Spring Quotes - Page 18

• Pride of origin, whether high or low, springs from the same principle in human nature; one is but the positive, the other the negative, pole of a single weakness.

  James Russell Lowell

  Pride, Weakness, Principles

  James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1818, Delphi Classics

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• The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak hate not wickedness but weakness; and one instance of their hatred of weakness is hatred of self. All the passionate pursuits of the weak are in some degree a striving to escape, blur, or disguise an unwanted self. It is a striving shot through with malice, envy, self-deception, and a host of petty impulses; yet it often culminates in superb achievements.

  Eric Hoffer

  Hate, Sacrifice, Self

  Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

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• Civil confusions often spring from trifles but decide great issues.

  Aristotle

  Civilization, Issues, Confusion

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• Indeed, so far from being humorous, the male American is the most abnormally serious creature who ever existed.. It is only fair to admit that he can exaggerate, but even his exaggeration has a rational basis. It is not founded on wit or fancy; it does not spring from any poetic imagination.

  Oscar Wilde

  Humorous, Imagination, Fancy

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• Incessant falls teach men to reform, and distress rouses their strength. Life springs from calamity, and death from ease.

  Mencius

  Fall, Men, Reform

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• The merry cuckow, messenger of Spring, His trumpet shrill hath thrice already sounded.

  Edmund Spenser

  Cuckoos, Messengers, Trumpets

  Edmund Spenser, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1814). “Spenser's Sonnets”, p.38

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• If the parks be "the lungs of London" we wonder what Greenwich Fair is--a periodical breaking out, we suppose--a sort of spring rash.

  Charles Dickens

  London, Parks, Wonder

  Charles Dickens (1850). “Sketches by Boz [i.e. Charles Dickens] ... With a frontispiece by George Cruikshank”, p.67

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• It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the privileges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood.

  Samuel Johnson

  Winter, Play, Childhood

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.88

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• A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Editors, Able, Journalism

  Thomas Carlyle (1871). “The French Revolution: A History”, p.205

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• For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment--the visible embodiment of the tender sky and wistful soil. What a loss, I said, to coming generations of dwellers in the country--no bluebird in spring!

  John Burroughs

  Summer, Country, Loss

  Neltje Blanchan, John Burroughs (2016). “Bird Neighbors - An Introductory Acquaintance with One Hundred and Fifty Birds Commonly Found in the Gardens, Meadows, and Woods About Our Homes”, p.7, Read Books Ltd

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• Contentions fierce, Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause.

  Walter Scott

  Causes, Fierce, Contention

  Walter Scott, Sir Walter Scott (1841). “The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart”, p.700

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• From that high mount of God whence light and shade Spring both, the face of brightest heaven had changed To grateful twilight.

  John Milton

  Twilight, Grateful, Heaven

  John Milton (1873). “The third (fourth, fifth) book of Milton's Paradise lost: with a prose tr. and notes, by J. Hunter”, p.51

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• Welcome, maids of honor, You doe bring In the spring, And wait upon her.

  Robert Herrick

  Waiting, Honor, Doe

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• Four ducks on a pond, / A grass-bank beyond, / A blue sky of spring, / White clouds on the wing: / What a little thing / To remember for years - / To remember with tears!.

  William Allingham

  Sky, Wings, Ducks

  'A Memory'

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• The eyes of spring, so azure, Are peeping from the ground; They are the darling violets, That I in nosegays bound.

  Heinrich Heine

  Eye, Azure, Violet

  Heinrich Heine (1866). “The Poems of Heine: Complete”, p.184

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• Even bees, the little almsmen of spring bowers, know there is richest juice in poison-flowers.

  John Keats

  Flower, Poison, Juice

  John Keats (1818). “The Complete Works of John Keats”, p.41

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• We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again.

  Rumi

  Animal, Plant Life, Green

  Rumi (2015). “Selected Poems”, p.155, Penguin UK

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• Corruption springs from light: 'tis one same power Creates, preserves, destroys; matter whereon It works, on e'er self-transmutative form, Common to now the living, now the dead.

  Philip James Bailey

  Light, Self, Matter

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• Spring was running in a thin green flame over the valley.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Running, Flames, Valleys

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1938). “Works”

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• I am in Rome! Oft as the morning ray Visits these eyes, waking at once I cry, Whence this excess of joy? What has befallen me? And from within a thrilling voice replies, Thou art in Rome! A thousand busy thoughts Rush on my mind, a thousand images; And I spring up as girt to run a race!

  Samuel Rogers

  Running, Morning, Art

  Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell, James Montgomery, Charles Lamb, Henry Kirke White (1830). “The poetical works of Rogers, Campbell, J. Montgomery, Lamb, and Kirke White: complete in one volume”, p.70

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• Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs; Since life's best joys consist in peace and ease, And though but few can serve, yet all may please; On, let th' ungentle spirit learn from hence, A small unkindness is a great offence.

  Hannah More

  Joy, Ease, May

  Hannah More (1835). “The works of Hannah More”, p.380

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• Spring goeth all in white, / Crowned with milk-white may: / In fleecy flocks of light / O'er heaven the white clouds stray.

  Robert Bridges

  Clouds, Light, White

  Robert Bridges (1912). “Poetical Works Of Robert Brides Excluding The Eight Dramas”

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• From powerful causes spring the empiric's gains, Man's love of life, his weakness, and his pains; These first induce him the vile trash to try, Then lend his name, that other men may buy.

  George Crabbe

  Pain, Powerful, Love Life

  George Crabbe (1834). “The Poetical Works with His Letters and Journals and His Life by His Son. - London, John Murray 1834”, p.135

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• For winter's rains and ruins are over... And in Green under wood and cover Blossum by blossom the spring begins.

  Algernon Charles Swinburne

  Rain, Winter, Green

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• In spring, nature is like a thrifty housewife ... taking up the white carpets and putting down the green ones.

  Mary Baker Eddy

  Nature, White, Green

  Mary Baker Eddy (1916). “Miscellaneous Writings: 1883-1896”

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