Anna Laetitia Barbauld Quotes

57 Sourced Quotes

We neither laugh alone, nor weep alone, why then should we pray alone?

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
But every act in consequence of our faith, strengthens faith.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.
At this still hour the self-collected soul
Turns inward, and beholds a stranger there
Of high descent, and more than mortal rank;
An embryo God; a spark of fire divine.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
The most characteristic mark of a great mind is to choose some one important object, and pursue it for life.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
With Thee in shady solitudes I walk,
With Thee in busy, crowded cities talk;
In every creature own Thy forming power,
In each event Thy providence adore.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Sweet daughter of a rough and stormy sire, hoar Winter's blooming child, delightful Spring.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
When trembling limbs refuse their weight,
And films, slow gathering, dim the sight,
And clouds obscure the mental light, —
'Tis nature's precious boon to die.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Young gentlemen, who are to display their knowledge to the world, should have every motive of emulation, should be formed into regular classes, should read and dispute together, should have all the honors, and, if one may say so, the pomp of learning set before them, to call up their ardor. It is their business, and they should apply to it as such.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Nobody ought to be too old to improve: I should be sorry if I was; and I flatter myself I have already improved considerably by my travels. First, I can swallow gruel soup, egg soup, and all manner of soups, without making faces much. Secondly, I can pretty well live without tea...

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
You, that have toiled during youth, to set your son upon higher ground, and to enable him to begin where you left off, do not expect that son to be what you were - diligent, modest, active, simple in his tastes, fertile in resources.... Poverty educated you; wealth will educate him. You cannot suppose the result will be the same.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
It is, in truth, the most absurd of all suppositions, that a human being can be educated, or even nourished and brought up, without imbibing numberless prejudices from every thing which passes around him.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Englishmen are said to love their laws; — that is the reason, I suppose, they give us so many of them, and in different editions.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Nature's sharpest pangs... free thee living from thy living tomb.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Time deals gently with me; and though I feel that I descend, the slope is easy...

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
With regard to the choice of friends, there is little to say; for a friend is never chosen. A secret sympathy, the attraction of a thousand nameless qualities, a charm in the expression of the countenance, even in the voice or manner, a similarity of circumstances, — these are the things that begin attachment.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Wisdom! I bless thy gentle sway, and ever, ever will obey.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs ;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Life! we've been long together
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
Tis hard to part when friends are dear,—
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear.
Then steal away, give little warning.
Choose thine own time,
Say not "Good-night," but in some brighter clime,
Bid me "Good-morning."

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
It would be difficult to determine whether the age is growing better or worse; for I think our plays are growing like sermons, and our sermons like plays.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
You speak of beginning the education of your son. The moment he was able to form an idea his education was already begun....

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
The best way for women to acquire knowledge is from conversation with a father, a brother, or a friend, in the way of family intercourse and easy conversation, and by such a course of reading as they may recommend.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
The awakenings of remorse, virtuous shame and indignation, the glow of moral approbation if they do not lead to action, grow less and less vivid every time they occur, till at length the mind grows absolutely callous.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
And when midst fallen London, they survey The stone where Alexander's ashes lay, Shall own with humbled pride the lesson must By Time's slow finger written in the dust.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Forgotten rimes, and college themes, Worm-eaten plans, and embryo schemes; A mass of heterogeneous matter. A chaos dark, nor land nor water.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things, of this world; not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Lo! the bright train their radiant wings unfold, With silver fring'd and freckl'd o'er with gold. On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower They idly fluttering live their little hour; Their life all pleasure, and their task all play, All spring their age, and sunshine all their day.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
While Genius was thus wasting his strength in eccentric flights, I saw a person of a very different appearance, named Application.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Society than solitude is worse, And man to man is still the greatest curse.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
What atom forms of insect life appear! And who can follow Nature's pencil here? Their wings with azure, green and purple gloss'd, Studded with color eyes, with gems embossed, Inlaid with pearl, and marked with various stains Of lovely crimson, through their dusky veins.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld