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Jane Taylor Quotes

Jane Taylor was an English poet and novelist. She wrote the words to the song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which is widely known, but it is generally forgotten who wrote it. The sisters, Jane and Ann Taylor and their authorship of various works have often been confused, in part because their early ones were published together. Ann Taylor's son, Josiah Gilbert, wrote in her biography, "Two little poems – 'My Mother,' and 'Twinkle, twinkle, little Star' – are perhaps more frequently quoted than any; the first, a lyric of life, was by Ann, the second, of nature, by Jane; and they illustrate this difference between the sisters." Wikipedia  

✵ 23. September 1783 – 13. April 1824
Jane Taylor photo

Works
The Star
Jane Taylor
Jane Taylor: 6   quotes 0   likes

Famous Jane Taylor Quotes

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!”

Jane Taylor The Star

"The Star," from Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804).

“Oh that it were my chief delight
To do the things I ought!
Then let me try with all my might
To mind what I am taught.”

Jane Taylor

For a Very Little Child, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Bartlett's notes this work to be written by Ann Taylor.

“Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother.”

Jane Taylor

Ann Taylor, "My Mother," from Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804)
Misattributed

“I thank the goodness and the grace
Which on my birth have smiled,
And made me in these Christian days,
A happy English child.”

Jane Taylor

"A Child's Hymn of Praise," from Hymns for Infant Minds (1810).

“Far from mortal cares retreating,
Sordid hopes and vain desires,
Here, our willing footsteps meeting,
Every heart to heaven aspires.”

Jane Taylor

Hymn, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Though man a thinking being is defined,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind.
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do!”

Jane Taylor

"Essays in Rhyme" from On Morals and Manners, Prejudice, Essay i. Stanza 45, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

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