Robert Southey Quotes & Sayings

Easier were it To hurl the rooted mountain from its base, Than force the yoke of slavery upon men Determin'd to be free. — Robert Southey

From his brimstone bed, at break of day, A-walking the Devil is gone, To look at his little snug farm of the World, And see how his stock went on. — Robert Southey

Live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life. — Robert Southey

For society, of all places I have ever been, Norwich is the best. — Robert Southey

Mild arch of promise! on the evening sky Thou shinest fair with many a lovely ray, Each in the other melting. — Robert Southey

They sin who tell us Love can die: with Life all other passions fly, all others are but vanity. — Robert Southey

I do not cast my eyes away from my troubles. I pack them in
as little compass as I can for myself, and never let them
annoy others. — Robert Southey

Our knowledge, is our power, and God our strength. — Robert Southey

One fault begets another; one crime renders another necessary. — Robert Southey

Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state. Like beams in a house or bones to a body, so is order to all things. — Robert Southey

The grave is but the threshold of eternity. What a world were this, how unendurable its weight, If they whom death hath sundered, did not meet again! — Robert Southey

There are some readers who have never read an essay on taste; and if they take my advice they never will, for they can no more improve their taste by so doing than they could improve their appetite or digestion by studying a cookery-book. — Robert Southey

A man may be cheerful and contented in celibacy, but I do not think he can ever be happy; it is an unnatural state, and the best feelings of his nature are never called into action. — Robert Southey

Whoever has tasted the breath of morning knows that the most invigorating and most delightful hours of then day are commonly spent in bed; though it is the evident intention of nature that we should enjoy and profit by them. — Robert Southey

I can remember, with unsteady feet,
Tottering from room to room, and finding pleasure
In flowers, and toys, and sweetmeats, things which long
Have lost their power to please; which when I see them,
Raise only now a melancholy wish
I were the little trifler once again,
Who could be pleas'd so lightly. — Robert Southey

As sure as God is good, so surely there is no such thing as necessary evil. — Robert Southey

If you would be pungent, be brief. — Robert Southey

Three things a wise man will not trust, The wind, the sunshine of an April day, And woman's plighted faith. — Robert Southey

Oh, when a mother meets on high The babe she lost in infancy, Hath she not then for pains and fears, The day of woe, the watchful night, For all her sorrow, all her tears, An over-payment of delight? — Robert Southey

How little do they see what is, who frame their hasty judgments upon that which seems. — Robert Southey

There is a magic in that little world, home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never know beyond its hallowed limits. — Robert Southey

Love is indestructible, Its holy flame forever burneth; From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. — Robert Southey

What will not woman, gentle woman dare; when strong affection stirs her spirit up? — Robert Southey

The true one of youth's love, proving a faithful helpmate in those years when the dream of life is over, and we live in its realities. — Robert Southey

Ay! idleness! the rich folks never fail
To find some reason why the poor deserve
Their miseries. — Robert Southey

O Reader! hast thou eer stood to see The Holly-tree? The eye that contemplates it well perceies Its glossy leaes Ordered by an Intelligence so wise As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. — Robert Southey

My days among the dead are passed; Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old; My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day. — Robert Southey

Let us depart! the universal sun Confines not to one land his blessed beams; Nor is man rooted, like a tree, whose seed, the winds on some ungenial soil have cast there, where it cannot prosper. — Robert Southey

And as, when all the summer trees are seen So bright and green, The Holly leaes a sober hue display Less bright than they, But when the bare and wintry woods we see, What then so cheerful as the Holly-tree? — Robert Southey

I cannot believe in an eternity of hell. I hope God will forgive me if I err; but in this matter I cannot say, "Lord help my unbelief." — Robert Southey

Beasts, birds, and insects, even to the minutest and meanest of their kind, act with the unerring providence of instinct; man, the while, who possesses a higher faculty, abuses it, and therefore goes blundering on. — Robert Southey

The pulpit is a clergyman's parade; the parish is his field of active service. — Robert Southey

And everybody praised the Duke Who this great fight did win. "But what good came of it at last?" Quoth little Peterkin. "Why, that I cannot tell," said he, "But 'twas a famous victory." — Robert Southey

