John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
George Meredith 1828-1909 John Bartlett
| 1 | |
| All wisdom’s armory this man could wield. | |
| The Sage enamored. | |
| 2 | |
| The actors are, it seems, the usual three: Husband and wife and lover. | |
| The Sage enamored. | |
| 3 | |
| How many a thing which we cast to the ground, When others pick it up, becomes a gem! 1 | |
| The Sage enamored. | |
| 4 | |
| First of earthly singers, the sun-loved rill. | |
| Phoebus with Admetus. | |
| 5 | |
| She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer, Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won. | |
| Love in the Valley. | |
| 6 | |
| But O the truth, the truth! the many eyes That look on it! the diverse things they see! | |
| A Ballad of fair Ladies in Revolt. | |
| 7 | |
| I’ve studied men from my topsy-turvy Close, and I reckon, rather true. Some are fine fellows: some, right scurvy; Most, a dash between the two. | |
| Juggling Jerry. | |
| 8 | |
| With patient inattention hear him prate. | |
| Bellerophon. | |
| 9 | |
| Darker grows the valley, more and more forgetting; So were it with me if forgetting could be willed. Tell the grassy hollow that holds the bubbling well-spring, Tell it to forget the source that keeps it filled. | |
| Love in the Valley. | |
| 10 | |
| God’s rarest blessing is, after all, a good woman. | |
| The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. | |
| 11 | |
| Perfect simplicity is unconsciously audacious. | |
| The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. | |
| 12 | |
| Ireland gives England her soldiers, her generals too. | |
| Diana of the Crossways. | |
| 13 | |
| There is nothing the body suffers that the soul may not profit by. | |
| Diana of the Crossways. | |
| 14 | |
| A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power. | |
| Diana of the Crossways. | |
| 15 | |
| The well of true wit is truth itself. | |
| Diana of the Crossways. |
| Note 1. Once in a golden hour I cast to earth a seed. Up there came a flower, The people said, a weed. Tennyson: The Flower. [back] |