Martin Farquhar Tupper quotes:

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Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.
A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men.
Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.
A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.
He who does not tire, tires adversity.
God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love.
I have sped by land and sea, and mingled with much people, but never yet could find a spot unsunned by human kindness.
Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the building up of character.
Naples sitteth by the sea, keystone of an arch of azure.
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.
Happiness is a roadside flower growing on the highways of usefulness; plucked, it shall wither in thy hand; passed by, it is fragrance to thy spirit. Trample the thyme beneath thy feet; be useful, be happy.
Memory is not wisdom; idiots can by rote repeat volumes. Yet what is wisdom without memory?
If wealth come, beware of him, the smooth, false friend! There is treachery in his proffered hand; his tongue is eloquent to tempt; lust of many harms is lurking in his eye; he hath a hollow heart; use him cautiously.
Hope and be happy that all's for the best!
Lay not the plummet to the line; religion hath no landmarks; no human keenness can discern the subtle shades of faith.
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.
Confidence is conqueror of men; victorious both over them and in them; The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand quail; A feeble dwarf, dauntlessly resolved, will turn the tide of battle, And rally to a nobler strife the giants that had fled.
Extravagance is the rich man's pitfall.
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.
Let the misanthrope shun men and abjure; the most are rather lovable than hateful.
Pain adds rest unto pleasure, and teaches the luxury of health.
Men scanning the surface count the wicked happy; they see not the frightful dreams that crowd a bad man's pillow.
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.
Praise a fool, and slay him; for the canvas of his vanity is spread; His bark is shallow in the water, and a sudden gust shall sink it: Praise a wise man, and speed him on his way; for he carrieth the ballast of humility, And is glad when his course is cheered by the sympathy of brethren ashore.
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.
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.
Anger is a noble infirmity; the generous failing of the just; the one degree that riseth above zeal, asserting the prerogative of virtue.
Nature is the chart of God, mapping out all His attributes.
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.
Few and precious are the words which the lips of Wisdom utter: To what shall their rarity be likened? What prices shall count their worth? Perfect, and much to be desired, and giving joy with riches, No lovely thing on earth can picture their fair beauty. They be chance pearls, flung among the rocks by the sullen waters of Oblivion.
Yet is beauty the pleasing trickery that cheateth half the world.
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.
He who commits a wrong will himself inevitably see the writing on the wall, though the world may not count him guilty.
Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.
A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure.
A juggler's skill hath been long years alearning.
A letter, timely writ, is a rivet to the chain of affection; And a letter, untimely delayed, is as rust to the solder.
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.
A man too careful of danger liveth in continual torment, But a cheerful expecter of the best hath a fountain of joy within him.
A spark is a little thing, yet it may kindle the world.
A spark is a molecule of matter, yet may it kindle the world; vast is the mighty ocean, but drops have made it vast. Despise not thou small things, either for evil or for good; for a look may work thy ruin, or a word create thy wealth.
A wise man heedeth all things, and in his own eyes is a fool.
Age hath its quiet calm, and youth enjoyeth not for haste.
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.
An artful or false woman shall set thy pillow with thorns.
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.
As thou directest the power, harm or advantage will follow, and the torrent that swept the valley may be led to turn a mill.
Be understood in thy teaching, and instruct to this measure of capacity; precepts and rules are repulsive to a child, but happy illustration winneth him.
Better is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the right with falsehood.
Blunted unto goodness is the heart which anger never stirreth, but that which hatred swelleth, is keen to carve out evil.
Clamorous pauperism feastest While honest Labor, pining, hideth his sharp ribs.
Deceit and treachery skulk with hatred, but an honest spirit flieth with anger.
Deep is the sea, and deep is hell, but pride mineth deeper; it is coiled as a poisonous worm about the foundations of the soul.
Economy, the poor man's mint.
Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil.
Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every coil; In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish; For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth.
Every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man.
Faith may rise into miracles of might, as some few wise men have shown; faith may sink into credulities of weakness, as the mass of fools have witnessed.
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.
God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love in all he doeth, Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume: The wicked work their woe by looking upon love, and hating it: The righteous find their joys in yearning on its loveliness for ever.
Hate furroweth the brow; and a man may frown till he hateth.
Hatred is the atmosphere of hell.
He that is ambitious for his son, should give him untried names, For those have serv'd other men, haply may injure by their evils; Or otherwise may hinder by their glories; therefore set him by himself, To win for his individual name some clear praise.
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.
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.
Humility mainly becometh the converse of man with his Maker.
If thou art master to thyself, circumstances shall harm thee little.
If thou wilt think evil of thy neighbour, soon shalt thou have him for thy foe.
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.
Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion; a sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes.
It is sure to be dark if you shut your eyes.
It is the cringer to his equal that is chiefly seen bold to his God.
It is well to lie fallow for a while.
