Bret Harte Quotes & Sayings

Love differs from all the other contagious diseases: the last time a man is exposed to it, he takes it most readily, and has it the worst! — Bret Harte

One big vice in a man is apt to keep out a great many smaller ones. — Bret Harte

But, when the goddess' work is done,The woman's still remains. — Bret Harte

Each lost day has its patron saint! — Bret Harte

If, of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, It might have been,' More sad are these we daily see: 'It is, but hadn't ought to be!' — Bret Harte

There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous. — Bret Harte

Don't be too quickTo break bad habits: better stick,Like the Mission folk, to your arsenic. — Bret Harte

Never a lip is curved with pain that can't be kissed into smiles again. — Bret Harte

A bird in hand is a certainty. But a bird in the bush may sing. — Bret Harte

I've had some mighty mean moments afore I kem to this spot,
Lost on the plains in '50, drowned almost, and shot;
But out on this alkali desert, a hunting a crazy wife,
Was ra'ly as on-satis-factory as anything in my life. — Bret Harte

The only sure thing about luck is that it will change. — Bret Harte

The creator who could put a cancer in a believer's stomach is above being
interfered with by prayers. — Bret Harte

The morning was bright and propitious. Before their departure, mass had been said in the chapel, and the protection of St. Ignatius invoked against all contingent evils, but especially against bears, which, like the fiery dragons of old, seemed to cherish unconquerable hostility to the Holy Church. ("The Legend Of Monte Del Diablo"). — Bret Harte

We begin to die as soon as we are born, and the end is linked to the beginning. — Bret Harte

Which I wish to remark
And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar. — Bret Harte

Your voices break and falter in the darkness, Break, falter, and are still. — Bret Harte

Crude at first [the short story] received a literary polish in the press, but its dominant quality remained. It was concise and condense, yet suggestive. It was delightfully extravagant - or a miracle of understatement — Bret Harte

Never a tear bedims the eye that time and patience will not dry. — Bret Harte

It may be broadly stated that ... of all animals kept for the recreation of mankind the horse is alone capable of exciting a passion that shall be absolutely hopeless. — Bret Harte

And then, for an old man like me, it's not exactly right,This kind o' playing soldier with no enemy in sight. — Bret Harte

Howbeit, though no scholar, I am not one of those who misuse the English speech, and, being foolishly led by the hasty custom of scriveners and printers to write the letters "T" and "H" joined together, which resembleth a "Y," do incontinently jump to the conclusion the THE is pronounced "Ye,"
the like of which I never heard in all England. — Bret Harte

For the glory born of Goodness Never dies, And its flag is not half-masted In the skies. — Bret Harte

But still when the mists of doubt prevail,
And we lie becalmed by the shores of age,
We hear from the misty troubled shore
The voce of children gone before.
Drawing the soul to its anchorage. — Bret Harte

Tommy, you're a good little man, but you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again.' He then handed him his money back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a devoted slave of Tom Simson. — Bret Harte

When folks find I ain't afeard to speak my mind on their affairs, they kinder guess I'm tellin' the truth about my own. — Bret Harte

The dominant expression of a child is gravity. — Bret Harte

Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing. — Bret Harte

For, he (The Devil) observed, the issue of the great battle of Good and Evil had been otherwise settled, as he would presently show him. "It wants but a few moments of night," he continued, "and over this interval of twilight, as you know, I have been given complete control. Look to the West.("The Legend of Monte Del Diablo") — Bret Harte

Nellie was a good girl, and I think had a sort of quiet respect for old Fagg's unobtrusiveness. But her fancy was already taken captive by Rattler's superficial qualities, which were obvious and pleasing. I don't think Nellie was any worse than you or I. We are more apt to take acquaintances at their apparent value than their intrinsic worth. It's less trouble, and, except when we want to trust them, quite as convenient. — Bret Harte

It would seem evident, therefore, that the secret of the American short story was the treatment of characteristic American life, with absolute knowledge of its peculiarities and sympathy with its method ... — Bret Harte

Perhaps there is no gift of nature that requires as little exertion on the part of the owner as personal beauty. I am not certain but that it is this very absence of effort which excites our admiration. — Bret Harte

There was, I think, a prevailing
impression common to the provincial mind, that his misfortune was
the result of the defective moral quality of his being a stranger. — Bret Harte

There is peace in the swamp, though the quiet is Death — Bret Harte

The delicate thought, that cannot find expression, For ruder speech too fair, That, like thy petals, trembles in possession, And scatters on the air. — Bret Harte

Besides writing, I have been teaching myself to 'develop' my own photographic plates, and I haven't a stick of clothing or an exposed finger that isn't stained. I sit for hours in a dark-room feeling as if I were a very elderly Faust at some dreadful incantation, and come out of it, blinding at the light, like a Bastille prisoner. And yet I am not successful! — Bret Harte

Nobody shoulders a rifle in defense of a boarding house. — Bret Harte