It was Autumn, and incessant Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves, And, like living coals, the apples Burned among the withering leaves.

Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals or forts.

Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather that its defects. The passions of men have made it malignant, as a bad heart of Procreates turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture.

Death is the chillness that precedes the dawn; We shudder for a moment, then awake In the broad sunshine of the other life.

When you ask one friend to dine, Give him your best wine! When you ask two, The second best will do!

Trust no future, however pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act -- act in the living Present! Heart within and God overhead.

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.