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Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  George Meredith 1828-1909 John Bartlett

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

George Meredith 1828-1909 John Bartlett

 
1
    All wisdom’s armory this man could wield.
          The Sage enamored.
2
    The actors are, it seems, the usual three:
Husband and wife and lover.
          The Sage enamored.
3
    How many a thing which we cast to the ground,
When others pick it up, becomes a gem! 1 
          The Sage enamored.
4
    First of earthly singers, the sun-loved rill.
          Phoebus with Admetus.
5
    She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer,
Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won.
          Love in the Valley.
6
    But O the truth, the truth! the many eyes
That look on it! the diverse things they see!
          A Ballad of fair Ladies in Revolt.
7
    I’ve studied men from my topsy-turvy
  Close, and I reckon, rather true.
Some are fine fellows: some, right scurvy;
  Most, a dash between the two.
          Juggling Jerry.
8
    With patient inattention hear him prate.
          Bellerophon.
9
    Darker grows the valley, more and more forgetting;
So were it with me if forgetting could be willed.
Tell the grassy hollow that holds the bubbling well-spring,
Tell it to forget the source that keeps it filled.
          Love in the Valley.
10
    God’s rarest blessing is, after all, a good woman.
          The Ordeal of Richard Feverel.
  
  
  
11
    Perfect simplicity is unconsciously audacious.
          The Ordeal of Richard Feverel.
12
    Ireland gives England her soldiers, her generals too.
          Diana of the Crossways.
13
    There is nothing the body suffers that the soul may not profit by.
          Diana of the Crossways.
14
    A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.
          Diana of the Crossways.
15
    The well of true wit is truth itself.
          Diana of the Crossways.
 
Note 1.
Once in a golden hour
  I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
  The people said, a weed. Tennyson: The Flower. [back]