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heaven quotes

  •    Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.

    -Joseph Addison
      'A Song for St Cecilia's Day'.

  • It must be soPlato, thou reason'st well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!

    -Joseph Addison
      Cato, act 5, sc.1, l.1^10.

  • Rapt, twirling in thy hand a withered spray, And waiting for the spark from heaven to fall.

    - Matthew Arnold
      Poems:  A New Edition,'The Scholar-Gipsy', l.119^20.

  • Thou waitest for the spark from heaven! and we, Light half-believers in our casual creeds† Who hesitate and falter life away, And lose tomorrow the ground won today Ah, do not we,Wanderer, await it too?

    - Matthew Arnold
      Poems:  A New Edition,'The Scholar-Gipsy', l.171^4.

  • Heaven isnot a place, and it isnot atime.Heaven isbeing perfect.

    - Richard Bach
      Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

  • And see ye not yon braid, braid road, That lies across the lily leven? That is the path of Wickedness, Though some call it the Road to Heaven.

    -Ballads
    'Thomas the Rhymer'.

  •    I shall hear in heaven.

    - Aphra ne  e  Amis Behn
      Attributed last words. Quoted in Ian Crofton and Donald Fraser A Dictionary of Musical Quotations (1985).

  • What is to prevent a daily newspaper from being made the greatest organ of social life? Books have had their daythe theatres have had their daythe temple of religion has had its day. A newspaper can be made to take the lead of all these in the great movements of human thought and of human civilisation. A newspaper can send more souls to Heaven, and save more from Hell, than all the churches or chapels in New Yorkbesides making money at the same time.

    -James Gordon, Snr Bennett
      In the NewYork Herald,19  Aug.

  •    Some truths there are so near and obvious to the mind that a man need only open his eyes to see them. Such I take this important one to be, viz. that all the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth, in a word all those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world, have not any subsistence without a mindthat their being is to be perceived or known.

    - George Berkeley
      A  Treatise Concerning The Principles Of Human Knowledge, pt.1, section 6.

  • In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Genesis1:1^2.

  • And he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Genesis 28:12.

  • And God spake all these words, saying,Iamthe L thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that isinheaven above, or that isin the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the L thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thoushalt nottakethename of the L thy God invain; for the L will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember thesabbath day, to keep it holy. Six daysthou shalt labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the L thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the L made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the L blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long uponthelandwhichtheL thy Godgiveththee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDORDORDORDORDORDORDORDExodus 20:1^17.

  • I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Deuteronomy 4:26.

  • Behold there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of 92 fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Kings 2:11^12.

  • Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high asheaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measurethereof islonger thanthe earth, and broader than the sea.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Job11:7^9.

  • Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Psalms 73:23^6.

  • For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is fromthe west, so far hath heremoved our transgressions from us.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Psalms103:11^12.

  •    Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If Isay, Surely the darknessshall cover me; even thenight shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Psalms139:7^12.

  • To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Atimeto be born, and atimeto die; atimetoplant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; Atimetoweep, and atimeto laugh; atimetomourn, and a time to dance: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Ecclesiastes 3:1^8.

  • How art thou fallen from heaven,O Lucifer, son of the morning!

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Isaiah14:12.

  • Whohathmeasured thewatersinthehollowof hishand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Isaiah 40:12.

  • Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saiththe L of hosts, if Iwill notopenyouthewindows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDMalachi 3:10.

  • And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying,The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 3:2^3.

  • And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs isthe kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessedarethepeacemakers: for theyshall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessedare ye, whenmenshall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 5:1^12.

  • Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 5:14^16.

  • For I say unto you,That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 5:20.

  • Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 7:21.

  • After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.Thy will be doneinearth, as it isinheaven.Giveus this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive ourdebtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 6:9^13

  • Another parable put he forth unto them, saying,The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it isgrown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew13:31^2.

  • Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew13:45^6.

  • Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew16:18^19.

  • And said,Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew18:3

  • Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew19:21^2.

  • Verily I say unto you. Thisgeneration shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 24:34^5.

  • And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Luke10:18.

  • And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Luke15:16^19.

  • And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forththebest robe, and put itonhim; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it: and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Luke15:20^4.

  • Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Acts of the  Apostles1:11.

  • And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise,Peter; kill, and eat.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Acts of the  Apostles10:11^13.

  • And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Revelation 8:1.

  • I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Revelation 9:1.

  • And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought againstthe dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Revelation12:7^9.

  • And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Revelation19:11.

  • And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And thesea gave up the dead whichwere in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And deathand hell were cast intothelake of fire.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Revelation 20:11^14.

  • And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And IJohn saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Revelation 21:1^2.

  • Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell's despair.

    -William Blake
      Songs of Experience,'The Clod and the Pebble'.

  • When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

    -William Blake
      Songs of Experience,'The Tyger'.

