Must we count Life a curse and not a blessing, summed-up in its whole amount, Help and hindrance, joy and sorrow? Browning: La Saisiaz. I hear a sound of life-of life like ours- Of life in separate courses flowing out Like our four rivers to some outward main. Elizabeth B. Browning: Drama of Exile. Life's a vast sea That does its mighty errand without fail, Panting in unchanged strength though waves are changing. George Eliot: Spanish Gypsy. Life is arched with changing skies: William Winter: Light and Shadow. Life is the gift of God, and is divine. Longfellow: Tales of a Wayside Inn. Tell me not, in mournful numbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! life is earnest! Longfellow: Psalm of Life. Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Longfellow: The Rainy Day. Life hath evolved through pain. The studious eye Finds here the path of Being's highest gain. Earth's agonies have been earth's bliss, not bane. James H. West. Not in vain we seek Life's meaning. If we lift our heedful eyes Voices everywhere enthrall us-the whole universe replies. James H. West. Life! the symphony whose harmony would languish into death If it never knew the discord which brings out its sweeter breath. James H. West. Our life is scarce the twinkle of a star In God's eternal day. Bayard Taylor: Autumnal Vespers. I am: how little more I know! A shadow-birth of clouds at strife Whittier: Questions of Life. Love, Lovers; see Brotherhood, Home, Friendship, and Jealousy. Such is the power of that sweet passion, That it all sordid baseness doth expel, Spenser: Hymn in Honor of Love. Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt, I love. Shakespeare: Hamlet. Love sought is good, but given unsought is better. Shakespeare: Twelfth Night. A murd'rous guilt shows not itself more soon Than love that would seem hid: love's night is noon. Shakespeare: Twelfth Night. My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming; I love not less, though less the show appear; That love is merchandized, whose rich esteeming The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere. Shakespeare: Sonnets. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, O no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Shakespeare: Sonnets. Things base and vile, holding no quality, Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream. Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. It is to be all made of faith and service, It is to be all made of fantasy, All adoration, duty, and observance, All humbleness, all patience, and impatience, Shakespeare: As You Like It. Love endures no tie, And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury. Dryden: Palamon and Arcite. Love never fails to master what he finds, Dryden: Cymon and Iphigenia. Love is not to be reason'd down, or lost Addison: Cato. Let those love now, who never loved before, Why should we kill the best of passions, love? To nobler heights, inspires immortal deeds, Instruct me now what love will do; 'Twill make a tongueless man to woo. |