“Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.”
“For what but eye and ear silence the mindWith the minute particulars of mankind?”
“Let the minor genius go his light way and enjoy his life - the great nature cannot so live, he is never really in holiday mood, even though he often plucks flowers by the wayside and ties them into knots and garlands like little children and lays out on a sunny morning.”
“Earth in beauty dressedAwaits returning spring.All true love must die,Alter at the bestInto some lesser thing.Prove that I lie.”
“All art is in the last analysis an endeavor to condense as out of the flying vapor of the world an image of human perfection, and for its own and not for the art's sake.”
“For to articulate sweet sounds together Is to work harder than all these, and yet Be thought an idler by the noisy set Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen The martyrs call the world.”
“Come, fix upon me that accusing eye.I thirst for accusation. All that was sung.All that was said in Ireland is a lieBreed out of the contagion of the throng,Saving the rhyme rats hear before they die.”
“My wretched dragon is perplexed.”
“Give to these children, new from the world,Rest far from men.Is anything better, anything better?Tell us it then.”
“I thought it out this very day,Noon upon the clock,A man may put pretence awayWho leans upon a stick,May sing, and sing until he drop,Whether to maid or hag.”
“And wisdom is a butterflyAnd not a gloomy bird of prey.”
“It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says there is no wisdom without leisure.”
“Though I have many words,What woman's satisfied,I am no longer faintBecause at her side?O who could have foretoldThat the heart grows old?”
“The labor of the alchemists, who were called artist in their day, is a befitting comparison for a deliberate change of style.”
“When I play on my fiddle in DooneyFolk dance like a wave on the sea.”
“So long as all is ordered for attack, and that alone, leaders will instinctively increase the number of enemies that they may give their followers something to do.”
“I had this thought a while ago,"My darling cannot understandWhat I have done, or what would doIn this blind bitter land."And I grew weary of the sun”
“Like a long-legged fly upon the stream / His mind moves upon silence.”
“I thought of rhyme alone,For rhyme can beat a measure out of troubleAnd make the daylight sweet once more.”
“Through winter-time we call on spring,And through the spring on summer call,And when the abounding hedges ringDeclare that winter's best of all:And after that there's nothing goodBecause the spring time has not come-Not know that what disturbs our bloodIs but its longing for the tomb.”
“The poor have very few hours in which to enjoy themselves; they must take their pleasure raw; they haven't the time to cook it.”
“Education is not about filling a pail, it's about lighting a fire.”
“What can be explained is not poetry.”
“All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart, The heavy steps of the plowman, splashing the wintry mold, Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.”
“It is not permitted to a man, who takes up pen or chisel, to seek originality, for passion is his only business, and he cannot but mould or sing after a new fashion because no disaster is like another.”
