Joanna Baillie Quotes

I am as one
Who doth attempt some lofty mountain's height,
And having gained what to the upcast eye
The summit's point appear'd, astonished sees
Its cloudy top, majestic and enlarged,
Towering aloft, as distant as before.

The bliss even of a moment still is bliss.

I have seen the day, when, if a man made himself ridiculous, the world would laugh at him. But now, everything that is mean, disgusting, and absurd, pleases them but so much the better!

Good-morrow to thy sable beak, And glossy plumage, dark and sleek, Thy crimson moon and azure eye

The plainest case in many words entangling.

This will be triumph! This will be happiness! Yea, that very thing, happiness, which I have been pursuing all my life, and have never yet overtaken.

Words of affection, howsoe'er expressed, The latest spoken still are deem'd the best.

The strength of man sinks in the hour of trial; but there doth live a Power that to the battle girdeth the weak.

My day is closed! the gloom of night is come! a hopeless darkness settles over my fate.

I wish I were with some of the wild people that run in the woods, and know nothing about accomplishments!

It ever is the marked propensity of restless and aspiring minds to look into the stretch of dark futurity.

Think'st thou there are no serpents in the world But those who slide along the grassy sod, And sting the luckless foot that presses them? There are who in the path of social life Do bask their spotted skins in Fortune's sun, And sting the soul.

Amongst the many trials to which the human mind is subjected, that of holding intercourse, real or imaginary, with the world of spirits: of finding itself alone with a being terrific and awful, whose nature and power are unknown, has been justly considered the most severe.

The tyrant now Trusts not to men: nightly within his chamber The watch-dog guards his couch, the only friend He now dare trust.

A willing heart adds feather to the heel.

Sweet sleep be with us, one and all!
And if upon its stillness fall
The visions of a busy brain,
We'll have our pleasure o'er again,
To warm the heart, to charm the sight,
Gay dreams to all! good night, good night.

Half-uttered praise is to the curious mind, as to the eye half-veiled beauty is, more precious than the whole.

If my heart were not light, I would die.

I believe this earth on which we stand is but the vestibule to glorious mansions through which a moving crowd forever press.

To make the cunning artless, tame the rude, subdue the haughty, shake the undaunted soul; yea, put a bridle in the lion's mouth, and lead him forth as a domestic cur,
these are the triumphs of all-powerful beauty.

He that will not give some portion of his ease, his blood, his wealth, for other's good, is a poor, frozen churl.

O lovely Sisters! is it true That they are all inspired by you, And write by inward magic charm'd, And high enthusiasm warm'd?

Pampered vanity is a better thing perhaps than starved pride.

I can bear scorpion's stings, tread fields of fire, in frozen gulfs of cold eternal lie, be tossed aloft through tracts of endless void, but cannot live in shame.

O mysterious Night! thou art not silent; many tongues halt thou.

Men's actions to futurity appear but as the events to which they are conjoined do give them consequence.

Time never bears such moments on his wing as when he flies too swiftly to be marked.

But dreams full oft are found of real events
The form and shadows.

A woman is seldom roused to great and courageous exertion but when something most dear to her is in immediate danger.

But woman's grief is like a summer storm, Short as it violent is.