  • A robin red breast in a cage Puts all Heaven in a rage.

    -William Blake
    c.1803  Auguries of Innocence, l.5^6.

  • I gave you the end of the golden string; Only wind it into a ball, It will lead you in at Heaven's gate, Built in Jerusalem's wall.

    -William Blake
    c.1804^1807  Jerusalem, plate 77.

  • The manwho never in his mind and thoughtstravelled to heaven is no artist.

    -William Blake
    c.1808  Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses.

  • I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell;The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost;The holy Catholick Church;The Communion of Saints;The Forgiveness of sins;The Resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting. Amen.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Morning Prayer,  Apostle's Creed.

  •    Therefore with Angels, and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee, and saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory: Glory be to thee,O Lord most High. Amen.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Holy Communion, Praise.

  •    I would renounce, therefore, the attempt to create heaven on earth, and focus instead on reducing the hell.

    - A Alan Borovoy
      When Freedoms Collide:  A Case for Our Civil Liberties. His personal maxim.

  •    In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

    - Rupert Chawner Brooke
      'The Soldier'.

  • There are many†canonized on earth, that shall never be Saints in Heaven.

    - SirThomas Browne
    ^5  Religio Medici (published1643), pt.1, section 26.

  • I have tried if I could reach that great resolution†to be honest without a thought of Heaven or Hell.

    - SirThomas Browne
    ^5  Religio Medici (published1643), pt.1, section 47.

  • The quincunx of heaven runs low, and 'tis time to close the five parts of knowledge.

    - SirThomas Browne
      The Garden of Cyrus, ch.5.

  • All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again; according to the ordainer of order and mystical mathematics of the city of heaven.

    - SirThomas Browne
      The Garden of Cyrus, ch.5.

  • Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God.

    - Elizabeth ne  e Barrett Browning
      Aurora Leigh, bk.7.

  • There may be heaven; there must be hell.

    - Robert Browning
      Dramatic Romances and Lyrics,'Time's Revenges'.

  • Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?

    - Robert Browning
      Men and Women,'Andrea del Sarto', l.97^8.

  • What's come to perfection perishes. Things learned on earth, we shall practise in heaven. Work done least rapidly, Art most cherishes.

    - Robert Browning
      Men and Women,'One Word More. To E.B.B.', stanza17.

  • Every time it rains, it rains Pennies from heaven. See also Thatcher 850:18.

    -Johnny Burke
      'Pennies from Heaven'.

  • A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his own propertyat the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.

    - Samuel Butler
    Collected in Further Extracts from the Notebooks (1934).

  • The moon is up, and yet it is not night; Sunset divides the sky with hera sea Of glory streams along the Alpine height Of blue Friuli's mountains; Heaven is free From clouds, but of all colours seems to be Melted to one vast Iris of the West, Where the day joins the past eternity.

    -Rochdale
    ^18  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 4, stanza 27.

  • She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

    -Rochdale
      'She Walks in Beauty'.

  • But sweeter still than this, than these, than all, Is first and passionate loveit stands alone, Like Adam's recollection of his fall; The tree of knowledge hath been pluck'dall's known And life yields nothing further to recall Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown, No doubt in fable, as the unforgiven Fire which Prometheus filch'd for us from heaven.

    -Rochdale
    ^24  Don Juan, canto1, stanza127.

  • My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love, And though the sager sort our deeds reprove, Let us not weigh them. Heaven's great lamps do dive Into their west, and straight again revive, But soon as once set is our little light, Then must we sleep one ever-during night. See Catullus 200:5.

    -Thomas Campion
    A Book of  Airs, no.1,'My Sweetest Lesbia', translation of a song by Catullus.

  • Chacun exige d'e"  tre innocent, a'   tout prix, me"  me si, pour cela, il faut accuser le genre humain et le ciel. Everyone insists on his or her innocence, at all costs, even if it means accusing the rest of the human race and heaven.

    - Albert Camus
      La Chute (translated by Stuart Gilbert).

  • We are Giants in physical power: in a deeper than metaphorical sense, weareTitans, that strive, byheaping mountain on mountain, to conquer Heaven also.

    -Thomas Carlyle
      Signs of the Times.

  • Heaven's splendour over his head, Hell's darkness under his feet.

    -Thomas Carlyle
      Past and Present, bk.2, ch.15.

  • When red wine had brought red ruin And the death-dance of our times, Heaven sent us Soda Water As a torment for our crimes.

    - G(ilbert) K(eith) Chesterton
      The Flying Inn, ch.18, stanza 4. Collected as'The Song of Right and Wrong' in Wine, Water and Song (1915).

  • Wellcome, all Wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span. Summer in Winter, Day in Night. Heaven in Earth and God in Man.

    - Richard Crashaw
      'Hymn of the Nativity' (published1652), l.79.

  • She even thinks that up in heaven Her class lies late and snores, While poor black cherubs rise at seven To do celestial chores.

    - Countee Cullen
      On These I Stand,'For a Lady I Know'.

  • Wasthere ever sucha sunnystreet asthis Broadway! The pavement stones are polished with thetread of feet until they shine again† Heaven save the ladies, how they dress! We have seen more colours in these ten minutes, than we should have seen elsewhere, in as many days. What various parasols! what rainbow silks and satins! what pinking of thin stockings and pinching of thin shoes, and fluttering of ribbons and silk tassels, and display of rich cloaks with gaudy hoods and linings!

    - CharlesJohn Huffam Dickens
      American Notes.

  • It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

    - CharlesJohn Huffam Dickens
      A  Tale of  Two Cities, bk.1, ch.1.

  • Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.

    - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
    Complete Poems, no.1732 (first published1896).

  • Come, madam, come, all rest my powers defy, Until I labour, I in labour lie. The foe oft-times having the foe in sight, Is tired with standing though he never fight. Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glistering, But a far fairer world encompassing. Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear, That busy fools may be stopped there. Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime Tells me from you that now 'tis your bed time.

    -John Donne
    c.1595  Elegies, no.19,'To His Mistress Going to Bed'.

  • Verse hath a middle nature: heaven keeps souls, The grave keeps bodies, verse the fame enrols.

    -John Donne
      'An  Anatomy of the World: The First  Anniversary'.

  • Then Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own heart, His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart To wives and slaves: and, wide as his command, Scattered his Maker's image through the land.

    -John Dryden
    Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.7^10.  An oblique reference to Charles II, who had no legitimate, but many illegitimate, children.

  • From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years, But save me most from my petitioners. Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave; God cannot grant so much as they can crave.

    -John Dryden
    Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.985^8.

  • If there is a heaven it's no doubt already filledwith horses, chickens, lambs, and other poor creatures. People will simply not get in.

    - Louis Dudek
    Collected in Notebooks1960^1994 (1994).

  •    In to thir dirk and drublie dayis, Quhone sabill all the hevin arrayis With mystie vapouris, cluddis and skyis, Nature all curage me denyis Off sangis, ballattis, and of playis.

    - Alexandre, pe'  re Dumas
    'Meditatioun in Wyntir', stanza1.

  • Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to heaven.

    - Henry Fielding
      Tom Jones, bk.3, ch.10.

  • 'O! help me heaven,'she prayed,'to be decorative and to do right!'

    - (ArthurAnnesley) Ronald Firbank
      The Flower Beneath the Foot, ch.2.

  •   I am†a mushroom On whom the dew of heaven drops now and then.

    -John Ford
      The Broken Heart, act1, sc.3.

  • The joys of marriage are the heaven on earth, Life's paradise, great princess, the soul's quiet, Sinews of concord, earthly immortality, Eternity of pleasures; no restoratives Like to a constant woman.

    -John Ford
      The Broken Heart, act 2, sc.2.

  • Nice philosophy May tolerate unlikelyarguments, But heaven admits no jest.

    -John Ford
      ' Tis Pity She's a Whore, act1, sc.1.

  • I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

    - Robert Lee Frost
      'Birches'.

  • Never tell me that not one star of all That slip from heaven at night and softly fall Has been picked up with stones to build a wall.

    - Robert Lee Frost
      'A Star in a Stoneboat'.

  • We are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the company.

    -Thomas Gainsborough
      Last words (attributed), quoted in William B Boulton Thomas Gainsborough (1905), ch.9.

  •    Some might say they don't believe in heaven Go and tell it to the man who lives in hell.

    - Noel Gallagher
      'Some Might Say'.

  • Are these the choice dishes the Doctor has sent us? Is this the great poet whose works so content us? This Goldsmith's fine feast, who has written fine books? Heaven sends us fine meat, but the Devil sends cooks.

    - David Garrick
      'On Doctor Goldsmith's Characteristical Cookery'.

  • We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!

    - Sir Humphrey Gilbert
      Dying words as his frigate Squirrel sank in the  Atlantic Ocean near the Azores, 5  Aug. Quoted in Richard Hakluyt Third and Last Volume of the Voyages†of the English Nation (1600).

  •    I would that with sleepy, soft embraces The sea would fold mewould find me rest In luminous shades of her secret places, In depths where her marvels are manifest; So the earth beneath her should not discover My hidden couchnor the heaven above her As a strong love shielding a weary lover, I would have her shield me with shining breast.

    - Adam Lindsay Gordon
    'The Swimmer', stanza 5, collected in Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes (1870).

  • All this, and heaven too!

    - Philip Henry
    Quoted in Matthew Henry Life of Mr Philip Henry (1698), ch.5.

  • For to be yong I wald not, for my wis, Off all this warld to mak me lord and king: The more of age, the nerar hevynnis blis.

    - Robert Henryson
    c.1460  'The Praise of  Age', l.5^9.

  • I write of Hell; I sing (and ever shall) Of Heaven, and hope to have it after all.

    - Robert Herrick
      Hesperides,'The  Argument of His Book'.

  • 'Twould ring the bells of heaven The widest peal for years, If Parson lost his senses And people came to theirs, And he and they together Knelt down with angry prayers For tamed and shabby tigers And dancing dogs and bears, And wretched, blind, pit ponies, And little hunted hares.

    - Ralph Hodgson
      'Bells of Heaven'.

  • Oh God, if there be cricket in heaven, let there also be rain.

    - Baron Douglas-Home
    Quoted in Helen Exley Cricket Quotations (1992).

  • I remember, I remember, The fir trees dark and high; I used to think their slender tops Were close against the sky: It was a childish ignorance, But now 'tis little joy To know I'm farther off from heav'n Than when I was a boy.

    -Honorius of Autun
      'I Remember'.

  • These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth's foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are dead.

    - A(lfred) E(dward) Housman
      Last Poems, no.37,'Epitaph on an  Army of Mercenaries'.

  • Good-night. Ensured release Imperishable peace, Have these for yours, While earth's foundations stand And skyand sea and land And heaven endures.

    - A(lfred) E(dward) Housman
      More Poems, no.48.

  • I have spoken so far only of the blissful visionary experience† But visionary experience is not always blissful. It's sometimes terrible. There is hell as well as heaven.

    - Aldous Leonard Huxley
      Heaven and Hell.

  • Titiro ki te rangi tahuri rawa ake, Kahore he whenua e†Kua riro: We looked up to heaven and before we knew where we were there was no land left†gone.

    -Witi Tame Ihimaera
      The Matriarch, ch.3.

  • Still raise for good the supplicating voice, But leave to heaven the measure and the choice.

    - Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
      The Vanity of Human Wishes, l.351^2.

  • Iamnot yet so lost inlexicographyastoforgetthat words arethe daughters of earth, and thatthings arethesons of heaven. Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but thesigns of ideas: Iwish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote.

    - Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
      A Dictionary of the English Language, preface.

  • Sweetly they slept On the blue fields of heaven, and then there crept A little noiseless noise among the leaves, Born of the very sign that silence heaves.

    -John Keats
      'I Stood Tip-Toe upon a Little Hill', l.9^12.

  • Do not all charms fly At the mere touch of cold philosophy? There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she isgiven In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings.

    -John Keats
      Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St.  Agnes and Other Poems, 'Lamia', pt.2, l.229^34.

  • Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, And threw warm gules on Madeleine's fair breast, As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon; Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest, And on her silver cross soft amethyst, And on her hair a glory like a saint: She seemed a splendid angel, newly drest, Save wings, for heaven.

    -John Keats
      Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St.  Agnes and Other Poems,'The Eve of St.  Agnes', stanza 25.

  • When the sun shall be darkened, when the stars shall be thrown down, when the mountains shall be set moving, when the pregnant camels shall be neglected, when the savage beasts shall be mustered, when the seas shall be set boiling, when the souls shall be coupled, when the buried infant shall be asked for what sin she was slain, when the scrolls shall be unrolled, when heaven shall be stripped off, when Hell shall be set blazing, when Paradise shall be brought nigh, then shall a soul know what it has produced.

    -The Koran
    Sura 81,1^14.

  • Even if heaven were real, and measured as Revelation says, so many cubits this wayand that, how gimcrack a place it would be, crammed with its pavements of gold, its gates of pearl and topaz, like a gigantic chunkof costume jewelry.

    - Margaret Laurence
      The Stone Angel, ch.4.

  • Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people Living for today.

    -JohnWinston Lennon
      'Imagine'.

  • Ein einziger dankbarer Gedanke gen Himmel ist das vollkommenste Gebet. One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer.

    - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
      Minna von Barnhelm, act 2, sc.7.

  • We have been too comfortable and too indulgentmany, perhaps, too selfishand the stern hand of fatehasscoured ustoan elevationwhere we can see the great everlasting things that matter for a nation; the great peaks we had forgotten, of honour, duty, patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven.We shall descend into the valleys again, but as long as men and women of thisgeneration last, they will carry in their hearts the image of those great mountain peaks, whose foundations are not shaken, though Europe rock and sway in the convulsions of a great war.

    - David, 1st Earl Lloyd George (of Dwyfor)
      Speech, London,19 Sep.

  •    Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

    -Joe pseudonym of  Joseph Louis Barrow Louis
      In Sports Illustrated,'Scorecard',19  Jul.

  •    How at heaven's gates she claps her wings, The morn not waking till she sings.

    -John Lyly
      Of the lark. Campaspe, act 5, sc.1.

  • Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven; To his feet thy tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, Who like me his praise should sing?

    - Henry Francis Lyte
      'Praise, my Soul, the King of Heaven'.

