Philip James Bailey quotes
Philip James Bailey (1816–1902): British writer and poet. The library holds 50 quotes by Philip James Bailey, drawn from Festus, Festus: Proem, Scene, Another and a Better World and other works. The 50 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, love, art, grief, nature
The best-known Philip James Bailey quotes
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Life’s but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
Festus -
Simplicity is Nature’s first step, and the last of art.
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Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, And tell them; and the truth of truths is love.
Scene, Another and a Better World -
America! half-brother of the world! With something good and bad of every land.
Scene, The Surface -
Grief hallows hearts, even while it ages heads.
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They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.
Festus, Sc. Home -
He who has most of heart knows most of sorrow.
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Application is the price to be paid for mental acquisition. To have the harvest we must sow the seed.
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The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self. All sin is easy after that.
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It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind, that application is the price to be paid for mental acquisitions, and that it is as absurd to expect them without it, as to hope for a harvest where we have not sown the seed.
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Lowliness is the base of every virtue, and he who goes the lowest builds the safest.
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Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, and tell them.
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The sun! God’s crest upon his azure shield, the heavens.
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Christ—the one great word Well worth all languages in earth or Heaven.
Festus, Sc. Heaven -
The hero is the world-man, in whose heart One passion stands for all, the most indulged.
Festus: Proem -
Let every thought too, soldier-like, be stripped, And roughly looked over.
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The beautiful are never desolate; But some one always loves them—God or man. If man abandons, God himself takes them.
Festus: Sc. Water and Wood -
Mist of words, Like halos round the moon, though they enlarge The seeming size of thoughts, make the light less doubly.
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Man is a military animal, Glories in gunpowder and loves parade.
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Worthy books are not companions—they are solitudes: We lose ourselves in them and all our cares.
Festus: Sc. A Village Feast. Evening -
Words are like sea-shells on the shore; they show Where the mind ends, and not how far it has been.
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We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, Acts the best.
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The dress of words, Like to the Roman girl’s enticing garb, Should let the play of limb be seen through it, And the round rising form.
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The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love; The taint of earth, the odor of the skies Is in it.
Festus, Sc. Alcove, and Garden -
Man is but half without woman; and As do idolaters their heavenly gods, We deify the things that we adore.
Festus -
He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
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Blessings star forth forever; but a curse Is like a cloud—it passes.
Festus: Sc. Hades -
Dewdrops, Nature’s tears, which she Sheds in her own breast for the fair which die. The sun insists on gladness; but at night, When he is gone, poor Nature loves to weep.
Festus: Sc. Water and Wood. Midnight -
When night hath set her silver lamp on high, Then is the time for study.
Festus, Sc. A Village Feast -
Who never doubted, never half believed, Where doubt there truth is—’tis her shadow.
Festus: Sc. A Country Town -
America! half brother of the world! With something good and bad of every land; Greater than thee have lost their seat—Greater scarce none can stand.
Festus, Sc. The Surface -
Words are the motes of thought, and nothing more.
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England! my country, great and free! Heart of the world, I leap to thee!
Festus: Sc. The Surface -
We live in deeds, not years; in thought, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives, Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
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We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
(?) -
Poetry is itself a thing of God; He made his prophets poets; and the more We feel of poesie do we become Like God in love and power.—under-makers.
Festus: Proem -
What men call accident is God’s own part.
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I cannot be content with less than heaven.
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If all were rich, gold would be penniless.
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The worst men often give the best advice.
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Who never doubted never half believed.
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Lips like rosebuds peeping out of snow.
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Nothing comes to us too soon but sorrow.
Festus, Sc. Home -
Earth’s liquid jewelry, wrought of air.
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Man is one, and he hath one great heart.
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Error is worse than ignorance.
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We leave our home in youth—no matter to what end—Study—or strife—or pleasure, or what not; And coming back in few short years, we find All as we left it outside: the old elms, The house, the grass, gates, and latchet’s self-same click: But, lift that latchet,—Alas! all is changed as doom.
Festus -
God’s love seemed lost upon him.
Festus, Sc. Heaven -
Imagination is the air of mind.
Festus, Sc. Another and a Better World -
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life’s but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things,—God.
Festus, Scene, A Country Town
Where these quotes come from
- Festus (18 quotes)
- Festus: Proem (2 quotes)
- Scene, Another and a Better World (1 quote)
- Scene, The Surface (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .