To bring the best human qualities to anything like perfection, to fill them with the sweet juices of courtesy and charity, prosperity, or, at all events, a moderate amount of it, is required,--just as sunshine is needed for the ripening of peaches and apricots.

Alexander Smith

Categorized in : Sweet Perfection Sunshine

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight... by Alexander Smith

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.

Alexander Smith

valentines-day love relationship

Christmas is the day that holds all time together. by Alexander Smith

Christmas is the day that holds all time together.

Alexander Smith

xmas holiday christmas

In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October, when the trees are bare to the mild heavens, and the red leaves bestrew the road, and you can feel the breath of winter, morning and evening - no days so calm, so tenderly solemn, and with such a reverent meekness in the air.

Alexander Smith

autumn morning fall

A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich... by Alexander Smith

A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.

Alexander Smith

real men memories

It is a characteristic of pleasure that we can never recognize it to be pleasure till after it is gone.

Alexander Smith

characteristics pleasure gone

Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.

Alexander Smith

echoes fire memories

If we were to live here always, with no other care than how to feed, clothe, and house ourselves, life would be a very sorry business. It is immeasurably heightened by the solemnity of death.

Alexander Smith

sorry house death

I go into my library and all history unrolls before me. by Alexander Smith

I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.

Alexander Smith

libraries-and-librarians book-lover library

Everything is sweetened by risk. by Alexander Smith

Everything is sweetened by risk.

Alexander Smith

risk

Trees are your best antiques by Alexander Smith

Trees are your best antiques

Alexander Smith

antiques nature tree

The sea complains upon a thousand shores. by Alexander Smith

The sea complains upon a thousand shores.

Alexander Smith

ocean sea complaining

The dead keep their secrets, and in a while we shall be as wise a... by Alexander Smith

The dead keep their secrets, and in a while we shall be as wise as they - and as taciturn.

Alexander Smith

keeping-secrets secret wise

My heart like moon-charmed waters, all unrest. by Alexander Smith

My heart like moon-charmed waters, all unrest.

Alexander Smith

moon heart water

It is not of so much consequence what you say, as how you say it. Memorable sentences are memorable on account of some single irradiating word.

Alexander Smith

accounts sentences memorable

The pleased sea on a white-breasted shore-- A shore that wears on her alluring brows Rare shells, far brought, the love-gifts of the sea, That blushed a tell-tale.

Alexander Smith

ocean white sea

If a man is worth knowing at all, he is worth knowing well. by Alexander Smith

If a man is worth knowing at all, he is worth knowing well.

Alexander Smith

wells knowing men

We bury love; Forgetfulness grows over it like grass: That is a t... by Alexander Smith

We bury love; Forgetfulness grows over it like grass: That is a thing to weep for, not the dead.

Alexander Smith

forgetful grows grass

A man gazing at the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the pud... by Alexander Smith

A man gazing at the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the road.

Alexander Smith

stars wisdom science

To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for. by Alexander Smith

To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for.

Alexander Smith

i-care care fame

How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens an... by Alexander Smith

How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens and gardening.

Alexander Smith

garden desire heart