  • The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.

    - David Alan Mamet
      Writing in Restaurants,'Things I Have Learned Playing Poker On The Hill'.

  • Tamburlaine! A Scythian shepherd so embellishe'  d With nature's pride and richest furniture! His looks do menace heaven and dare the gods. His fiery eyes are fixed upon the earth.

    - Christopher Marlowe
      Tamburlaine the Great (published1590), pt.1, act1, sc.2.

  • A god is not so glorious as a king. I think the pleasure they enjoy in Heaven, Cannot compare with kingly joys in earth. To wear a crown enchased with pearl and gold, Whose virtues carry with it life and death; To ask and have, command and be obeyed; When looks breed love, with looks to gain the prize, Such power attractive shines in princes'eyes!

    - Christopher Marlowe
      Tamburlaine the Great (published1590), pt.1, act 2, sc.5.

  •    Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one self place; but where we are is hell, And where hell is, there must we ever be: And, to be short, when all the world dissolves, And every creature shall be purified, All places shall be hell that is not heaven.

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1592  Doctor Faustus (published1604), act 2, sc.1.

  •    But think'st thou heaven is such a glorious thing? I tell thee, Faustus, it is not half so fair As thou, or any man that breathes on earth.

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1592  Doctor Faustus (published1604), act 2, sc.2.

  •    Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss! Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies! Come Helen, come give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena.

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1592  Doctor Faustus (published1604), act 5, sc.1.

  •    Now hast thou but one bare hour to live, And then thou must be damned perpetually! Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven, That time may cease, and midnight never come. Fair nature's eye, rise, rise, again, and make Perpetual day; or let this hour be but Ayear, a month, a week, a natural day, That Faustus may repent and save his soul! O lente, lente currite, noctis equi: The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned. Oh, I'll leap up to my God!Who pulls me down? See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul, half a drop, ah, my Christ.

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1592  Doctor Faustus (published1604), act 5, sc.2.

  • Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it: Thinkst thou that I who saw the face of God, And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells In being deprived of everlasting bliss!

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1592  Doctor Faustus (published1604), act1, sc.3.

  •    You stars that reigned at my nativity, Whose influence hath allotted death and hell, Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist, Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud, That when you vomit forth into the air, My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths, So that my soul may but ascend to heaven.

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1592  Doctor Faustus (published1604), act 5, sc.2.

  • Oh thou, that dear and happy isle The garden of the world ere while, Thou paradise of four seas, Which heaven planted us to please, But, to exclude the world, did guard With watery if not flaming sword; What luckless apple did we taste, To make us mortal, and thee waste?

    - Andrew Marvell
    c.1650^1652  'Upon  Appleton House, to My Lord Fairfax' (published1681), stanza 41.

  • And he who gives a child a treat Makes joy-bells ring in Heaven's street, And he who gives a child a home Builds palaces in Kingdom come, And she who gives a baby birth Brings Saviour Christ again to Earth.

    -John Edward Masefield
      'The Everlasting Mercy'.

  •    Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars With memory of the old revolt from Awe, He reached the middle height, and at the stars, Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank. Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank, The army of unalterable law.

    - George Meredith
      Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth,'Lucifer in Starlight'.

  •    For singing till his heaven fills 'Tis love of earth that he instils, And ever winging up and up, Our valley is his golden cup, And he the wine which overflows.

    - George Meredith
      Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth,'The Lark  Ascending'.

  • I'm up to the chin in heaven.

    -Thomas Middleton
      The Changeling (with William Rowley), act 2, sc.2.

  • This is the month, and this the happy morn Wherein the son of Heaven's eternal King, Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring.

    -John Milton
      'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity','The Hymn', stanza1.

  • It was the winter wild While the Heaven born child All meanly wrapped in the rude manger lies; Nature in awe to him Had doffed her gaudy trim With her great Master so to sympathize; It was no season then for her To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.

    -John Milton
      'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity','The Hymn', stanza 3.

  • Nature that heard such sound Beneath the hollow round Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrilling, Now was almost won To think her part was done, And that her reign had here its last fulfilling; She knew such harmonyalone Could hold all heaven and earth in happier unio'  n.

    -John Milton
      'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity','The Hymn', stanza10.

  • And missing thee, I walk unseen On the dry smooth-shaven green, To behold the wandering moon, Riding near her highest noon, Like one that had been led astray Through the heaven's wide pathless way; And oft as if her head she bowed, Stooping through a fleecy cloud.

    -John Milton
    c.1631 Il Penseroso, l.65^72.

  • Ring out, ye crystal spheres, Once bless our human ears (If ye have power to touch our senses so), And let your silver chime Move in melodious time, And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow; And with your ninefold harmony Make up full consort to th'angelic symphony.

    -John Milton
      'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity','The Hymn', stanza13.

  • And may at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, The hairy gown and mossy cell, Where I may sit and rightly spell Of every star that heaven doth shew, And every herb that sips the dew, Till old experience to attain To something like prophetic strain.

    -John Milton
    c.1631 Il Penseroso, l.167^74.

  • The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heav'n doth hold, And the gilded car of day, Hisglowing axle doth allay In the steep Atlantic stream.

    -John Milton
      Comus,  A Mask, l.93^7.

  • Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind With all thy charms, although this corporal rind Thou hast immanacl'd, while heav'n sees good.

    -John Milton
      Comus,  A Mask, l.663^5.

  • Mortals that would follow me, Love virtue, she alone is free, She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime; Or if virtue feeble were, Heav'n itself would stoop to her.

    -John Milton
      Comus,  A Mask, l.1017^22.

  •    The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.1, l.254^5.

  •    Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n. On the Detraction Which Follow'd†

    -John Milton
      Satan. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.1, l.263.

  • For who can yet believe, though after loss, That all these puissant legions, whose exile Hath emptied heav'n, shall fail to reascend Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.1, l.631^4.

  • There is a place (If ancient and prophetic fame in heav'n Err not) another world, the happy seat Of some new race called Man.

    -John Milton
      Beelzebub. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.2, l.345^8.

  • Hail holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first-born. Bright effluence of bright essence increate.

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.3, l.5^6.

  • For neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone, By his permissive will, through heav'n and earth.

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.3, l.681^4.

  • Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threat'ning to devour me opens wide, To which the hell I suffer seems a heav'n.

    -John Milton
      Satan. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.4, l.75^8.

  • Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed, which declares his dignity, And the regard of Heav'n on all his ways.

    -John Milton
       Adam to Eve. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.4, l.618^20.

  • Headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of heaven, eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.

    -John Milton
      Pursued to the wall of Heaven by the Messiah, Satan and his rebelling angels fall to their punishment as the wall opens. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.6, l.864^6.

  • He his fabric of the heavens Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move His laughter at their quaint opinions wide Hereafter, when they come to model heaven And calculate the stars, how they will wield The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive To save appearances, how gird the sphere With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.8, l.76^84.

  • Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being. Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there Live, in what state, condition, or degree, Contented that thus far hath been revealed Not of earth only but of highest heav'n.

    -John Milton
      Raphael to  Adam. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.8, l.172^8.

  • Now possess, As lords, a spacious world, to our native heaven Little inferior, by myadventure hard With peril great achieved.

    -John Milton
      Satan, returning triumphantly from Earth to Hell after tempting Eve. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.10, l.466^9.

  • O why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest heav'n With Spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men as angels without feminine, Or find some other way to generate Mankind?

    -John Milton
       Adam speaking of Eve. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.10, l.888^95.

  • Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st Live well, how long or short permit to heaven.

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.11, l.553^4.

  • But here I feel amends, The breath of Heav'n fresh-blowing, pure and sweet, With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.

    -John Milton
    Samson  Agonistes, l.9^11.

  • Le Ciel de  fend, de vrai, certains contentements; Mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements. True, heaven forbids us certain pleasures; But we always find a way to arrange things.

    -Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molie'  re
      Le Tartuffe, act 4, sc.5.

  • O to be a dragon, a symbol of the power of Heavenof silkworm size or immense; at times invisible. Felicitous phenomenon!

    - Marianne Craig Moore
      O  To Be A Dragon,'O  To Be  A Dragon'.

  • Is not this house as nigh heaven as my own?

    - SirThomas More
    c.1534  Of the Tower of London.  Attributed in William Roper Life of Sir Thomas More (ed E  V Hitchcock,1935).

  • Home is heaven and orgies are vile, But you need an orgy, once in a while.

    - (Frederic) Ogden Nash
      The Primrose Path,'Home, 9944/100% Sweet Home'.

  • Give us back our suffering, we cry to Heaven in our heartssuffering rather than indifferentism; for out of nothing comes nothing† Better have pain than paralysis! 616

    - Florence Nightingale
      'Cassandra' pt.1, part of an unpublished work  Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truth (revised and privately printed1859). Published as an appendix in Ray Strachey The Cause:  A Short History of the Women's Movement in Great Britain (1928).

  • Padre nuestro que esta  s en el cielo Lleno de toda clase de problemas Con el cen‹  o fruncido Como si fueras un hombre vulgar y corriente No pienses ma  s en nosotros. Our Father who art in Heaven Full of all kinds of problems Ceaselessly frowning As if you were a simple man: Stop thinking about us.

    - Nicanor Parra
      Obra gruesa,'Padre nuestro' ('Our Father').

  • Yes, Heaven is thine; but this Is a world of sweets and sours; Our flowers are merelyflowers.

    - EdgarAllan Poe
      'Israfel', stanza 7.

  • Thank Heaven! the crisis The danger is past, And the lingering illness Is over at last And the fever called 'Living' Is conquered at last.

