Edward FitzGerald Quotes

35 Sourced Quotes

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

Edward FitzGerald
Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp Abode his destin'd Hour, and went his way.

Edward FitzGerald
Alas, that spring should vanish with the rose!
That youth's sweet-scented manuscript should close!

Edward FitzGerald
Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door wherein I went.

Edward FitzGerald
Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane.

Edward FitzGerald
Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears Today of past Regrets and future Fears: Tomorrow! —Why, Tomorrow I may be Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years.

Edward FitzGerald
Having seen how many follow and have followed false religions, and having our reason utterly against many of the principal points of the Bible, we require the most perfect evidence of facts, before we can believe. If you can prove to me that one miracle took place, I will believe that he is a just God who damned us all because a woman ate an apple; and you can't expect greater complaisance than that to be sure.

Edward FitzGerald
Dust into dust, and under dust, to lie,
Sans wine, sans song, sans singer, and—sans End!

Edward FitzGerald
Awake! for Morning in the bowl of night
Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's turret in a noose of light.

Edward FitzGerald
The King in a carriage may ride,
And the Beggar may crawl at his side;
But in the general race,
They are traveling all the same pace.

Edward FitzGerald
And when Thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the guests star-scattered on the grass,
And in thy joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one—turn down an empty glass!

Edward FitzGerald
The ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But here or there as strikes the player goes;
And he that tossed you down into the field,
He knows about it all—he knows—he knows!

Edward FitzGerald
I often wonder what the Vintners buy
One half so precious as the Goods they sell.

Edward FitzGerald
One thing is certain, and the rest is lies;
The flower that once hath blown for ever dies.

Edward FitzGerald
Mrs Browning's death is rather a relief to me, I must say: no more Aurora Leighs, thank God! A woman of real genius, I know; but what is the upshot of it all? She and her sex had better mind the kitchen and their children; and perhaps the poor: except in such things as little novels, they only devote themselves to what men do much better, leaving that which men do worse or not at all.

Edward FitzGerald
'Tis all a Checkerboard of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays.

Edward FitzGerald
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!

Edward FitzGerald
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The rose as where some buried Caesar bled.

Edward FitzGerald
Mrs. Browning's death was rather a relief to me, I must say; no more Aurora Leighs, thank God!

Edward FitzGerald
Science unrolls a greater epic than the Iliad. The present day teems with new discoveries in Fact, which are greater, as regards the soul and prospect of men, than all the disquisitions and quiddities of the Schoolmen. A few fossil bones in clay and limestone have opened a greater vista back into time than the Indian imagination ventured upon for its Gods: and every day turns up something new. This vision of Time must not only wither the poet's hope of immortality, it is in itself more wonderful than all the conceptions of Dante and Milton.

Edward FitzGerald
Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough,
A flask of wine, a book of verse—and Thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness—
And wilderness is paradise enow.

Edward FitzGerald
Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this Sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would not we shatter it to bits — and then Remold it nearer to the Heart's Desire!

Edward FitzGerald
Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say;
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?

Edward FitzGerald
Leave well — even 'pretty well' — alone: that is what I learn as I get old.

Edward FitzGerald
They sneer at me for leaning all awry;
What! did the hand then of the potter shake?

Edward FitzGerald
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring The Winter garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.

Edward FitzGerald
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep: And Bahram, that great Hunter—the Wild Ass Stamps o'er his Head, but cannot break his sleep.

Edward FitzGerald
Ah, Love! could you and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits — and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!

Edward FitzGerald
For I remember stopping by the way To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay: And with its all-obliterated Tongue It murmured — "Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"

Edward FitzGerald
Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time.

Edward FitzGerald