John Godfrey Saxe Quotes

24 Sourced Quotes

Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.
Often misattributed to Otto von Bismarck in the form: Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.

John Godfrey Saxe
I like the lad who, when his father thought
To clip his morning nap by hackneyed phrase
Of vagrant worm by early songster caught,
Cried, "Served him right! — it's not at all surprising;
The worm was punished, sir, for early rising!"

John Godfrey Saxe
I love vast libraries; yet there is a doubt, If one be better with them or without,-- Unless he use them wisely, and, indeed, Knows the high art of what and how to read.

John Godfrey Saxe
The wise may find in trifles light as atoms in the air, some useful lesson to enrich the mind.

John Godfrey Saxe
Old Care has a mortgage on every estate, And that's what you pay for the wealth that you get.

John Godfrey Saxe
The Poet's License! — 't is the right,
Within the rule of duty,
To look on all delightful things
Throughout the world of beauty. To gaze with rapture at the stars
That in the skies are glowing;
To see the gems of perfect dye
That in the woods are growing, —
And more than sage astronomer,
And more than learned florist,
To read the glorious homilies
Of Firmament and Forest.

John Godfrey Saxe
But blast the man, with curses loud and deep,
Whate'er the rascal's name, or age, or station,
Who first invented, and went round advising,
That artificial cut-off, — Early Rising!

John Godfrey Saxe
NAY, weep not, dearest, though the child be dead;
He lives again in Heaven's unclouded life,

John Godfrey Saxe
I'm growing fonder of my staff;
I'm growing dimmer in the eyes;
I'm growing fainter in my laugh;
I'm growing deeper in my sighs;
I'm growing careless of my dress;
I'm growing frugal of my gold;
I'm growing wise; I'm growing — yes, —
I'm growing old!

John Godfrey Saxe
What Lowely meant she didn't know
For she always avoided "everything low,"

John Godfrey Saxe
INGLORIOUS friend! most confident I am
Thy life is one of very little ease;
Albeit men mock thee with their similes
And prate of being "happy as a clam!"

John Godfrey Saxe
Don't use strong drink, — pray let me advise, —
It 's bad for the stomach, and ruins the eyes;

John Godfrey Saxe
I asked of Echo 't other day
(Whose words are few and often funny),
What to a novice she could say
Of courtship, love, and matrimony.
Quoth Echo, plainly, — "Matter-o'-money."

John Godfrey Saxe
He takes the strangest liberties —
But never takes his leave!

John Godfrey Saxe
At Learning's fountain it is sweet to drink,
But 'tis a nobler privilege to think.

John Godfrey Saxe
Young men! it 's a critical thing to go
Exactly right with a lady in tow;
But when you are in the proper track,
Just go ahead, and never look back!

John Godfrey Saxe
Again I hear the creaking step! —
He's rapping at the door! —
Too well I know the boding sound
That ushers in a bore.

John Godfrey Saxe
"God bless the man who first invented sleep!"
So Sancho Panza said, and so say I.

John Godfrey Saxe
A youth would marry a maiden,
For fair and fond was she;
But she was rich, and he was poor,
And so it might not be.

John Godfrey Saxe
In vain I speak of urgent tasks;
In vain I scowl and pout;
A frown is no extinguisher —
It does not put him out!

John Godfrey Saxe
When Nature gives a gorgeous rose,
Or yields the simplest fern,
She writes this motto on the leaves, —
"To whom it may concern!"
And so it is the poet comes
And revels in her bowers,
And, — though another hold the land,
Is owner of the flowers.

John Godfrey Saxe
It was six men of Hindustan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
Might satisfy the mind.

John Godfrey Saxe
And so these men of Hindustan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right
And all were in the wrong. So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

John Godfrey Saxe
A youth would marry a maiden,
For fair and fond was she;
But their sires disputed about the Mass,
And so it might not be.

John Godfrey Saxe