“Old Friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air,
Love them for what they are; nor love them less,
Because to thee they are not what they were.”

—  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Duty Surviving Self-Love (1826)
Context: O wiselier then, from feeble yearnings freed,
While, and on whom, thou may'st — shine on! nor heed
Whether the object by reflected light
Return thy radiance or absorb it quite:
And tho' thou notest from thy safe recess
Old Friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air,
Love them for what they are; nor love them less,
Because to thee they are not what they were.

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 220
English poet, literary critic and philosopher 1772–1834

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