True art selects and paraphrases, but seldom gives a verbatim translation. Thomas Bailey Aldrich More Quotes by Thomas Bailey Aldrich More Quotes From Thomas Bailey Aldrich A glance, a word -- and joy or pain befalls.... How slight the links are in the chain that binds us to our destiny! Thomas Bailey Aldrich chains-that-bind destiny pain Great thoughts in crude, unshapely verse set forth lose half their preciousness, and ever must, unless the diamond with its own rich dust be cut and polished, it seems little worth. Thomas Bailey Aldrich cutting dust half It was pleasant to me to get a letter from you the other day. Perhaps I should have found it pleasanter if I had been able to decipher it. I don't think that I mastered anything beyond the date (which I knew) and the signature (which I guessed at). There's a singular and a perpetual charm in a letter of yours; it never grows old, it never loses its novelty. Other letters are read and thrown away and forgotten, but yours are kept forever - unread. One of them will last a reasonable man a lifetime. Thomas Bailey Aldrich humorous men thinking We weep when we are born, Not when we die! Thomas Bailey Aldrich born dies tears All the best sands of my life are somehow getting into the wrong end of the hourglass. If I could only reverse it! Were it in my power to do sowould I? Thomas Bailey Aldrich all-the-best sand ends No bird has ever uttered note That was not in some first bird's throat; Since Eden's freshness and man's fall No rose has been original. Thomas Bailey Aldrich eden men fall Hebe's here, May is here! Thomas Bailey Aldrich hoarding air may But I, in the chilling twilight stand and wait At the portcullis, at thy castle gate, Longing to see the charmed door of dreams Turn on its noiseless hinges, delicate sleep! Thomas Bailey Aldrich twilight dream sleep When friends are at your hearthside met, Sweet courtesy has done its most If you have made each guest forget That he himself is not the host. Thomas Bailey Aldrich done thank-you sweet Imagine all human beings swept off the face of the earth, excepting one man. Imagine this man in some vast city, New York or London. Imagine him on the third or fourth day of his solitude sitting in a house and hearing a ring at the door-bell! Thomas Bailey Aldrich new-york doors men It is the Lord's Day, and I do believe that cheerful hearts and faces are not unpleasant in His sight. Thomas Bailey Aldrich sight heart believe The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks. Thomas Bailey Aldrich nero power men Turn on its noiseless hinges, delicate sleep! Thomas Bailey Aldrich delicate turns sleep With the tears a Land hath shed. Their graves should ever be green. Thomas Bailey Aldrich memorial-day remembrance land The man who suspects his own tediousness is yet to be born. Thomas Bailey Aldrich boredom speech men We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed Thomas Bailey Aldrich rain rivers wind Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay. Thomas Bailey Aldrich half age book Gracious to all, to none subservient, Without offense he spoke the word he meant Thomas Bailey Aldrich candor spokes speech Between the reputation of the author living and the reputation of the same author dead there is ever a wide discrepancy. Thomas Bailey Aldrich discrepancies reputation writing After a debauch of thunder-shower, the weather takes the pledge and signs it with a rainbow. Thomas Bailey Aldrich thunder rainbow weather
