John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 711
| Robert Browning. (1812–1889) (continued) |
| 7124 |
| Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone, Not God’s, and not the beasts’: God is, they are; Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be. |
| A Death in the Desert. |
| 7125 |
| The ultimate, angels’ law, Indulging every instinct of the soul There where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing! |
| A Death in the Desert. |
| 7126 |
| How sad and bad and mad it was! 1 But then, how it was sweet! |
| Confessions. ix. |
| 7127 |
| So may a glory from defect arise. |
| Deaf and Dumb. |
| 7128 |
| This could but have happened once,— And we missed it, lost it forever. |
| Youth and Art. xvii. |
| 7129 |
| Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat, The mist in my face. . . . . . . . No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, The heroes of old; Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life’s arrears Of pain, darkness, and cold. |
| Prospice. |
| 7130 |
| It’s wiser being good than bad; It’s safer being meek than fierce; It’s fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That after Last returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched; That what began best can’t end worst, Nor what God blessed once prove accurst. |
| Apparent Failure. vii. |
| Note 1. A. C. Swinburne: A Ballad of François Villon; Villon, our sad bad glad mad brother’s name. [back] |