Ye who dwell at home,
Ye do not know the terrors of the main. — Robert Southey

A good man and a wise man may at times be angry with the world, at times grieved for it; but be sure no man was ever discontented with the world who did his duty in it. — Robert Southey

I have heard a good story of Charles Fox. When his house was on fire, he found all efforts to save it useless, and, being a good draughtsman, he went up to the next hill to make a drawing of the fire,
the best instance of philosophy I ever heard of. — Robert Southey

Take away love, and not physical nature only, but the heart of the moral world, would be palsied. — Robert Southey

A house is never perfectly furnished for enjoyment unless there is a child in it rising three years old, and a kitten rising three weeks. — Robert Southey

And when my own Mark Antony
Against young Caesar strove,
And Rome's whole world was set in arms,
The cause was,
all for love. — Robert Southey

Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live; Not where I love, but where I am, I die. — Robert Southey

Our restlessness in this world seems to indicate that we are intended for a better. We have all of us a longing after happiness; and surely the Creator will gratify all the natural desires he has implanted in us. — Robert Southey

Happy it were for us all if we bore prosperity as well and as wisely as we endure adverse fortune. — Robert Southey

A wise judge, by the craft of the law, was never seduced from its purpose. — Robert Southey

My notions of life are much the same as they are about traveling; there is a good deal of amusement on the road; but, after all, one wants to be at rest. — Robert Southey

They who once engage in iniquitous designs miserably deceive themselves when they think that they will go so far and no farther; one fault begets another, one crime renders another necessary; and thus they are impelled continually downward into a depth of guilt, which at the commencement of their career they would have died rather than have incurred. — Robert Southey

Thou hast been called, O sleep! the friend of woe; But 't is the happy that have called thee so. — Robert Southey

In fall-orbed glory, yonder moon Divine Rolls through the dark-blue depths. — Robert Southey

With fire and sword the country round
Was wasted far and wide,
And many a childing mother then,
And new-born infant, died.
But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.

They say it was a shocking sight,
After the field was won,
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory. — Robert Southey

Faith in the hereafter is as necessary for the intellectual as the moral character; and to the man of letters, as well as to the Christian, the present forms but the slightest portion of his existence. — Robert Southey

There are three things in speech that ought to be considered before some things are spoken
the manner, the place and the time. — Robert Southey

The march of intellect is proceeding at quick time; and if its progress be not accompanied by a corresponding improvement in morals and religion, the faster it proceeds, with the more violence will you be hurried down the road to ruin. — Robert Southey

Go, little Book! From this my solitude
I cast thee on the Waters,
go thy ways:
And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
The World will find thee after many days.
Be it with thee according to thy worth:
Go, little Book; in faith I send thee forth. — Robert Southey

No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth. — Robert Southey

Affliction is not sent in vain, young man, from that good God, who chastens whom he loves. — Robert Southey

It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. — Robert Southey

Be thankful that your lot has fallen on times when, though there may be many evil tongues and exasperated spirits, there are none who have fire and fagot at command. — Robert Southey

Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be.

(Southey's reply to Charlotte Bronte) — Robert Southey

Never let a man imagine that he can pursue a good end by evil means, without sinning against his own soul. The evil effect on himself is certain. — Robert Southey

There is no security in a good disposition if the support of good principles
that is to say, of religion, of Christian faith
be wanting. It may be soured by misfortune, it may be corrupted by wealth, it may be blighted by neediness, it may lose all its original brightness, if destitute of that support. — Robert Southey

Happy those
Who in the after-days shall live, when Time
Hath spoken, and the multitude of years
Taught wisdom to mankind! — Robert Southey

In the days of my youth I remembered my God! And He hath not forgotten my age. — Robert Southey

The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired. — Robert Southey

Some voluntary castaways there will always be, whom no fostering kindness and no parental care can preserve from self-destruction; but if any are lost for want of care and culture, there is a sin of omission in the society to which they belong. — Robert Southey

It has been more wittily than charitably said that hell is paved with good intentions; they have their place in heaven also. — Robert Southey

