Thomas Noon Talfourd Quotes

Thomas Noon Talfourd presents grand, argumentative ideas about justice and human frailty.

10 quotes

1. So his life has flowed From its mysterious urn a sacred stream, In whose calm depth the beautiful and pure Alone are mirrored; which, though shapes of ill May hover round its surface, glides in light, And takes no shadow from them.

2. 'T is a little thing To give a cup of water; yet its draught Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips, May give a shock of pleasure to the frame More exquisite than when nectarean juice Renews the life of joy in happiest hours.

3. Fill the seats of justice With good men, not so absolute in goodness As to forget what human frailty is.

4. In ourselves In our own honest hearts and chainless hands Will be our safeguard:

5. Nevermore Let the great interests of the State depend Upon the thousand chances that may sway A piece of human frailty; swear to me That ye will seek hereafter in yourselves The means of sovereignty.

6. Sympathy is the first great lesson which man should learn. It will be ill for him if he proceeds no farther; if his emotions are but excited to roll back on his heart, and to be fostered in luxurious quiet. But unless he learns to feel for things in which he has no personal interest, he can achieve nothing generous or noble.

7. It is a little thing to speak a phrase of common comfort, which by daily use has almost lost its sense; yet on the ear of him who thought to die unmourned it will fall like choicest music.

8. To him who has thought, or done, or suffered much, the level days of his childhood seem at an immeasureable distance, far off as the age of chivalry, or as the line of Sesostris.

9. Gentleman is a term which does not apply to any station, but to the mind and the feelings in every station.

10. The mysteries of Nature and of humanity are not lessened, but increased, by the discoveries of philosophic skill.