John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 954
| Omar Khayyam. (fl. 11th cent.) |
| 9193 |
| I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head. |
| Rubáiyát. Stanza xix. |
| 9194 |
| A Moment’s Halt—a momentary taste Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste— And, Lo! the phantom Caravan has reach’d The NOTHING it set out from. Oh, make haste! |
| Rubáiyát. Stanza xlviii. |
| 9195 |
| Heav’n but the Vision of fulfill’d Desire, And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire. |
| Rubáiyát. Stanza lxvii. |
| 9196 |
| The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. |
| Rubáiyát. Stanza lxxi. |
| 9197 |
| And this I know: whether the one True Light Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite, One Flash of It within the Tavern caught Better than in the Temple lost outright. |
| Rubáiyát. Stanza lxxvii. |
| 9198 |
| And when like her, O Sáki, you shall pass Among the Guests Star-scatter’d on the Grass, And in your blissful errand reach the spot Where I made One—turn down an empty Glass. |
| Rubáiyát. Stanza ci. |
| Alfonso X (the Wise). (1221–1284) |
| 9199 |
| Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe. 1 |
| Note 1. Carlyle says, in his “History of Frederick the Great,” book ii. chap. vii. that this saying of Alphonso about Ptolemy’s astronomy, “that it seemed a crank machine; that it was pity the Creator had not taken advice,” is still remembered by mankind,—this and no other of his many sayings. [back] |