George Crabbe Quotes

66 Sourced Quotes

Dreams are like portraits; and we find they please because they are confessed resemblances.

George Crabbe
Oh! 'tis a precious thing, when wives are dead, To find such numbers who will serve instead: And in whatever state a man be thrown, 'Tis that precisely they would wish their own.

George Crabbe
Ease leads to habit, as success to ease.
He lives by rule who lives himself to please.

George Crabbe
To show the world what long experience gains, requires not courage, though it calls for pains; but at life's outset to inform mankind is a bold effort of a valiant mind.

George Crabbe
Blest be the gracious Power, who taught mankind
To stamp a lasting image of the mind!
Beasts may convey, and tuneful birds may sing,
Their mutual feelings, in the opening spring;
But Man alone has skill and power to send
The heart's warm dictates to the distant friend;
'Tis his alone to please, instruct, advise
Ages remote, and nations yet to rise.

George Crabbe
Lo! the poor toper whose untutored sense,
Sees bliss in ale, and can with wine dispense;
Whose head proud fancy never taught to steer,
Beyond the muddy ecstasies of beer.

George Crabbe
Where Plenty smiles - alas! she smiles for few,
And those who taste not, yet behold her store,
Are as the slaves that dig the golden ore,
The wealth around them makes them doubly poor.

George Crabbe
Shall he who soars, inspired by loftier views,
Life's little cares and little pains refuse?
Shall he not rather feel a double share
Of mortal woe, when doubly arm'd to bear?

George Crabbe
Our farmers round, well pleased with constant gain,
Like other farmers, flourish and complain.

George Crabbe
I hear those voices that will not be drowned calling.

George Crabbe
With awe, around these silent walks I tread;
These are the lasting mansions of the dead.

George Crabbe
I paint the cot,
As truth will paint it, and as bards will not.

George Crabbe
'What is a church?'—Our honest sexton tells,
''Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.'

George Crabbe
One was a female, who had grievous ill
Wrought in revenge, and she enjoy'd it still…
Sullen she was, and threatening; in her eye
Glared the stern triumph that she dared to die.

George Crabbe
But 'twas a maxim he had often tried,
That right was right, and there he would abide.

George Crabbe
Her air, her manners, all who saw admir'd;
Courteous though coy, and gentle though retir'd;
The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd,
And ease of heart her every look convey'd.

George Crabbe
Books cannot always please, however good;
Minds are not ever craving for their food.

George Crabbe
Feel you the barren flattery of a rhyme?
Can poets soothe you, when you pine for bread,
By winding myrtle round your ruin'd shed?

George Crabbe
Secrets with girls, like loaded guns with boys,
Are never valued till they make a noise.

George Crabbe
Deceivers are the most dangerous members of society. They trifle with the best affections of our nature, and violate the most sacred obligations.

George Crabbe
Oh, rather give me commentators plain,
Who with no deep researches vex the brain;
Who from the dark and doubtful love to run,
And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.

George Crabbe
The ring, so worn as you behold,
So thin, so pale, is yet of gold.

George Crabbe
I grant indeed that fields and flocks have charms,
For him that gazes or for him that farms.

George Crabbe
Virtues neglected then, adored become,
And graces slighted, blossom on the tomb.

George Crabbe
And need and misery, vice and danger bind
In sad alliance each degraded mind.

George Crabbe
A potent quack, long versed in human ills,
Who first insults the victim whom he kills;
Whose murd'rous hand a drowsy bench protect,
And whose most tender mercy is neglect.

George Crabbe
There anchoring, Peter chose from man to hide,
There hang his head, and view the lazy tide
In its hot slimy channel slowly glide;
Where the small eels that left the deeper way
For the warm shore, within the shallows play.

George Crabbe
Hence, in these times, untouch'd the pages lie, And slumber out their immortality.

George Crabbe
Who calls a lawyer rogue, may find, too late
Upon one of these depends his whole estate.

George Crabbe
At certain stations he would view the stream, As if he stood bewildered in a dream, Or that some power had chained him for a time, To feel a curse or meditate on crime.

George Crabbe