Each time we love,We turn a nearer and a broader markTo that keen archer, Sorrow, and he strikes. Alexander Smith More Quotes by Alexander Smith More Quotes From Alexander Smith One never hugs one's good luck so affectionately as when listening to the relation of some horrible misfortunes which has overtaken others. Alexander Smith hug good-luck listening Most brilliant star upon the crest of Time Alexander Smith brilliant england stars The only thing a man knows is himself. Alexander Smith knows men Some books are drenchèd sandsOn which a great soul's wealth lies all in heaps,Like a wrecked argosy. Alexander Smith soul book lying The sun was down, And all the west was paved with sullen fire. I cried, Behold! the barren beach of hell At ebb of tide. Alexander Smith sunset fire beach A single soul is richer than all the worlds. Alexander Smith soul world And in any case, to the old man, when the world becomes trite, the triteness arises not so much from a cessation as from a transference of interest. What is taken from this world is given to the next. The glory is in the east in the morning, it is in the west in the afternoon, and when it is dark the splendour is irradiating the realm of the under-world. He would only follow. Alexander Smith taken dark morning Men and women make their own beauty or their own ugliness. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton speaks in one of his novels of a man "who was uglier than he had any business to be;" and, if we could but read it, every human being carries his life in his face, and is good-looking or the reverse as that life has been good or evil. On our features the fine chisels of thought and emotion are eternally at work. Alexander Smith evil beauty men The discovery of a grey hair when you are brushing out your whiskers of a morning - first fallen flake of the coming snows of age - is a disagreeable thing. Alexander Smith hair discovery morning Fine phrases I value more than bank-notes. I have ear for no other harmony than the harmony of words. To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for. Alexander Smith phrases care ears To have to die is a distinction of which no man is proud. Alexander Smith proud men death Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well. Alexander Smith ugly nature death There is a slow-growing beauty which only comes to perfection in old age.... I have seen sweeter smiles on a lip of seventy than I ever saw on a lip of seventeen. There is the beauty of youth, and there is also the beauty of holiness—a beauty much more seldom met; and more frequently found in the arm-chair by the fire, with grandchildren around its knee, than in the ball-room or the promenade. Alexander Smith grandchildren perfection fire There is a certain even-handed justice in Time; and for what he takes away he gives us something in return. He robs us of elasticity of limb and spirit, and in its place he brings tranquility and repose—the mild autumnal weather of the soul. Alexander Smith justice weather giving In my garden I spend my days, in my library I spend my nights. My interests are divided between my geraniums and my books. With the flower I am in the present; with the book I am in the past. Alexander Smith flower book past Books are a finer world within the world. (1863) Alexander Smith book world I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory. Alexander Smith memorial-day singing song We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once. Alexander Smith remember happiness How beautiful the yesterday that stood Alexander Smith dark beautiful past If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death. Alexander Smith race men death