Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top.
I count life just a stuff to try the soul's strength on.
What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me.
The moment eternal - just that and no more - When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!
All June I bound the rose in sheaves, Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves.
Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.
Love, hope, fear, faith - these make humanity; These are its sign and note and character.
Oh, to be in England now that April's there.
The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life: Try to be Shakespeare, leave the rest to fate!
Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought.
How good is man's life, the mere living! How fit to employ all the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!
Faultless to a fault.
On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, lest you should think he never could recapture the first fine careless rapture!