    - EdgarAllan Poe
      'ForAnnie'.

  • Order is Heaven's first law.

    - Alexander Pope
      An Essay on Man, epistle to 4, l.49.

  •    What is our life? a play of passion; Our mirth the music of division; Our mothers' wombs the tiring-houses be Where we are dressed for this short comedy. Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is, That sits and marks still who doth act amiss; Our graves that hide us from the searching sun Are like drawn curtains when the play is done. Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest, Only we die in earnestthat's no jest.

    - Sir Walter Raleigh
      'On the Life of Man'.

  • That cordial drop heaven in our cup has thrown To make the nauseous draught of life go down.

    -JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
    c.1674  Of love.'A Letter from Artemisia in theTown to Chloe in the Country', l.44^5 (published1679).

  • The blessed damozel leaned out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters stilled at even; She had three lilies in her hand, And the stars in her hair were seven.

    - Dante Gabriel Rossetti
      Poems,'The Blessed Damozel', stanza1.

  • So l o yo entiendo lo lejos que esta   el cielo de nosotros; pero conozco co  mo acortar las veredas.Todo consiste en morir, Dios mediante, cuando unoquiera y no cuando EŁ  l lo disponga. O, si t  u quieres, forzarlo a disponer antes de tiempo. I know how far away Heaven is, all right, but I know the shortcuts.You just die,God willing, when you want to, not when He arranges it.Or if you want you can make Him arrange it earlier.

    -Juan Rulfo
      Pedro Pa  ramo (translated1959).

  •   Butforme, theAlps and their peoplewerealikebeautiful in their snow, and their humanity; and I wanted, neither for them nor myself, sight of any thrones in heaven but the rocks, or of any spirits in heaven but the clouds.

    -John Ruskin
    ^3  The Stones ofVenice, vol.i, ch.2.

  • A building without ornamentation is like a heaven without stars.

    - George Sandys
    Quoted in the Christian Science Monitor,14 Dec1990.

  • I to the hills will lift mine eyes, from whence doth come mine aid. My safety cometh from the Lord, Who heav'n and earth hath made.

    -Scottish Metrical Psalms
      Psalm121:1^2.

  • God owns heaven but He craves the earth.

    - Anne ne  e Harvey Sexton
      TheAwful RowingToward God,'The Earth'.

  • I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die, For after the rain when with never a stain The pavilion of Heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams Build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      'The Cloud'.

  • The fountains mingle with the river, And the rivers with the ocean; The winds of heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things, bya law divine, In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine?

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      'Love and Philosophy'.

  • The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king Over himself; just, gentle, wise: but man Passionless?no, yet free from guilt or pain, Which were, for his will made or suffered them, Nor yet exempt, though ruling them like slaves, From chance, and death, and mutability, The clogs of that which else might oversoar The loftiest star of unascended heaven, Pinnacled dim in the intense inane.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      Prometheus Unbound, act 3, sc.4, l.193^204.

  •    The One remains, the many change and pass; Heaven's light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly: Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of Eternity, Until Death tramples it to fragments.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
    Adonais, stanza 52.

  • The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn; Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam, Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      'Hellas', l.1060^5.

  • Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven, and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth, And ever-changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object worth its constancy?

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
    'To the Moon' (published1824).

  • Oh heav'nly fool, thy most kiss-worthy face Anger invests with such a lovely grace That Anger's self I needs must kiss again.

    - Nevil originally Nevil Shute Norway Shute
    Astrophel and Stella, sonnet 73.

  • Artists are the only people in the world who really live. The others have to hope for heaven.

    -John French Sloan
    Recalled on his death,7 Sep1951, and quoted in the Smithsonian, Apr1988.

  • Let Eli rejoice with Leuconhe is an honest fellow, which is a rarity. For I have seen theWhite Raven and Thomas Hall of Willingham andam myselfa greatercuriosity thanboth. Let Jemuel rejoice with Charadrius, who is from the and the sight of him isgood for the jaundice. For I look up to heaven which is my prospect to escape envy by surmounting it.

    - Christopher Smart
    HEIGHT1758^63  JubilateAgno, fragmentB, stanzas 25^6 (first published 1939). Both the white raven andThomas Hall, a giant of four feet at the age of three, were curiosities exhibited in the1740s.

  • My idea of heaven is, eating pate   de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.

    - Rev Sydney Smith
    Quoted in H PearsonThe Smith of Smiths, (1934), ch.10.

  • Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame. Take the moral law and make a nave of it And from the nave build haunted heaven.

    -Wallace Stevens
      Harmonium,'A High-Toned Old ChristianWoman'.

  • Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above And the byway nigh me. Bed in the bush with the stars to see, Bread I dip in the river There's the life for a man like me, There's the life for ever.

    - Robert Louis Stevenson
      Songs ofTravel (published1896), no.1,'TheVagabond', stanza1.

  • Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me. All I ask, the heaven above, And the road below me.

    - Robert Louis Stevenson
      Songs ofTravel (published1896), no.1,'TheVagabond', stanza 4.

  • The Church's one foundation Is Jesus Christ, her Lord; She is his new creation By water and the word; From heaven he came and sought her To be his holy bride, With his own blood he bought her. And for her life he died.

    - Samuel John Stone
      Lyra fidelium.

  • Women enjoyed (whatsoe'er before they've been) Are like romances read, or sights once seen: Fruition's dull, and spoils the play much more Than if one read or knew the plot before; 'Tis expectation makes a blessing dear; It were not heaven, if we knew what it were.

    - SirJohn Suckling
      'Against Fruition'.

  • Alas! so all things now do hold their peace, Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing† Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less; So am not I whom love, alas, doth wring, Bringing before my face the great increase Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing, In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease. For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring, But by and by the cause of my disease Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting, When that I think what grief it is again To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.

    - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
      'Alas! so all things now do hold their peace'.

  • Maiden, and mistress of the months and stars Now folded in the flowerless fields of heaven.

    - Algernon Charles Swinburne
      Atlanta in Calydon, l.1

  • Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new: That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do: For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; Saw the heaven fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales; Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew From the nations'airy navies grappling in the central blue; Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm, Ulysses With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder-storm; Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle- flags were furled In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

    -Tennyson
      Poems,'Locksley Hall', l.117^28.

  • To love one maiden only, cleave to her, And worship her by years of noble deeds, Until they won her; for indeed I knew Of no more subtle master under heaven Than is the maiden passion for a maid, Not only to keep down the base in man, But teach high thought, and aimable words And courtliness, and the desire of fame, And love of truth, and all that makes man.

    -Tennyson
      Idylls of the King,'Guinevere', l.472^80.

  • At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away: 'Spanishships of warat sea! Wehavesighted fifty-three!' Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: ''Fore God I am no coward; But I cannot meetthem here, for my ships are out of gear, And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but followquick. Wearesix ships oftheline; canwefight withfifty-three?' Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: 'I know you are no coward; You fly them for a moment to fight with them again. But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore. I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard, To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain.' So Lord Howard passed away with five ships of war that day, Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven.

    -Tennyson
      'The Revenge', stanzas1^3, l.1^14.

  • Pennies don't fall from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth. See Burke169:53.

    - Margaret HildaThatcher, Baroness Thatcher
      Quoted in the Observer,'Sayings of theWeek',18 Nov.

  • It was my thirtieth year to heaven Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood And the mussel pooled and the heron Priested shore.

    - Dylan Marlais Thomas
      'Poem in October'.

  • When Britain first, at heaven's command, Arose from out the azure main, This was the charter of the land, And guardian angels sung this strain: 'Rule,Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never will be slaves.'

    -James pseudonym 'BV',ByssheVanolis Thomson
      Alfred: a Masque, act 2, sc.5.

  • As I came through the desert thus it was, As I came through the desert: All was black, In heaven no single star, on earth no track; A brooding hush without a stir or note; The air so thick it clotted in my throat.

    -James pseudonym 'BV',ByssheVanolis Thomson
      The City of Dreadful Night, pt.4.

  •    Equality would be a heaven, if we could attain it.

    - Anthony Trollope
      Prime Minister to Phineas. The Prime Minister, ch.68.

  • : What do you think of marriage? : I take't, as those that deny purgatory, It locally contains or heaven, or hell; There's no third place in't.

    -John Webster
         DUCHESSANTONIO1623  The Duchess of Malfi, act1, sc.2.

  • Is it any better in Heaven, my friend Ford, Than you found it in Provence?

    -William Carlos Williams
      TheWedge,'To Ford Madox Ford in Heaven'.

  • I, methought, while the sweet breath of heaven Was blowing on my body, felt within A correspondent breeze, that gently moved With quickening virtue, but is now become A tempest, a redundant energy, Vexing its own creation.

    -William Wordsworth
    ^1805  The Prelude, bk.1, l.33^8 (published1850).

  • Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy, But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, He sees it in his joy; The youth, who daily farther from the east Must travel, still is nature's priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his wayattended; At length the man perceives it die away, And fade into the light of common day.

    -William Wordsworth
    c.1802^1803  'Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood', stanza 5 (published1807).

  • Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy! For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood Upon our side, we who were strong in love! Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!

    -William Wordsworth
      'The French Revolution as it appeared to enthusiasts at its commencement', l.1^5 (published in The Friend, 26 Oct.1809).

  • Type of the wise who soar, but never roam; True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!

    -William Wordsworth
      'To a Skylark', l.11^12 (published1827).

  • With what nice care equivalents are given, How just, how bountiful, the hand of Heaven.

    -William Wordsworth
      'Poor Robin', l.35^6 (published1842).

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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