Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Visions
Circa beatitudinem perfectam, quæ in Dei visione consistit.
Concerning perfect blessedness which consists in a vision of God.
Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologie. Probably the origin of the phrase “beatific vision.”
And like a passing thought, she fled
In light away.
Burns—The Vision. Last lines.
The people’s prayer, the glad diviner’s theme!
The young men’s vision, and the old men’s dream!
Dryden—Absalom and Achitophel. Pt. I. L. 238.
So little distant dangers seem:
So we mistake the future’s face,
Ey’d thro’ Hope’s deluding glass;
As yon summits soft and fair,
Clad in colours of the air,
Which to those who journey near,
Barren, brown, and rough appear.
Dyer—Gronger Hill. L. 884.
Visions of glory, spare my aching sight!
Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul.
Gray—The Bard. III. 1. L. 11.
I wonder if ever a song was sung but the singer’s heart sang sweeter!
I wonder if ever a rhyme was rung but the thought surpassed the meter!
I wonder if ever a sculptor wrought till the cold stone echoed his ardent thought!
Or, if ever a painter with light and shade the dream of his inmost heart portrayed!
James C. Harvey—Incompleteness.
I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes.
Hosea. XII. 10.
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel, writing in a book of gold;
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said—
“What writest thou?” The Vision raised its head,
And, with a look made all of sweet accord,
Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”
Leigh Hunt—Abou Ben Adhem and the Angel.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
Joel. II. 28. Acts. II. 17.
It is a dream, sweet child! a waking dream,
A blissful certainty, a vision bright,
Of that rare happiness, which even on earth
Heaven gives to those it loves.
Longfellow—Spanish Student. Act III. Sc. 5.
An angel stood and met my gaze,
Through the low doorway of my tent;
The tent is struck, the vision stays;
I only know she came and went.
Lowell—She Came and Went.
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 628.
O visions ill foreseen! Better had I
Liv’d ignorant of future, so had borne
My part of evil only.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. XI. L. 763.
My thoughts by night are often filled
With visions false as fair:
For in the past alone, I build
My castles in the air.
Thos. Love Peacock—Castles in the Air. St. 1.
Hence the fool’s paradise, the statesman’s scheme,
The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
The maid’s romantic wish, the chemist’s flame,
And poet’s vision of eternal fame.
Pope—Dunciad. Bk. III. L. 9.
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Proverbs. XXIX. 18.
Hence, dear delusion, sweet enchantment hence!
Horace and James Smith—Rejected Addresses. An Address without a Phœnix. By “S.T.P.” (Not an imitation. Initials used to puzzle critics.)
Our revels now are ended. These, our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.
Tempest. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 148.
But shapes that come not at an earthly call,
Will not depart when mortal voices bid.
Wordsworth—Dion. V.
Fond man! the vision of a moment made!
Dream of a dream! and shadow of a shade!
Young—Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job. L. 187. Shadow of a shade is found in the prologue of Nobody and Somebody, a play acted by the servants of Queen Elizabeth. Not the shadow of the shade of history said by Paul Bourget—On Cœur de Femme. P. 186. (Ed. 1890).