Robert Browning
Truth that peeps Over the glass's edge when dinner's done.Collection: Truth
Let's contend no more, Love, Strive nor weep: All be as before Love, - Only sleep.Collection: Love
I know what I want and what I might gain, and yet, how profitless to know.Collection: Want
Inscribe all human effort with one word, artistry's haunting curse, the Incomplete!Collection: Best Effort
There's a new tribunal now higher than God's -The educated man's!Collection: God
A lion may die of an ass's kick.Collection: Lions
Make no more giants, God!But elevate the race at once!Collection: God
All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee; All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem; In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea; Breath and bloom, shade and shine,- wonder, wealth, and-how far above them- Truth, that's brighter than gem, Truth, that's purer than pearl,- Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe- all were for me In the kiss of one girl.Collection: Girl
Italy, my Italy! Queen Mary's saying serves for me (When fortune's malice Lost her Calais): "Open my heart, and you will see Graved inside of it 'Italy.'"Collection: Queens
Therefore I summon age / To grant youth's heritage.Collection: Age
Of power does Man possess no particle: Of knowledge-just so much as show that still It ends in ignorance on every side.Collection: Ignorance
Earth being so good, would heaven seem best?Collection: Heaven
Where the apple reddens never pry - lest we lose our Edens, Eve and I.Collection: Eden
Still more labyrinthine buds the rose.Collection: Flower
Kiss me as if you made believe You were not sure this eve, How my face, your flower, had pursed It's petals up.Collection: Romantic
Other heights in other lives, God willing.Collection: Life
Are there not, dear Michael, Two points in the adventure of the diver,- One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge; One, when a prince he rises with his pearl? Festus, I plunge.Collection: Adventure
Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things. The honest thief, the tender murderer, the superstitious atheist.Collection: Atheist
Our aspirations are our responsibilities.Collection: Responsibility
One wise man's verdict outweighs all the fools'.Collection: Wise
White shall not neutralize the black, nor good compensate bad in man, absolve him so; life's business being just the terrible choice.Collection: Life
Oh, to be in England Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware.Collection: Morning
Sappho survives, because we sing her songs; And Eschylus, because we read his plays!Collection: Song
Talent should minister to genius.Collection: Genius
I am grown peaceful as old age tonight.Collection: Peace
God! Thou art love! I build my faith on that.Collection: God
In the morning of the world, When earth was nigher heaven than now.Collection: Morning
So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon, Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!Collection: Lunch
Sing, riding 's a joy! For me I ride.Collection: Joy
God is seen God In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod.Collection: God
Truth never hurt the teller.Collection: Hurt
Desire joy and thank God for it. Renounce it, if need be, for other's sake. That's joy beyond joy.Collection: Joy
Good strong thick stupefying incense-smoke!Collection: Strong
Since there my past life lies, why alter it?Collection: Lying
The past is gained, secure, and on record.Collection: Past
Silence 'tis awe decrees.Collection: Silence
Escape me? Never, beloved! While I am I, and you are you.Collection: Beloved
From the sprinkled isles, Lily on lily, that o'erlace the sea.Collection: Islands
T'was a thief said the last kind word to Christ. Christ took the kindness and forgave the theft.Collection: Kindness
At last awake from life, that insane dream we take for waking now.Collection: Life
It 's wiser being good than bad; It 's safer being meek than fierce; It 's fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That after Last returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched.Collection: Clouds
Men are not angels, neither are they brutes.Collection: Angel
You call for faith: I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists. The more of doubt, the stronger faith, I say, If faith o'ercomes doubt.Collection: Faith
Each life unfulfilled, you see; It hangs still, patchy and scrappy: We have not sighed deep, laughed free, Starved, feasted, despaired,—been happy.Collection: Stills
Rejoice that man is hurled, From change to change unceasingly, His soul's wings never furled!Collection: Men