Martin Farquhar Tupper Quotes

Deep is the sea, and deep is hell, but pride mineth deeper; it is coiled as a poisonous worm about the foundations of the soul.

Blunted unto goodness is the heart which anger never stirreth, but that which hatred swelleth, is keen to carve out evil.

Knowledge is leagued with the universe, and findeth a friend in all things; but ignorance is everywhere a stranger, unwelcome; ill at ease and out of place.

It is well to lie fallow for a while.

Anger is a noble infirmity; the generous failing of the just; the one degree that riseth above zeal, asserting the prerogative of virtue.

How beautiful is modesty! It winneth upon all beholders; but a word or a glance may destroy the pure love that should have been for thee.

Pain adds rest unto pleasure, and teaches the luxury of health.

Lies can destroy, but not create.

Naples sitteth by the sea, keystone of an arch of azure.

Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil.

Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.

Nature is the chart of God, mapping out all His attributes.

Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume.

Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the building up of character.

Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man.

Humility mainly becometh the converse of man with his Maker.

Speech is the golden harvest that followeth the flowering of thought.

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.

Hatred is the atmosphere of hell.

Every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man.

Never give up! If adversity presses, Providence wisely has mingled the cup, And the best counsel, in all your distresses, Is the stout watchword of "Never give up."

It is the cringer to his equal that is chiefly seen bold to his God.

One single glance will conquer all descriptions.

The most wretched have yet hope.

As frost to the bud, and blight to the blossom, even such is self-interest to friendship; for confidence cannot dwell where selfishness is porter at the gate.

A spark is a molecule of matter, yet may it kindle the world; vast is the mighty ocean, but drops have made it vast. Despise not thou small things, either for evil or for good; for a look may work thy ruin, or a word create thy wealth.

Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion; a sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes.

Love with life is heaven; and life, unloving, hell.

Happiness is a roadside flower growing on the highways of usefulness; plucked, it shall wither in thy hand; passed by, it is fragrance to thy spirit. Trample the thyme beneath thy feet; be useful, be happy.

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

Reason refuseth its homage to a God who can be fully understood.

Betray mean terror of ridicule, thou shalt find fools enough to mock thee; but answer thou their language with contempt, and the scoffers will lick thy feet.

Take the good with the evil, for ye all are pensioners of God, and none may choose or refuse the cup His wisdom mixeth.

Better is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the right with falsehood.

The mines of knowledge are often laid bare by the hazel-wand of chance.

Yet is beauty the pleasing trickery that cheateth half the world.

When thou choosest a wife, think not only of thyself, but of those God may give thee of her, that they reproach thee not for their being.

Faith may rise into miracles of might, as some few wise men have shown; faith may sink into credulities of weakness, as the mass of fools have witnessed.

Extravagance is the rich man's pitfall.

As thou directest the power, harm or advantage will follow, and the torrent that swept the valley may be led to turn a mill.

Be understood in thy teaching, and instruct to this measure of capacity; precepts and rules are repulsive to a child, but happy illustration winneth him.

He who commits a wrong will himself inevitably see the writing on the wall, though the world may not count him guilty.

Men scanning the surface count the wicked happy; they see not the frightful dreams that crowd a bad man's pillow.

O Death, what are thou? nurse of dreamless slumbers freshening the fevered flesh to a wakefulness eternal.

Love is the weapon which Omnipotence reserved to conquer rebel man when all the rest had failed. Reason he parries; fear he answers blow for blow; future interest he meets with present pleasure; but love, that sun against whose melting beams the winter cannot stand--that soft subliming slumber which wrestles down the giant, there is not one human being in a million, nor a thousand men in all earth's huge quintillion, whose clay heart is hardened against love.

Mind is a kingdom to the man who gathereth his pleasure from ideas.

If wealth come, beware of him, the smooth, false friend! There is treachery in his proffered hand; his tongue is eloquent to tempt; lust of many harms is lurking in his eye; he hath a hollow heart; use him cautiously.

A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men.