Best 87 quotes of Alexander Smith on MyQuotes

A bottomless pit of violence, a Tower of Babel where all are speakers and no hearers.

A brave soul is a thing which all things serve.

A man can bear a world's contempt when he has that within which says he's worthy. When he contemns himself, there burns the hell.

A man does not plant a tree for himself; he plants it for posterity.

A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.

And in any case, to the old man, when the world becomes trite, the triteness arises not so much from a cessation as from a transference of interest. What is taken from this world is given to the next. The glory is in the east in the morning, it is in the west in the afternoon, and when it is dark the splendour is irradiating the realm of the under-world. He would only follow.

An old novel has a history of its own.

A poem round and perfect as a star.

A single soul is richer than all the worlds.

A tender sadness drops upon my soul, like the soft twilight dropping on the world.

A thought may be very commendable as a thought, but I value it chiefly as a window through which I can obtain insight on the thinker.

Christmas is the day that holds all time together.

Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well.

Death, which we are accustomed to consider an evil, really acts for us the friendliest part, and takes away the commonplace of existence.

Each time we love,We turn a nearer and a broader markTo that keen archer, Sorrow, and he strikes.

Eternity doth wear upon her face the veil of time. They only see the veil, and thus they know not what they stand so near!

Every man's road in life is marked by the grave of his personal likings.

Fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the melancholy blazon on a coffin lid.

Fine phrases I value more than bank-notes. I have ear for no other harmony than the harmony of words. To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for.

God has thickly strewn infinity with grandeur.

Good-humor and, generosity carry day with the popular heart all the world over.

Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse. If we attempt to steal a glimpse of its features it disappears.

How beautiful the yesterday that stood Over me like a rainbow! I am alone, The past is past. I see the future stretch All dark and barren as a rainy sea.

How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens and gardening.

If the egotist is weak, his egotism is worthless. If the egotist is strong, acute, full of distinctive character, his egotism is precious, and remains a possession of the race.

If we were to live here always, with no other care than how to feed, clothe, and house ourselves, life would be a very sorry business. It is immeasurably heightened by the solemnity of death.

If you do your fair day's work, you are certain to get your fair day's wage - in praise or pudding, whichever happens to suit your taste.

If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death.

If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness.

I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.

I go into my library, and all history unrolls before me. I breathe the morning air of the world while the scent of Eden's roses yet lingered in it, while it vibrated only to the world's first brood of nightingales, and to the laugh of Eve. I see the pyramids building; I hear the shoutings of the armies of Alexander.

I have learned to prize the quiet, lightning deed, not the applauding thunder at its heels that men call fame.

In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place today, it is vain to seek it there tomorrow. You can not lay a trap for it.

In my garden, care stops at the gate and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.

In my garden I spend my days; in my library I spend my nights.

In my garden I spend my days, in my library I spend my nights. My interests are divided between my geraniums and my books. With the flower I am in the present; with the book I am in the past.

In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October.

In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October, when the trees are bare to the mild heavens, and the red leaves bestrew the road, and you can feel the breath of winter, morning and evening - no days so calm, so tenderly solemn, and with such a reverent meekness in the air.

In winter, when the dismal rain Comes down in slanting lines, And Wind, that grand old harper, smote His thunder-harp of pines.

It is a characteristic of pleasure that we can never recognize it to be pleasure till after it is gone.

It is the sternest philosophy, but on the whole the truest, that, in the wide arena of the world, failure and success are not accidents, as we so frequently suppose, but the strictest justice.

I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.

Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.

Men praise poverty, as the African worships Mumbo Jumbo--from terror of the malign power, and a desire to propitiate at.

My friend is not perfect-no more than I am-and so we suit each other admirable.

My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.

My heart like moon-charmed waters, all unrest.

Nature never quite goes along with us. She is somber at weddings, sunny at funerals, and she frowns on ninety-nine out of a hundred picnics.

Not on the stage alone, in the world also, a man's real character comes out best in his asides.