My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them. Walter Savage Landor More Quotes by Walter Savage Landor More Quotes From Walter Savage Landor Happiness, like air and water, the other two great requisites of life, is composite. One kind of it suits one man, another kind another. The elevated mind takes in and breathes out again that which would be uncongenial to the baser; and the baser draws life and enjoyment from that which would be putridity to the loftier. Walter Savage Landor air happiness men Principles do not mainly influence even the principled; we talk on principle, but we act on interest. Walter Savage Landor ethics morality principles Piety--warm, soft, and passive as the ether round the throne of Grace--is made callous and inactive by kneeling too much. Walter Savage Landor kneeling too-much grace Let me take up your metaphor. Friendship is a vase, which, when it is flawed by heat or violence or accident, may as well be broken at once; it can never be trusted after. The more graceful and ornamental it was, the more clearly do we discern the hopelessness of restoring it to its former state. Coarse stones, if they are fractured, may be cemented again; precious stones, never. Walter Savage Landor precious-stones broken friendship Those who are quite satisfied sit still and do nothing; those who are not quite satisfied are the sole benefactors of the world. Walter Savage Landor sole motivational world Nothing is pleasanter to me than exploring in a library. Walter Savage Landor exploring library Such is our impatience, such our hatred of procrastination, to everything but the amendment of our practices and the adornment of our nature, one would imagine we were dragging Time along by force, and not he us. Walter Savage Landor procrastination hatred practice A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, from the palate to the finger's end. Walter Savage Landor cooking perfect brain It is easy to look down on others; to look down on ourselves is the difficulty. Walter Savage Landor difficulty easy looks A man's vanity tells him what is honor, a man's conscience what is justice. Walter Savage Landor vanity justice men Cruelty, if we consider it as a crime, is the greatest of all; if we consider it as a madness, we are equally justifiable in applying to it the readiest and the surest means of oppression. Walter Savage Landor oppression madness mean We must distinguish between felicity and prosperity; for prosperity leads often to ambition, and ambition to disappointment; the course is then over, the wheel turns round but once, while the reaction of goodness and happiness is perpetual. Walter Savage Landor wheels disappointment ambition Heat and animosity, contest and conflict, may sharpen the wits, although they rarely do; they never strengthen the understanding, clear the perspicacity, guide the judgment, or improve the heart. Walter Savage Landor anger understanding heart The Siren waits thee, singing song for song. Walter Savage Landor music waiting song Harmonious words render ordinary ideas acceptable; less ordinary, pleasant; novel and ingenious ones, delightful. As pictures and statues, and living beauty, too, show better by music-light, so is poetry irradiated, vivified, glorified', and raised into immortal life by harmony. Walter Savage Landor immortal-life light ideas Fancy is imagination in her youth and adolescence. Fancy is always excursive; imagination, not seldom, is sedate. Walter Savage Landor fancy youth imagination Life is but sighs; and, when they cease, 'tis over. Walter Savage Landor sigh life-is life No truer word, save God's, was ever spoken, Than that the largest heart is soonest broken. Walter Savage Landor broken heart Wrong is but falsehood put in practice. Walter Savage Landor falsehood practice The present, like a note in music, is nothing but as it appertains to what is past and what is to come. Walter Savage Landor notes music-is past
