Al David Quotes

Of all the men who were said to be my contemporaries, it seemed to me that John Brown was the only one who had not died.

Do not entertain doubts if they are not agreeable to you.

There never is but one opportunity of a kind.

Our molting season, like that of the fouls, must be a crisis in our lives.

I never yet knew the sun to be knocked down and rolled through a mud-puddle; he comes out honor-bright from behind every storm. Let us then take sides with the sun, seeing we have so much leisure.

A sufficiently great and generous trust could never be abused.

The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel.

There must be some nerve and heroism in our love, as of a winter morning.

Even in civilized communities, the embryo man passes through the hunter stage of development.

We have need to be earth-born as well as heaven-born, gegeneis, as was said of the Titans of old, or in a better sense than they.

For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it.

The gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination,whose vast abdomens betray them.

I thought, as I have my living to get, and have not eaten today, that I might go a- fishing. That's the true industry for poets. It is the only trade I have learned.

There is always some accident in the best things, whether thoughts or expressions or deeds. The memorable thought, the happy expression, the admirable deed are only partly ours.

As the stars looked to me when I was a shepherd in Assyria, they look to me now as a New-Englander.

Our taste is too delicate and particular. It says nay to the poet's work, but never yea to his hope.

A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view.

The poet uses the results of science and philosophy, and generalizes their widest deductions.

The poet will maintain serenity in spite of all disappointments. He is expected to preserve an unconcerned and healthy outlook over the world, while he lives.

Exaggerated history is poetry, and truth referred to a new standard.

The poet is blithe and cheery ever, and as well as nature.

If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the river, go round a little there, and throw one arch at least over the darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.

We never exchange more than three words with a Friend in our lives on that level to which our thoughts and feelings almost habitually rise.

It is impossible to say all that we think, even to our truest Friend. We may bid him farewell forever sooner than complain, for our complaint is too well grounded to be uttered.

Nothing but great antiquity can make graveyards interesting to me. I have no friends there.

There are various, nay, incredible faiths; why should we be alarmed at any of them? What man believes, God believes.

God is alone,-but the devil, he is far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion.

I trust that some may be as near and dear to Buddha, or Christ, or Swedenborg, who are without the pale of their churches.

Men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.

The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindu, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich inward.

I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account.

This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle!

I cannot easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents.

Love your life, poor as it is.

How imperceptibly the first springing takes place!

It is not in vain that man speaks to man. This is the value of literature.

I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural.

This life we live is a strange dream, and I don't believe at all any account men give of it.

The world laughs in flowers.

Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction - a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the muse.

Summer passes into autumn in some unimaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf.

While my friend was my friend, he flattered me, and I never heard the truth from him. When he became my enemy, he shot it to me on a poisoned arrow.

Especially the transcendental philosophy needs the leaven of humor to render it light and digestible.

Truly, our greatest blessings are very cheap.

I now first began to inhabit my house, I may say, when I began to use it for warmth as well as shelter.

A gun will give you the body, not the bird

If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets.

We should impart our courage and not our despair.

Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.

I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up.