Great Throughts Treasury

"We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart."

"Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, As home his footsteps he hath turn'd, From wandering on a foreign strand! If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no Minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung. "

"Oh! young Lochinvar is come out of the west, Through all the wide Border his steed was the best; And save his good broadsword he weapons had none. He rode all unarmed and he rode all alone. So faithful in love and so dauntless in war, There never was knight like the young Lochinvar. He stayed not for brake and he stopped not for stone, He swam the Eske river where ford there was none, But ere he alighted at Netherby gate The bride had consented, the gallant came late: For a laggard in love and a dastard in war Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar. So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall, Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all: Then spoke the bride’s father, his hand on his sword, For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word, ‘Oh! come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?’ ‘I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied; Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide And now am I come, with this lost love of mine, To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine. There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far, That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar.’ The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up, He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup, She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye. He took her soft hand ere her mother could bar, ‘Now tread we a measure!’ said young Lochinvar. So stately his form, and so lovely her face, That never a hall such a galliard did grace; While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume; And the bride-maidens whispered ‘’Twere better by far To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.’ One touch to her hand and one word in her ear, When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near; So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung, So light to the saddle before her he sprung! ‘She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur; They’ll have fleet steeds that follow,’ quoth young Lochinvar. There was mounting ’mong Graemes of the Netherby clan; Fosters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran: There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee, But the lost bride of Netherby ne’er did they see. So daring in love and so dauntless in war, Have ye e’er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?"

"A Christmas gambol oft could cheer the poor man's heart through half the year."

"It will be just like Duncan Mac-Girdie's mare,' said Evan, 'if your ladyships please, he wanted to use her by degrees to live without meat, and just as he had put her on a straw a day the poor thing died!"

"A foot more light, a step more true, Ne'er from the heath-flower dash'd the dew."

"A friend always loves, but he who loves is not always a friend."

"The lovers of the chase say that the hare feels more agony during the pursuit of the greyhounds, than when she is struggling in their fangs."

"A coward calls himself cautious, a miser thrifty."

"A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect."

"A glass of wine is a glorious creature, and it reconciles poor humanity to itself; and that is what few things can do"

"A good play for nothing, you know, as work for nothing"

"A lover?s hope resembles the bean in the nursery-tale: let it once take root, and it will grow so rapidly that in the course of a few hours the giant Imagination builds a castle on the top, and by-and-by comes Disappointment with the curtal-axe, and hews down both the plant and the superstructure."

"A lover, my dear Lady Betty,' said Flora, 'may, I conceive, persevere in his suit, under very discouraging circumstances. Affection can (now and then) withstand very severe storms of rigour, but not a long polar frost of downright indifference. Don't, even with your attractions, try the experiment upon any lover whose faith you value. Love will subsist on wonderfully little hope, but not altogether without it.' [Romeo ... transfers his affections from Rosalind to Juliet]"

"A light on Marmion?s visage spread, and fired his glazing eye: with dying hand, above his head, he shook the fragment of his blade, and shouted "Victory!- Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!" Oh for a blast of that dread horn on Fontarabian echoes borne!"

"A mother's pride, a father's joy."

"A place for everything, and everything in its place"

"A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy."

"A simple race! they waste their toil For the vain tribute of a smile."

"A miss is as good as a mile."

"A stone rolled down hill by an idle truant boy... Even such is the course of a narrative like that which you are perusing. The earlier events are studiously dwelt upon, that you, kind reader, may be introduced to the character rather by narrative, than by the duller medium of direct description; but when the story draws near its close, we hurry over the circumstances, however important, which your imagination must have forestalled, and leave you to suppose those things which it would be abusing your patience to relate at length."

"Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer."

"Affection can withstand very severe storms of vigor, but not a long polar frost of indifference."

"A sound head, an honest heart, and an humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity"

"After a bad harvest sow again."

"Ah! County Guy, the hour is nigh, the sun has left the lea."

"Alas! fair Rowena, returned De Bracy, "you are in presence of your captive, not your jailor; and it is from your fair eyes that De Bracy must receive that doom which you fondly expect from him.""

"Ah, County Guy, the hour is nigh, the sun has left the lea. The orange flower perfumes the bower, the breeze is on the sea."

"All my life long I have been more melted by the distress under which a strong, proud, and powerful mind is compelled to give way, than by the more easily excited sorrows of softer dispositions."

"All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education."

"Along thy wild and willow'd shore."

"Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude."

"And come he slow, or come he fast, it is but Death who comes at last."

"Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers."

"And better had they ne'er been born, who read to doubt, or read to scorn."

"And darest thou then to beard the lion in his den, the Douglas in his hall?"

"And my father!-oh, my father! evil is it with his daughter, when his grey hairs are not remembered because of the golden locks of youth!"

"And please return it. You may think this a strange request, but I find that although my friends are poor arithmeticians, they are nearly all of them good bookkeepers."

"And the stern joy which warriors feel In foemen worthy of their steel."

"And the brute crowd, whose envious zeal Huzzas each turn of fortune's wheel, And loudest shouts when lowest lie Exalted worth and station high"

"And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace a Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace of finer form or lovelier face."

"Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?"

"Art thou a friend to Roderick?"

"As long as the Fates permit, live cheerfully."

"As good play for nothing, you know, as work for nothing."

"Behold the Tiber! the vain Roman cried, Viewing the ample Tay from Baiglie's side; But where's the Scot that would vaunt repay, And hail the puny Tiber for the Tay?"

"As old as the hills."

"Better ride safe in the dark, says the proverb, than in the daylight with a cut-throat at your elbow"

"Besides, Rose Bradwardine, beautiful and amiable as we have described her, had not precisely the sort of beauty or merit which captivates a romantic imagination in early youth. She was too frank, too confiding, too kind; amiable qualities, undoubtedly, but destructive of the marvelous, with which a youth of imagination delights to dress the empress of his affections."

"Bear in mind that you commit a crime by injuring even a wicked brother."