H.P. Oliver Quotes
A flattering painter, who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.
Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity.
In two opposite opinions, if one be perfectly reasonable, the other can't be perfectly right.
I have always been quite careful when I have been approached to do a television project to have the option of writing the accompanying book.
Every morning I walk like this around the pond, thinking: if the doors of my heart ever close, I am as good as dead.
For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.
What misery to be afraid of death. What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.
Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry.
The worst of a modern stylish mansion is that it has no place for ghosts.
I can't say whether we had more wit among us now than usual, but I am certain we had more laughing, which answered the end as well.
I worked privately, and sometimes I feel that might be better for poets than the kind of social workshop gathering. My school was the great poets: I read, and I read, and I read.
I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write.
Why should I not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside, looking into the shining world?
Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.
My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work.
Poetry is one of the original arts, and it began, as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth.
With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.
To the last moment of his breath, On hope the wretch relies; And even the pang preceding death Bids expectation rise.
Alas! the joys that fortune brings Are trifling, and decay, And those who prize the trifling things, More trifling still than they.
Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend, And round his dwelling guardian saints attend.
As in some Irish houses, where things are so-so, One gammon of bacon hangs up for a show; But, for eating a rasher of what they take pride in, They'd as soon think of eating the pan it is fried in.
I think one thing is that prayer has become more useful, interesting, fruitful, and... almost involuntary in my life.
A dog is adorable and noble, a dog is a true and loving friend. A dog is also a hedonist.
Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these trifles become at last their most serious concerns.
There are many women in their late teens and early twenties who have either experienced violence in a relationship or have witnessed it at home in their childhood.
So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, But bind him to his native mountains more.
The noblest service comes from nameless hands; and the best servant does his work unseen.
While Resignation gently slopes away, And all his prospects brightening to the last, His heaven commences ere the world be past.
Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth: If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.
Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.
Americans must either choose big government and be willing to pay for and submit to it, or they must move toward smaller, less intrusive government and be willing to enjoy fewer government programs.
To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art.
