Poetry

adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.

CXCIV

When God saw how faulty was man He tried again and made woman. As to why He then stopped there are two opinions. One of them is woman’s.

CXCV

She hated him because he discovered that her lark was a crow. He hated her because she unlocked the cage of his beast.

CXCVI

“Who art thou?”

“Friendship.”

“I am Love; let us travel together.”

“Yes⁠—for a day’s journey; then thou arrivest at thy grave.”

“And thou?”

“I go as far as the grave of Advantage.”

CXCVII

Look far enough ahead and always thou shalt see the domes and spires of the City of Contentment.

CXCVIII

You would say of that old man: “He is bald and bent.” No; in the presence of Death he uncovers and bows.

CXCIX

If you saw Love pictured as clad in furs you would smile. Yet every year has its winter.

CC

You can not disprove the Great Pyramid by showing the impossibility of putting the stones in place.

CCI

Men were singing the praises of Justice.

“Not so loud,” said an angel; “if you wake her she will put you all to death.”

CCII

Age, with his eyes in the back of his head, thinks it wisdom to see the bogs through which he has floundered.

CCIII

Wisdom is known only by contrasting it with folly; by shadow only we perceive that all visible objects are not flat. Yet Philanthropos would abolish evil!

CCIV

One whose falsehoods no longer deceive has forfeited the right to speak truth.

CCV

Wisdom is a special knowledge in excess of all that is known.

CCVI

To live is to believe. The most credulous of mortals is he who is persuaded of his incredulity.

CCVII

In him who has never wronged another, revenge is a virtue.

CCVIII

That you can not serve God and Mammon is a poor excuse for not serving God.

CCIX

A fool’s tongue is not so noisy but the wise can hear his ear commanding them to silence.

CCX

If the Valley of Peace could be reached only by the path of love, it would be sparsely inhabited.

CCXI

To the eye of failure success is an accident with a presumption of crime.

CCXII

Wearing his eyes in his heart, the optimist falls over his own feet, and calls it Progress.

CCXIII

You can calculate your distance from Hell by the number of wayside roses. They are thickest at the hither end of the route.

CCXIV

The world was made a sphere in order that men should not push one another off, but the landowner smiles when he thinks of the sea.

CCXV

Let not the night on thy resentment fall:
Strike when the wrong is fresh, or not at all.
The lion ceases if his first leap fail⁠—
’Tis only dogs that nose a cooling trail.

CCXVI

Having given out all the virtues that He had made, God made another.

“Give us that also,” said His children.

“Nay,” He replied, “if I give you that you will slay one another till none is left. You shall have only its name, which is Justice.”

“That is a good name,” they said; “we will give it to a virtue of our own creation.”

So they gave it to Revenge.

CCXVII

The sea-bird speeding from the realm of night
Dashes to death against the beacon-light.
Learn from its evil fate, ambitious soul,
The ministry of light is guide, not goal.

CCXVIII

While you have a future do not live too much in contemplation of your past: unless you are content to walk backward the mirror is a poor guide.

CCXIX

“O dreadful Death, why veilest thou thy face?”
“To spare me thine impetuous embrace.”

CCXX

He who knows himself great accepts the truth in reverent silence, but he who only believes himself great has embraced a noisy faith.

CCXXI

Life is a little plot of light. We enter, clasp a hand or two, and go our several ways back into the darkness. The mystery is infinitely pathetic and picturesque.

CCXXII

Cheerfulness is the religion of the little. The low hills are a-smirk with flowers and greenery; the dominating peaks, austere and desolate, holding a prophecy of doom.

CCXXIII

It is not to our credit that women like best the men who are not as other men, nor to theirs that they are not particular as to the nature of the difference.

CCXXIV

In the journey of life when thy shadow falls to the westward stop until it falls to the eastward. Thou art then at thy destination.

CCXXV

Seek not for happiness⁠—’tis known
To hope and memory alone;
At dawn⁠—how bright the noon will be!
At eve⁠—how fair it glowed, ah, me!

CCXXVI

Brain was given to test the heart’s credibility as a witness, yet the philosopher’s lady is almost as fine as the clown’s wench.

CCXXVII

“Who art thou, so sorrowful?”

“Ingratitude. It saddens me to look upon the devastations of Benevolence.”

“Then veil thine eyes, for I am Benevolence.”

“Wretch! thou art my father and my mother.”

CCXXVIII

Death is the only prosperity that we neither desire for ourselves nor resent in others.

CCXXIX

To the small part of ignorance that we can arrange and classify we give the name Knowledge.

CCXXX

“I wish to enter,” said the soul of the voluptuary. “I am told that all the beautiful women are here.”

“Enter,” said Satan, and the soul of the voluptuary passed in.

“They make the place what it is,” added Satan, as the gates clanged.

CCXXXI

Woman would be more charming if one could fall into her arms