Nathaniel Parker Willis Quotes

Nathaniel Parker Willis offers lyrical musings that celebrate simple joys and social quirks, perfect for anyone craving gentle optimism.

18 quotes

  1. At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.

  2. For it stirs the blood in an old man's heart, And makes his pulses fly, To catch the thrill of a happy voice And the light of a pleasant eye.

  3. It is the month of June, The month of leaves and roses, When pleasant sights salute the eyes, And pleasant scents the noses.

  4. Let us weep in our darkness, but weep not for him! Not for him who, departing, leaves millions in tears! Not for him who has died full of honor and years! Not for him who ascended Fame's ladder so high: From the round at the top he has stepped to the sky.

  5. Wisdom sits alone Topmost in Heaven.

  6. The sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven By man is cursed alway.

  7. Pitch a lucky man into the Nile, says the Arabian proverb, and he will come up with a fish in his mouth!

  8. I love to go and mingle with the young In the gay festal room--when every heart Is beating faster than the merry tune, And their blue eyes are restless, and their lips Parted with eager joy, and their round cheeks Flush'd with the beautiful motion of the dance.

  9. The rain is playing its soft pleasant tune fitfully on the skylight, and the shade of the fast-flying clouds across my book passed with delicate change.

  10. The taste forever refines in the study of women.

  11. Your love in a cottage is hungry, Your vine is a nest for flies- Your milkmaid shocks the Graces, And simplicity talks of pies! You lie down to your shady slumber And wake with a bug in your ear, And your damsel that walks in the morning Is shod like a mountaineer.

  12. The innocence that feels no risk and is taught no caution, is more vulnerable than guilt, and oftener assailed.

  13. How beautiful it is for a man to die Upon the walls of Zion! to be called Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel, To put his armour off, and rest in heaven!

  14. One gets, sensitive about losing mornings after getting a little used to them with living in a country. Each one of these endlessly varied daybreaks is an opera but once performed.

  15. If e'er I win a parting token, 'Tis something that has lost its power-- A chain that has been used and broken, A ruin'd glove, a faded flower; Something that makes my pleasure less, Something that means--forgetfulness.

  16. The expressive word "quiet" defines the dress, manners, bow, and even physiognomy of every true denizen of St. James and Bond street.

  17. Fine taste is an aspect of genius itself, and is the faculty of delicate appreciation, which makes the best effects of art our own.

  18. Ah me! the world is full of meetings such as this,--a thrill, a voiceless challenge and reply, and sudden partings after!