Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 276.
“Not what we wish, but what we want,
Oh, let thy grace supply!”
Hymn, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Let not that happen which I wish, but that which is right", Menander, Fragment.
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James Merrick 3
British poet and philologist 1720–1769Related quotes
“We are not what happened to us,
we are what we wish to become.”
The Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 36
“What do you want, that I should start crying, ‘Oh, crisis, we have a crisis!’ Do you want that?”
When a journalist asked whether she believed the election had thrust the country deeper into political instability. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/world/asia/matriarchs-duel-for-power-threatens-to-tilt-bangladesh-off-balance.html (January 15, 2014)
“"What did he promise you?"
"Oh, you know. The usual. A lifetime's supply of Knicks tickets."”
Luke and Jace, pg. 375
The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)
Source: Books, Spiritual Warrior, Volume I: Uncovering Spiritual Truths in Psychic Phenomena (Hari-Nama Press, 1996), Chapter 4: Fire and Brimstone, Horns and Tail, p. 67
“5426. We are apt to believe what we wish for.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.”