor cometh night with sweet refreshment, and half of the life of the most wretched is gladdened by the soothings of sleep.

Deceit and treachery skulk with hatred, but an honest spirit flieth with anger.

In a dream thou mayst live a lifetime, and all be forgotten in the morning: Even such is life, and so soon perisheth its memory.

The mines of knowledge are often laid bare by the hazel-wand of chance.

Who shall guess what I may be?Who can tell my fortune to me?For, bravest and brightest that ever was sungMay be - and shall be - the lot of the young!

Reason refuseth its homage to a God who can be fully understood.

Rashly, nor ofttimes truly, doth man pass judgment on his brother; for he seeth not the springs of the heart, nor heareth the reasons of the mind.

For life, good youth, hath never an illWhich hope cannot scatter, and faith cannot kill;And stubborn realities never shall bindThe free-spreading wings of a cheerful mind.

Anger is a noble infirmity; the generous failing of the just; the one degree that riseth above zeal, asserting the prerogative of virtue.

Life is as the current spark on the miner's wheel of flints; While it spinneth, there is light; stop it, all is darkness.

Hope and be happy that all's for the best!

True wisdom, laboring to expound, heareth others readily; False wisdom, sturdy to deny, closeth up her mind to argument.

A wise man heedeth all things, and in his own eyes is a fool.

If the mind is wearied by study, or the body worn with sickness, It is well to lie fallow for a while, in the vacancy of sheer amusement; But when thou prosprest in health, and thine intellect can soar untired, To seek uninstructive pleasure is to slumber on the couch of indolence.

Take the good with the evil, for ye all are pensioners of God, and none may choose or refuse the cup His wisdom mixeth.

An artful or false woman shall set thy pillow with thorns.

A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure.

The wise man knoweth where to stop, as he runneth in the race of fortune, For experience of old hath taught him, that happiness lingered midway; And many in hot pursuit have hasted to the goal of wealth, But have lost, as they ran, those apples of gold--the mind and the power to enjoy it.

Lay not the plummet to the line; religion hath no landmarks; no human keenness can discern the subtle shades of faith.

The sun of the mind, and the life of the heart is Wisdom. She is pure and full of light, crowning grey hairs with lustre, And kindling the eye of youth with a fire not its own.

Wealth hath never given happiness, but often hastened misery.

A man looketh on his little one as a being of better hope; in himself ambition is dead, but it bath a resurrection in his son.

Policy counselleth a gift, given wisely and in season; And policy afterwards approveth it, for great is the influence of gifts.

God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love in all he doeth, Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume: The wicked work their woe by looking upon love, and hating it: The righteous find their joys in yearning on its loveliness for ever.

If thou wilt think evil of thy neighbour, soon shalt thou have him for thy foe.

There is not unmitigated ill in the sharpest of this world's sorrows; I touch not the sore of thy guilt; but of human griefs I counsel thee, Cast off the weakness of regret, and gird thee to redeem thy loss: Thou has gained, in the furnace of affliction, self-knowledge, patience and humility, And these be as precious ore, that waiteth the skill of the coiner: Despise not the blessings of adversity, nor the gain thou hast earned so hardly, And now thou hast drained the bitter, take heed that thou lose not the sweet.

As thou directest the power, harm or advantage will follow, and the torrent that swept the valley may be led to turn a mill.

Economy, the poor man's mint.

Mind is a kingdom to the man who gathereth his pleasure from ideas.

Speech is the golden harvest that followeth the flowering of thought.

In the morning of life, before its wearisome journey, The youthful soul doth expand, in the simple luxury of being; It hath not contracted its wishes, nor set a limit on its hopes; The wing of fancy is unclipped, and sin hath not seared the feelings: Each feature is stamped with immortality, for all its desires are infinite, And it seeketh an ocean of happiness, to fill the deep hollow within.

Love looketh from the eye, and kindleth love by looking.

Search out the wisdom of nature, there is depth in all her doings; she seemeth prodigal of power, yet her rules are the maxims of frugality.

I have sped by land and sea, and mingled with much people, but never yet could find a spot unsunned by human kindness.

Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil; In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish; For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth.

Spurn not a seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth.

Faith may rise into miracles of might, as some few wise men have shown; faith may sink into credulities of weakness, as the mass of fools have witnessed.

There is a limit to enjoyment, though the sources of wealth be boundlessAnd the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.

Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion; a sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes.

He who commits a wrong will himself inevitably see the writing on the wall, though the world may not count him guilty.

Love--what a volume in a word, an ocean in a tear, A seventh heaven in a glance, a whirlwind in a sigh, The lightning in a touch, a millennium in a moment, What concentrated joy or woe in blest or blighted love! For it is that native poetry springing up indigenous to Mind, The heart's own-country music thrilling all its chords, The story without an end that angels throng to hear, The word, the king of words, carved on Jehovah's heart!