Joanna Baillie Quotes & Sayings

Sweet sleep be with us, one and all!
And if upon its stillness fall
The visions of a busy brain,
We'll have our pleasure o'er again,
To warm the heart, to charm the sight,
Gay dreams to all! good night, good night. — Joanna Baillie

Stand there, damn'd meddling villain, and be silent;
For if thou utt'rest but a single word,
A cough or hem, to cross me in my speech,
I'll send thy cursed spirit from the earth,
To bellow with the damn'd! — Joanna Baillie

Busy work brings after ease; Ease brings sport and sport brings rest; For young and old, of all degrees, The mingled lot is best. — Joanna Baillie

There is a sight all hearts beguiling
A youthful mother to her infant smiling,
Who with spread arms and dancing feet,
A cooing voice, returns its answer sweet. — Joanna Baillie

A good man's prayers will from the deepest dungeon climb heaven's height, and bring a blessing down. — Joanna Baillie

It is so seldom that a young fellow has any inclination for the company of an old man ... — Joanna Baillie

To struggle when hope is banished! To live when life's salt is gone! To dwell in a dream that's vanished! To endure, and go calmly on! The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues, And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from. — Joanna Baillie

Oh swiftly glides the bonnie boat, Just parted from the shore, And to the fisher's chorus-note Soft moves the dipping oar. — Joanna Baillie

My day is closed! the gloom of night is come! a hopeless darkness settles over my fate. — Joanna Baillie

The bliss even of a moment still is bliss. — Joanna Baillie

Good-morrow to thy sable beak, And glossy plumage, dark and sleek, Thy crimson moon and azure eye — Joanna Baillie

Half-uttered praise is to the curious mind, as to the eye half-veiled beauty is, more precious than the whole. — Joanna Baillie

She who only finds her self-esteem
In others' admiration, begs an alms;
Depends on others for her daily food,
And is the very servant of her slaves;
Tho' oftentimes, in a fantastic hour,
O'er men she may a childish pow'r exert,
Which not ennobles but degrades her state. — Joanna Baillie

The strength of man sinks in the hour of trial; but there doth live a Power that to the battle girdeth the weak. — Joanna Baillie

I can bear scorpion's stings, tread fields of fire, in frozen gulfs of cold eternal lie, be tossed aloft through tracts of endless void, but cannot live in shame. — Joanna Baillie

Think'st thou there are no serpents in the world But those who slide along the grassy sod, And sting the luckless foot that presses them? There are who in the path of social life Do bask their spotted skins in Fortune's sun, And sting the soul. — Joanna Baillie

Amongst the many trials to which the human mind is subjected, that of holding intercourse, real or imaginary, with the world of spirits: of finding itself alone with a being terrific and awful, whose nature and power are unknown, has been justly considered the most severe. — Joanna Baillie

I am as one
Who doth attempt some lofty mountain's height,
And having gained what to the upcast eye
The summit's point appear'd, astonished sees
Its cloudy top, majestic and enlarged,
Towering aloft, as distant as before. — Joanna Baillie

Time never bears such moments on his wing as when he flies too swiftly to be marked. — Joanna Baillie

I wish I were with some of the wild people that run in the woods, and know nothing about accomplishments! — Joanna Baillie

It ever is the marked propensity of restless and aspiring minds to look into the stretch of dark futurity. — Joanna Baillie

Heaven often smites in mercy, even when the blow is severest. — Joanna Baillie

Tis ever thus when favours are denied;
All had been granted but the thing we beg:
And still some great unlikely substitute
Your life, your soul, your all of earthly good
Is proffer'd, in the room of one small boon. — Joanna Baillie

A woman is seldom roused to great and courageous exertion but when something most dear to her is in immediate danger. — Joanna Baillie

But dreams full oft are found of real events
The form and shadows. — Joanna Baillie

But woman's grief is like a summer storm, Short as it violent is. — Joanna Baillie

War is honorable
In those who do their native rights maintain;
In those whose swords an iron barrier are
Between the lawless spoiler and the weak;
But is, in those who draw th' offensive blade
For added power or gain, sordid and despicable
As meanest office of the worldly churl. — Joanna Baillie

Pride is a fault that great men blush not to own: it is the ennobled offspring of self-love; though, it must be confessed, grave and pompous vanity, Iike a fat plebeian in a rove of office, does very often assume its name. — Joanna Baillie

The tyrant now Trusts not to men: nightly within his chamber The watch-dog guards his couch, the only friend He now dare trust. — Joanna Baillie

To make the cunning artless, tame the rude, subdue the haughty, shake the undaunted soul; yea, put a bridle in the lion's mouth, and lead him forth as a domestic cur,
these are the triumphs of all-powerful beauty. — Joanna Baillie

Still on it creeps, Each little moment at another's heels, Till hours, days, years, and ages are made up Of such small parts as these, and men look back Worn and bewilder'd, wondering how it is. — Joanna Baillie

The mind doth shape itself to its own wants, and can bear all things. — Joanna Baillie

I believe this earth on which we stand is but the vestibule to glorious mansions through which a moving crowd forever press. — Joanna Baillie

O mysterious Night! thou art not silent; many tongues halt thou. — Joanna Baillie

The inward sighs of humble penitence
Rise to the ear of Heaven, when peal'd hymns
Are scatter'd with the sounds of common air. — Joanna Baillie

Men's actions to futurity appear but as the events to which they are conjoined do give them consequence. — Joanna Baillie

Words of affection, howsoe'er expressed, The latest spoken still are deem'd the best. — Joanna Baillie

Me care for te laws when te laws care for me. — Joanna Baillie

Ah! happy is the man whose early lot Hath made him master of a furnish'd cot; Who trains the vine that round his window grows, And after setting sun his garden hoes; Whose wattled pails his own enclosure shield, Who toils not daily in another's field. — Joanna Baillie

Pampered vanity is a better thing perhaps than starved pride. — Joanna Baillie

A willing heart adds feather to the heel. — Joanna Baillie

Tis ever thus: indulgence spoils the base;
Raising up pride, and lawless turbulence,
Like noxious vapors from the fulsome marsh
When morning shines upon it. — Joanna Baillie

He that will not give some portion of his ease, his blood, his wealth, for other's good, is a poor, frozen churl. — Joanna Baillie

If my heart were not light, I would die. — Joanna Baillie

O lovely Sisters! is it true That they are all inspired by you, And write by inward magic charm'd, And high enthusiasm warm'd? — Joanna Baillie

This will be triumph! This will be happiness! Yea, that very thing, happiness, which I have been pursuing all my life, and have never yet overtaken. — Joanna Baillie

The plainest case in many words entangling. — Joanna Baillie

I have seen the day, when, if a man made himself ridiculous, the world would laugh at him. But now, everything that is mean, disgusting, and absurd, pleases them but so much the better! — Joanna Baillie