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James Thomson (poet) Quotes

James Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his poems The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence, and for the lyrics of "Rule, Britannia!". Wikipedia  

✵ 11. September 1700 – 27. August 1748
James Thomson (poet) photo

Works

The Seasons
James Thomson (poet)
The Castle of Indolence
James Thomson (poet)
The Seasons
James Thomson (poet)
The Castle of Indolence
James Thomson (poet)
James Thomson (poet): 50 quotes2 likes

Famous James Thomson (poet) Quotes

“The best of men have ever loved repose:
They hate to mingle in the filthy fray;
Where the soul sours, and gradual rancour grows,
Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 17.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“Crowned with the sickle, and the wheaten sheaf,
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain,
Comes jovial on.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Autumn (1730), l. 1-3.

“A pleasing land of drowsyhed it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
Forever flushing round a summer sky:
There eke the soft delights that witchingly
Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast,
And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh;
But whate'er smack'd of noyance or unrest
Was far, far off expell'd from this delicious nest.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 6.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“But yonder comes the powerful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 81.

“Sighed and looked unutterable things.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 1188.

“Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove
An unrelenting foe to love,
And, when we meet a mutual heart,
Come in between and bid us part?”

James Thomson (poet)

To Fortune; song reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

James Thomson (poet) Quotes about nature

“Whoe'er amidst the sons
Of reason, valour, liberty, and virtue
Displays distinguish'd merit, is a noble
Of Nature's own creating.”

James Thomson (poet)

Coriolanus, Act iii, scene 3; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“The negligence of Nature wide and wild,
Where, undisguised by mimic art, she spreads
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Spring (1728), l. 71-73.

“A bard here dwelt, more fat than bard becomes
Who void of envy, guile and lust of gain,
On virtue still and nature's pleasing themes
Poured forth his unpremeditated strain.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 68. (Last line said to be "writ by a friend of the author.").
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“But who can paint
Like Nature? Can imagination boast,
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Spring (1728), l. 465.

“I care not, Fortune, what you me deny;
You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace,
You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
Through which Aurora shows her brightening face;
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve.
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave:
Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto II, Stanza 3.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Preface
The Seasons (1726-1730)

James Thomson (poet): Trending quotes

“A little, round, fat, oily man of God.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 69.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“Who stemm'd the torrent of a downward age.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 1515.

“So stands the statue that enchants the world,
So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 1346.

James Thomson (poet) Quotes

“From seeming evil still educing good.”

James Thomson (poet)

Source: Hymn (1730), line 114.

“Come, gentle Spring! ethereal mildness, come.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Spring (1728), l. 1.

“For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Autumn (1730), l. 233.

“An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Spring (1728), l. 1158-1161.

“The kiss, snatch'd hasty from the sidelong maid.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Winter (1726), l. 625.

“Poor is the triumph o’er the timid hare!
Scared from the corn, and now to some lone seat
Retired”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Autumn (1730), l. 71-73.

“Amid the roses fierce Repentance rears
Her snaky crest.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Spring (1728), l. 996.

“Tutor'd by thee, hence Poetry exalts
Her voice to ages; and informs the page
With music, image, sentiment, and thought,
Never to die! the treasure of mankind!
Their highest honour, and their truest joy!”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 1752.

“See, Winter comes to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Winter (1726), l. 1.

“A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate
Of mighty monarchs.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 1285.

“The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 47.

“Falsely luxurious, will not man awake?”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 67.

“Welcome, kindred glooms!
Congenial horrors, hail!”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Winter (1726), l. 5-6.

“He ceased; but still their trembling ears retained
The deep vibrations of his witching song.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 20.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“Base Envy withers at another’s joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Spring (1728), l. 283.

“O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein,
But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns,
And heightens ease with grace.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 26.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven,
When drooping health and spirits go amiss?
How tasteless then whatever can be given!
Health is the vital principle of bliss,
And exercise, of health.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto II, Stanza 55.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Spring (1728), l. 1149-1150.

“O Sophonisba! Sophonisba, O!”

James Thomson (poet)

Sophonisba, Act iii, scene 2; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). The line was altered after the second edition to "O Sophonisba! I am wholly thine".

“Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Winter (1726), l. 393.

“Ships dim-discovered dropping from the clouds.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 946.

“Their only labour was to kill the time;
And labour dire it is, and weary woe,
They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme,
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go,
Or saunter forth, with tottering steps and slow.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 72.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“But what most showed the vanity of life
Was to behold the nations all on fire.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 55.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“These as they change, Almighty Father! these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee.”

James Thomson (poet)

Source: Hymn (1730), line 1.

“Or where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls,
Boils round the naked melancholy isles
Of farthest Thulè, and th' Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Autumn (1730), l. 871-874.

“There studious let me sit,
And hold high converse with the mighty dead.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Winter (1726), l. 431-432.

“For many a day, and many a dreadful night,
Incessant lab'ring round the stormy cape.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 1002.

“Shade, unperceiv'd, so softening into shade.”

James Thomson (poet)

Source: Hymn (1730), line 25.

“Plac'd far amid the melancholy main.”

James Thomson (poet) The Castle of Indolence

Canto I, Stanza 30.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)

“When Britain first, at Heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung this strain:
'Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.”

James Thomson (poet)

Alfred, Act II, sc. v (1740).

“He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Autumn (1730), l. 229.

“And Mecca saddens at the long delay.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 979.

“For loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorned adorned the most.”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Autumn (1730), l. 208-210.

“Come then, expressive silence, muse His praise.”

James Thomson (poet)

Source: Hymn (1730), line 118.

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