Knowledge is leagued with the universe, and findeth a friend in all things; but ignorance is everywhere a stranger, unwelcome; ill at ease and out of place.
Labour is good for a man, bracing up his energies to conquest, And without it life is dull, the man perceiving himself useless.
Law hath dominion over all things, over universal mind and matter; For there are reciprocities of rights, which no creature can gainsay.
Lies can destroy, but not create.
Life is as the current spark on the miner's wheel of flints; While it spinneth, there is light; stop it, all is darkness.
Love is the weapon which Omnipotence reserved to conquer rebel man when all the rest had failed. Reason he parries; fear he answers blow for blow; future interest he meets with present pleasure; but love, that sun against whose melting beams the winter cannot stand--that soft subliming slumber which wrestles down the giant, there is not one human being in a million, nor a thousand men in all earth's huge quintillion, whose clay heart is hardened against love.
Love with life is heaven; and life, unloving, hell.
Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume.
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!
Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen; Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions: For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will, But a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance.
Many a beggar at the crossway, or gray-haired shepherd on the plain, hath more of the end of all wealth than hundreds who multiply the means.
Mind is a kingdom to the man who gathereth his pleasure from ideas.
Never give up! If adversity presses, Providence wisely has mingled the cup, And the best counsel, in all your distresses, Is the stout watchword of "Never give up."
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.
Not few nor light are the burdens of life; then load it not with heaviness of spirit.
O Death, what are thou? nurse of dreamless slumbers freshening the fevered flesh to a wakefulness eternal.
One single glance will conquer all descriptions.
Our cares are all To-day, our joys are all To-day; And in one little word, our life, what is it but--To-day?
Policy counselleth a gift, given wisely and in season; And policy afterwards approveth it, for great is the influence of gifts.
Power is seldom innocent, and envy is the yokefellow of eminence.
Rashly, nor ofttimes truly, doth man pass judgment on his brother; for he seeth not the springs of the heart, nor heareth the reasons of the mind.
Reason refuseth its homage to a God who can be fully understood.
Solitude delighteth well to feed on many thoughts; There as thou sittest peaceful, communing with fancy, The precious poetry of life shall gild its leaden cares; There, as thou walkest by the sea beneath the gentle stars, Many kindling seeds of good will sprout within thy soul; Thou shalt weep in Solitude,--thou shalt pray in Solitude. Thou shalt sing for joy of heart, and praise the grace of Solitude.
Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man.
Speech is the golden harvest that followeth the flowering of thought.
Spurn not a seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth.
Take the good with the evil, for ye all are pensioners of God, and none may choose or refuse the cup His wisdom mixeth.
The mines of knowledge are often laid bare by the hazel-wand of chance.
The most wretched have yet hope.
The pen has shaken nations.
The seeds of first instructions are dropp'd into the deepest furrows.
There is a limit to enjoyment, though the sources of wealth be boundlessAnd the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.
There is not unmitigated ill in the sharpest of this world's sorrows; I touch not the sore of thy guilt; but of human griefs I counsel thee, Cast off the weakness of regret, and gird thee to redeem thy loss: Thou has gained, in the furnace of affliction, self-knowledge, patience and humility, And these be as precious ore, that waiteth the skill of the coiner: Despise not the blessings of adversity, nor the gain thou hast earned so hardly, And now thou hast drained the bitter, take heed that thou lose not the sweet.
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.
Thought paceth like a hoary sage, but imagination hath wings as an eagle.
To be accurate, write; to remember, write; to know thine own mind, write. And a written prayer is a prayer of faith, special, sure, and to be answered.
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.
To-morrow is that lamp upon the marsh, which a traveller never reacheth; To-morrow, the rainbow's cup, coveted prize of ignorance; To-morrow, the shifting anchorage, dangerous trust of manners; To-morrow, the wrecker's beacon, wily snare of the destroyer. Reconcile conviction with delay, and To-morrow is a fatal lie; Frighten resolutions into action, To-morrow is a wholesome truth.
Travel is a ceaseless fount of surface education, But its wisdom will be simply superficial, if thou add not thoughts to things.
True wisdom, laboring to expound, heareth others readily; False wisdom, sturdy to deny, closeth up her mind to argument.
Wealth hath never given happiness, but often hastened misery.
Wealth oft-times killeth, where want but hindered the budding.
When thou choosest a wife, think not only of thyself, but of those God may give thee of her, that they reproach thee not for their being.
Who can wrestle against Sleep? - Yet is that giant very gentleness.
Who shall guess what I may be?Who can tell my fortune to me?For, bravest and brightest that ever was sungMay be - and shall be - the lot of the young!
Love looketh from the eye, and kindleth love by looking.
Humility is the softening shadow before the stature of Excellence, And lieth lowly on the ground, beloved and lovely as the violet.

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