Beware of those who are homeless by choice! You have no hold on human being whose affections are without a top-root! — Robert Southey

Man hath a weary pilgrimage,
As through the word he wends;
On every stage, from youth to age,
Still discontent attends. — Robert Southey

Some people seem born with a head in which the thin partition that divides great wit from folly is wanting. — Robert Southey

The disappointed man turns his thoughts toward a state of existence where his wiser desires may be fixed with the certainty of faith; the successful man feels that the objects which he has ardently pursued fail to satisfy the cravings of an immortal spirit; the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, that he may save his soul alive. — Robert Southey

To a resolute mind, wishing to do is the first step toward doing. But if we do not wish to do a thing it becomes impossible. — Robert Southey

It is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. — Robert Southey

Give me a room whose every nook is dedicated to a book. — Robert Southey

War, even in the best state of an army, with all the alleviations of courtesy and honor, with all the correctives of morality and religion, is nevertheless so great an evil, that to engage in it without a clear necessity is a crime of the blackest dye. When the necessity is clear, it then becomes a crime to shrink from it. — Robert Southey

The history of any private family, however humble, could it be fully related for five or six generations, would illustrate the state and progress of society better than the most elaborate dissertation. — Robert Southey

Among the poor, the approach of dissolution is usually regarded with a quiet and natural composure, which it is consolatory to contemplate, and which is as far removed from the dead palsy of unbelief as it is from the delirious raptures of fanaticism. Theirs is a true, unhesitating faith, and they are willing to lay down the burden of e weary life, in the sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality. — Robert Southey

The solitary Bee Whose buzzing was the only sound of life, Flew there on restless wing, Seeking in vain one blossom where to fix. — Robert Southey

By writing much, one learns to write well. — Robert Southey

How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven. — Robert Southey

Whatever strengthens our local attachments is favorable both to individual and national character, our home, our birthplace, our native land. Think for a while what the virtues are which arise out of the feelings connected with these words, and if you have any intellectual eyes, you will then perceive the connection between topography and patriotism. — Robert Southey

For a young and presumptuous poet a disposition to write satires is one of the most dangerous he can encourage. It tempts him to personalities, which are not always forgiven after he has repented and become ashamed of them. — Robert Southey

Few people give themselves time to be friends. — Robert Southey

It behooves us always to bear in mind, that while actions are always to be judged by the immutable standard of right and wrong, the judgments which we pass upon men must be qualified by considerations of age, country, station, and other accidental circumstances; and it will then be found that he who is most charitable in his judgment is generally the least unjust. — Robert Southey

Little, indeed, does it concern us in this our mortal stage, to inquire whence the spirit hath come; but of what infinite concern is the consideration whither it is going. Surely such consideration demands the study of a life. — Robert Southey

All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things. — Robert Southey

My name is Death: the last best friend am I. — Robert Southey

The laws are with us, and God on our side. — Robert Southey

She comes majestic with her swelling sails, The gallant Ship: along her watery way, Homeward she drives before the favouring gales; Now flirting at their length the streamers play, And now they ripple with the ruffling breeze. — Robert Southey

Cold is thy hopeless heart, even as charity. — Robert Southey

The three indispensable of genius are: understanding, feeling, and perseverance; the three things that enrich genius are: contentment of mind, the cherishing of good thoughts, and the exercise of memory — Robert Southey

A stubborn mind conduces as little to wisdom or even to knowledge, as a stubborn temper to happiness — Robert Southey

A fastidious taste is like a squeamish appetite; the one has its origin in some disease of the mind, as the other has in some ailment of the stomach. — Robert Southey

What blockheads are those wise persons, who think it necessary that a child should comprehend everything it reads. — Robert Southey

There is healing in the bitter cup. — Robert Southey

Without religion the highest endowments of intellect can only render the possessor more dangerous if he be ill disposed; if well disposed, only more unhappy. — Robert Southey

That charity is bad which takes from independence its proper pride, from mendicity its salutary shame. — Robert Southey

Earth could not hold us both, nor can one heaven Contain my deadliest enemy and me. — Robert Southey

Where Washington hath left His awful memory A light for after times! — Robert Southey