Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about James Thomson
James Thomson (poet) Quotes
52 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven,
When drooping health and spirits go amiss?
How tasteless then whatever can be given!
Health is the vital principle of bliss,
And exercise, of health.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?
James Thomson
Source
Report...
But who can paint
Like Nature? Can imagination boast,
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?
James Thomson
Source
Report...
When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung this strain:
'Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.'
James Thomson
Source
Report...
A bard here dwelt, more fat than bard becomes
Who void of envy, guile and lust of gain,
On virtue still and nature's pleasing themes
Poured forth his unpremeditated strain.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
There studious let me sit,
And hold high converse with the mighty dead.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
The daisy, primrose, violet, darkly blue,
And polyanthus of unnumbered dyes;
The yellow wall-flower, stained with iron brown;
And lavish stock that scents the garden round.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
Nature!... Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works; Snatch me to Heaven.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
Ten thousand great ideas filled his mind; But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace behind.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
And fierce Aquarius stains th' inverted year.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
The swallow is come! The swallow is come! O, fair are the seasons, and light Are the days that she brings, With her dusky wings, And her bosom snowy white.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
The stately-sailing swan Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale; And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier isle, Protective of his young.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
By the blended power Of gravitation and projection, saw The whole in silent harmony revolve. And ruled unerring by that single power Which draws the stone projected to the ground.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
With what an awful, world-revolving power, Were first the unwieldy planets launched along The illimitable void! There to remain Amidst the flux of many thousand years, That oft has swept the toiling race of men, And all their labored monuments, away.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
Base Envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove
An unrelenting foe to love,
And, when we meet a mutual heart,
Come in between and bid us part?
James Thomson
Source
Report...
The best of men have ever loved repose:
They hate to mingle in the filthy fray;
Where the soul sours, and gradual rancour grows,
Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
But yonder comes the powerful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
Come then, expressive silence, muse His praise.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
Tutor'd by thee, hence Poetry exalts
Her voice to ages; and informs the page
With music, image, sentiment, and thought,
Never to die! the treasure of mankind!
Their highest honour, and their truest joy!
James Thomson
Source
Report...
So stands the statue that enchants the world,
So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
These as they change, Almighty Father! these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
Or where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls,
Boils round the naked melancholy isles
Of farthest Thulè, and th' Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.
James Thomson
Source
Report...
A pleasing land of drowsyhed it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
Forever flushing round a summer sky:
There eke the soft delights that witchingly
Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast,
And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh;
But whate'er smack'd of noyance or unrest
Was far, far off expell'd from this delicious nest.
James Thomson
1
2
3
Quote of the day
Guilt is anger directed at ourselves - at what we did or did not do. Resentment is anger directed at others - at what they did or did not do.
Peter McWilliams
James Thomson
Creative Commons
Born:
September 11, 1700
Died:
August 27, 1748
(aged 47)
Bio:
James Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his masterpiece The Seasons and the lyrics of "Rule, Britannia!".
Known for:
The Castle of Indolence (1748)
Modern Course for the Piano
Accounting: What the Numbers Mean
Most used words:
day
round
health
virtue
god
nature
eye
labour
James Thomson on Wikipedia
James Thomson works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
James Thomson Quotes
James Thomson Short Quotes
Scottish Poet Quotes
Poet Quotes
18th-century Poet Quotes
Related People
William Shakespeare
English Playwright
Thomas Gray
English Historian
William Cowper
English Poet
Disambiguation
James Thomson (B.V.)
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes