1. "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp -- or what's a heaven for?"
2. “ALL that I know Of a certain star Is, it can throw (Like the angled spar) Now a dart of red, Now a dart of blue; Till my friends have said They would fain see, too, My star that dartles the red and the blue! Then it stops like a bird; like a flower hangs furled: They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. What matter to me if their star is a world? Mine has opened its soul to me, therefore I love it.”
3. “All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:Breath and bloom, shade and shine, - wonder, wealth, and - how far above them -Truth, that's brighter than gem,Trust, that's purer than pearl, -Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe - all were for meIn the kiss of one girl.”
4. “And if at whiles the bubble, blowntoo thin, / Seem nigh on bursting, - if you nearly see / The real world through the false – what do you see?”
5. "For life, with all its yields of joy or woeAnd hope and fear,Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love,How love might be, hath been indeed, and is."
6. “God be thanked, the meanest of his creaturesBoasts two soul-sides, one to face the world with,One to show a woman when he loves her.”
7. “Grow old along with me!The best is yet to be.The last of life, for which the first was made.”
8. “Have you found your life distasteful?My life did, and does, smack sweet.Was your youth of pleasure wasteful?Mine I saved and hold complete.Do your joys with age diminish?When mine fail me, I'll complain.Must in death your daylight finish?My sun sets to rise again.”
9. “I count life just a stuffTo try the soul's strength on.”
10. “If I stoopInto a dark tremendous sea of cloud,It is but for a time; I press God's lampClose to my breast; its splendor soon or lateWill pierce the gloom; I shall emerge one day.”
11. ”If you get simple beauty and nought else, / You get about the best thing God invents.”
12. “It's a long lane that knows no turnings.”
13. “It is the glory and good of Art,That Art remains the one way possibleOf speaking truth, to mouths like mine at least.”
14. ”I walked a mile with Pleasure;She chattered all the way.But left me none the wiserFor all she had to say.I walked a mile with SorrowAnd ne'er a word said she;But oh, the thingsI learned from herWhen Sorrowwalked with me!”
15. “Love is energy of life.”
16. “Measure your mind's height by the shade it casts.”
17. “Never the time and the placeAnd the loved one all together.”
18. “No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers,The heroes of old,Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrearsOf pain, darkness and cold.”
19. “O lyric Love, half angel and half bird.
And all a wonder and a wild desire.”
20. "Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things. The honest thief, the tender murderer, the superstitious atheist."
21. “Pleasure must succeed to pleasure, else past pleasure turns to pain.”
22. “So, fall asleep love, loved by me...for I know love, I am loved by thee.”
23. "Stake your counter as boldly every whit,Venture as warily, use the same skill,Do your best, whether winning or losing it,If you choose to play!"
24. ”Take away love and our earth is a tomb.”
25. “The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life: Try to be Shakespeare, leave the rest to fate!”
26. “TRUTH is within ourselves; it takes no rise From outward things, whate’er you may believe. There is an inmost centre in us all, Where truth abides in fullness; and around, Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 5 This perfect, clear perception—which is truth. A baffling and perverting carnal mesh Binds it, and makes all error: and, to KNOW, Rather consists in opening out a way Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, 10 Than in effecting entry for a light Supposed to be without.”
27. “Unless you can love, as the angels may,With the breadth of heaven betwixt you;Unless you can dream that his faith is fast,Through behoving and unbeloving;Unless you can die when the dream is past--Oh, never call it loving!”
28. “What makes his case out, quite ignores the rest.
It´s a history of the World, the Lizard Age,
The Early Indians, The Old Country War,
Jerome Napoleon, whatsoever you please.
All as the author wants it. Such a scribe
You pay and praise for putting life in stones,
Fire into fog, making the past your world.
There´s plenty of “How did you contrive to grasp
The thread which lef you to this labyrinth?How on so slight foundation found this tale,
Biography, narrative? or, in other words,
“How many lies did ir require to make
The portly truth you here present us with?””
29. "What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me."
30. “What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?”
31. "Where the heart lies, let the brain lie also."
32. “You call for faith: I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists. The more of doubt, the stronger faith, I say, If faith o'ercomes doubt.”
