O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self.
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man's search
To vaster issues.
You May Also Like / View all maxioms
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the
deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
read more
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the
deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never
so wisely.
Even here Thy strong magnetic charms I feel,
And pant and tremble like the amorous steel.
To read more
Even here Thy strong magnetic charms I feel,
And pant and tremble like the amorous steel.
To lower good, and beauties less divine,
Sometimes my erroneous needle does incline;
But yet (so strong the sympathy)
It turns, and points again to Thee.
The future influences the present just as much as the past.
The future influences the present just as much as the past.
Spontaneously to God should turn the soul,
Like the magnetic needle to the pole;
But what were read more
Spontaneously to God should turn the soul,
Like the magnetic needle to the pole;
But what were that intrinsic virtue worth,
Suppose some fellow, with more zeal than knowledge,
Fresh from St. Andrew's College,
Should nail the conscious needle to the north?
My heart is feminine, nor can forget--
To all, except one image, madly blind;
So shakes the read more
My heart is feminine, nor can forget--
To all, except one image, madly blind;
So shakes the needle, and so stands the pole,
As vibrates my fond heart to my fix'd soul.
Our life's a flying shadow, God the pole,
The needle pointing to Him is our soul.
Our life's a flying shadow, God the pole,
The needle pointing to Him is our soul.
There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own read more
There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtures are not real to him. His sins, if there are such thing as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.
So when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him read more
So when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men.
By the golden chain Homer meant nothing else than the sun.
By the golden chain Homer meant nothing else than the sun.
