Martin Farquhar Tupper
Betray mean terror of ridicule, thou shalt find fools enough to mock thee; but answer thou their language with contempt, and the scoffers will lick thy feet.Collection: Mean
Every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man.Collection: Men
Deceit and treachery skulk with hatred, but an honest spirit flieth with anger.Collection: Hatred
Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion; a sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes.Collection: Spiritual
None is poor but the mean in mind, the timorous, the weak, and unbelieving; none is wealthy but the affluent in soul, who is satisfied and floweth over.Collection: Mean
O Death, what are thou? nurse of dreamless slumbers freshening the fevered flesh to a wakefulness eternal.Collection: Death
Humility mainly becometh the converse of man with his Maker.Collection: Humility
If thou wilt think evil of thy neighbour, soon shalt thou have him for thy foe.Collection: Thinking
Love looketh from the eye, and kindleth love by looking.Collection: Eye
To despond is to lie ungrateful beforehand. Be not looking for evil. Often thou drainest the gall of fear while evil is passing by thy dwelling.Collection: Lying
Lay not the plummet to the line; religion hath no landmarks; no human keenness can discern the subtle shades of faith.Collection: Faith
Love--what a volume in a word, an ocean in a tear, A seventh heaven in a glance, a whirlwind in a sigh, The lightning in a touch, a millennium in a moment, What concentrated joy or woe in blest or blighted love! For it is that native poetry springing up indigenous to Mind, The heart's own-country music thrilling all its chords, The story without an end that angels throng to hear, The word, the king of words, carved on Jehovah's heart!Collection: Love
Thou hast seen many sorrows, travel-stained pilgrim of the world, But that which hath vexed thee most, hath been the looking for evil; And though calamities have crossed thee, and misery been heaped on thy head, Yet ills that never happened, have chiefly made thee wretched.Collection: Life
Alike to the slave and his oppressor cometh night with sweet refreshment, and half of the life of the most wretched is gladdened by the soothings of sleep.Collection: Sweet
As frost to the bud, and blight to the blossom, even such is self-interest to friendship; for confidence cannot dwell where selfishness is porter at the gate.Collection: Self
Hope and be happy that all's for the best!Collection: Hope
Anger is a noble infirmity; the generous failing of the just; the one degree that riseth above zeal, asserting the prerogative of virtue.Collection: Failure
Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man.Collection: Brother
Blunted unto goodness is the heart which anger never stirreth, but that which hatred swelleth, is keen to carve out evil.Collection: Hate
In the morning of life, before its wearisome journey, The youthful soul doth expand, in the simple luxury of being; It hath not contracted its wishes, nor set a limit on its hopes; The wing of fancy is unclipped, and sin hath not seared the feelings: Each feature is stamped with immortality, for all its desires are infinite, And it seeketh an ocean of happiness, to fill the deep hollow within.Collection: Morning
Take the good with the evil, for ye all are pensioners of God, and none may choose or refuse the cup His wisdom mixeth.Collection: Evil
Wealth hath never given happiness, but often hastened misery.Collection: Misery
Search out the wisdom of nature, there is depth in all her doings; she seemeth prodigal of power, yet her rules are the maxims of frugality.Collection: Nature
Men scanning the surface count the wicked happy; they see not the frightful dreams that crowd a bad man's pillow.Collection: Dream
Mind is a kingdom to the man who gathereth his pleasure from ideas.Collection: Men
There is a limit to enjoyment, though the sources of wealth be boundlessAnd the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.Collection: Lying
How dear to the mind of the sage are the thoughts that are bred in loneliness; for there is as it were music at his heart, and he talketh within him as with friends.Collection: Loneliness
Never give up! it is wiser and betterAlways to hope, than once to despair.Fling off the load of Doubt's cankering fetter,And break the dark spell of tyrannical care.Collection: Giving Up
Contend not in wisdom with a fool, for thy sense maketh much of his conceit; And some errors never would have thriven, had it not been for learned refutation.Collection: Wisdom
In a dream thou mayst live a lifetime, and all be forgotten in the morning: Even such is life, and so soon perisheth its memory.Collection: Life
The wise man knoweth where to stop, as he runneth in the race of fortune, For experience of old hath taught him, that happiness lingered midway; And many in hot pursuit have hasted to the goal of wealth, But have lost, as they ran, those apples of gold--the mind and the power to enjoy it.Collection: Wise
It is well to lie fallow for a while.Collection: Lying
A wise man heedeth all things, and in his own eyes is a fool.Collection: Wise
The sun of the mind, and the life of the heart is Wisdom. She is pure and full of light, crowning grey hairs with lustre, And kindling the eye of youth with a fire not its own.Collection: Wisdom
I have sped by land and sea, and mingled with much people, but never yet could find a spot unsunned by human kindness.Collection: Kindness
If the mind is wearied by study, or the body worn with sickness, It is well to lie fallow for a while, in the vacancy of sheer amusement; But when thou prosprest in health, and thine intellect can soar untired, To seek uninstructive pleasure is to slumber on the couch of indolence.Collection: Lying
For life, good youth, hath never an illWhich hope cannot scatter, and faith cannot kill;And stubborn realities never shall bindThe free-spreading wings of a cheerful mind.Collection: Good Life
A man looketh on his little one as a being of better hope; in himself ambition is dead, but it bath a resurrection in his son.Collection: Children
Love with life is heaven; and life, unloving, hell.Collection: Love
An artful or false woman shall set thy pillow with thorns.Collection: Women
As thou directest the power, harm or advantage will follow, and the torrent that swept the valley may be led to turn a mill.Collection: Power
The seeds of first instructions are dropp'd into the deepest furrows.Collection: Firsts
Life is as the current spark on the miner's wheel of flints; While it spinneth, there is light; stop it, all is darkness.Collection: Life
How beautiful is modesty! It winneth upon all beholders; but a word or a glance may destroy the pure love that should have been for thee.Collection: Beautiful