calm quotes

  The world's best moment is a calm hour passed In listening to a friend who can talk well.

-Abu'l-'Ala   Al-Ma'arri
c.1000  Luzu'  miyya'  t, stanza 32 (translated by R  A Nicholson in Studies in Islamic Poetry,1921).

Theyare a great tradition†gliding in and out of the corridors of power with the opulent calm of angelfish swimming through an aquarian castle.

- Henry Southworth Allen
  Of presidential advisers. In the Washington Post, 3  Jan.

   Though raging stormes movis us to shake, And wind makis waters overflow; We yield thereto bot dois not break And in the calm bent up we grow. So baneist men, though princes rage, And prisoners, be not despairit. Abide the calm, whill that it 'suage, For time sic causis has repairit.

-Anonymous
  The Maitland Manuscript,'The Reeds in the Loch Sayis'.

La'  , tout n'est qu'ordre et beaute  , Luxe, calme et volupte  . There where all is order and beauty. Lush, calm and voluptuous.

- Charles Baudelaire
  Les Fleurs du mal,'L'Invitation au Voyage'.

And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord,saveus: weperish. And hesaithuntothem,Whyare ye fearful,O ye of littlefaith? Thenhearose, and rebuked St Matthew the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying,What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew 8:25^7.

Irish hurricane, a flat calm with drizzling rain.

- Frank Charles Bowen
  Sea Slang, a Dictionary of the Old-Timers' Expressions and Epithets.

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel: they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, preciselyas men would suffer†it is thoughtless to condem them, or laugh at them, if they seek to domorethancustomhas pronounced necessary for their sex.

- Charlotte Bronte« 
  Jane Eyre, ch.12.

   And when the tumult dwindled to a calm, I left him practising the hundredth psalm.

-Rochdale
  The Vision of  Judgement, stanza106.

Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.

-John Dryden
  Alluding to  Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, leader of the Exclusion forces.  Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.160^2.

Mother needs something today to calm her down, And though she's not really ill, There's a little yellow pill: She goes running for the shelter Of a mother's little helper, And it helps her on her way, Gets her through her busy day.

- Mick and Richards, Keith Jagger
  'Mother's Little Helper'.

   I am not calm, I am unspontaneous.When something happens to me, I don't know how to feel.

- A(lison) L(ouise) Kennedy
  So I  Am Glad, ch.1.

Alas! I have nor hope nor health, Nor peace within nor calm around, Nor that content surpassing wealth The sage in meditation found.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley
  'StanzasWritten in Dejection, near Naples'.

Cruel he looks, but calm and strong, Like one who does, not suffers wrong.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley
  Prometheus Unbound, act1, l.238^9.

Every known class of refusal was successfully exhibited. Onehorse endeavoured to climbtherailsintothe Grand Stand; another, having stoppeddeadatthecritical point, swung round, and returned in consternation to the starting-point, with hisrider hanging likea locket around his neck. Another, dowered with a sense of humour

-Martin Ross
Nicaraguan   dictator,   educated   in   the   US.   As   Chief   of   the National  Guard  he  established  himself  in  supreme  power  in the  early 1930s,  and  retained  it  until  assassinated,  when  the rule passed to his sons.

The sun has gane down o'er the lofty Benlomond, And left the red clouds to preside o'er the scene, While lanely I stray, in the calm simmer gloamin', To muse on sweet Jessie, the flower o' Dunblane. How sweet is the brier wi' its saft faulding blossom, And sweet is the birk, wi' its mantle o'green; Yet sweeter, and fairer, and dear to this bosom, Is lovely young Jessie, the flower o' Dunblane.

- Robert Tannahill
  'Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane', stanza1.

There is no joy but calm!

-Tennyson
  Poems,'The Lotos^Eaters', Choric Song, stanza 2, l.68.

Un vaste et tendre Apaisement Semble descendre Du firmament . . . C'est l'heure exquise. Avast and tender Calm Seems to descend From the heavens . . . This is the exquisite hour.

- Paul Verlaine
  Poe'  mes saturniens,'La Bonne Chanson, no.6'.

Away we goand what care we For treasons, tumults, and for wars? We are as calm in our delight As is the crescent moon so bright Among the scattered stars.

-William Wordsworth
  'Peter Bell', prologue, stanza 5 (published1819).

Earth hath not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth like a garment wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautifully steep In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! The river glideth at his own sweet will; Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still!

-William Wordsworth
  Of London.'Composed uponWestminster Bridge', complete poem. (Published1807).