William Henry Davies citations

“From my own kind I only learn
How foolish comfort is”

“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.”

“They sniffed, poor things, for their green fields,
They cried so loud I could not sleep:
For fifty thousand shillings down
I would not sail again with sheep.”

“The collier's wife had four tall sons
Brought from the pit's mouth dead,
And crushed from foot to head”

“No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.”

“I also love a quiet place
That's green, away from all mankind;
A lonely pool, and let a tree
Sigh with her bosom over me.”

“What sweet, what happy days had I,
When dreams made Time Eternity!”

“Autumn grows old: he, like some simple one,
In Summer's castaway is strangely clad”

“Thou shalt not laugh, thou shalt not romp,
Let's grimly kiss with bated breath;
As quietly and solemnly
As Life when it is kissing Death.”

“It was the Rainbow gave thee birth,
And left thee all her lovely hues.”

“Go you and, with such glorious hues,
Live with proud peacocks in green parks.”

“Cats — by day the most docile of God's creatures, everyone of them in the night enlisting under the devil's banner — took the place by storm after the human voice had ceased.”

“People are not to be blamed for their doubts, but that they make no effort to arrive at the truth.”

“What a glorious time of the year is this [Spring]! With the warm sun travelling through serene skies, the air clear and fresh above you, which instils new blood in the body, making one defiantly tramp the earth, kicking the snows aside in the scorn of action.”