John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Philip James Bailey 1816-1905 John Bartlett
| 1 |
| Evil and good are God’s right hand and left. |
| Festus. Proem. |
| 2 |
| Art is man’s nature; nature is God’s art. |
| Festus. Proem. |
| 3 |
| Let each man think himself an act of God, His mind a thought, his life a breath of God; And let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds, To show the most of Heaven he hath in him. |
| Festus. Proem. |
| 4 |
| Men might be better if we better deemed Of them. The worst way to improve the world Is to condemn it. |
| Festus. Scene iv. A Mountain. Sunrise. 1 |
| 5 |
| 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 v. A Country Town. |
| 6 |
| Who never doubted never half believed 2 Where doubt there truth is—’t is her shadow. |
| Festus. Scene v. A Country Town. |
| 7 |
| America thou half-brother of the world! With something good and bad of every land. |
| Festus. Scene x. Earth’s Surface. |
| 8 |
| Music tells no truths. |
| Festus. Scene xi. A Village Feast. 3 |
| 9 |
| Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, And tell them; and the truth of truths is love. |
| Festus. Scene xvi. The Hesperian Sphere. |
| Note 1. J. R. Lowell: Biglow Papers, II, ii. St. 9. The surest plan to make a man Is to think him so. [back] |
| Note 2. Tennyson: There lives more faith in honest doubt Believe me, than in half the creeds. [back] |
| Note 3. Browning: Charles Avison, page 714. [back] |