“"What is good for a bootless bene?"
With these dark words begins my tale;
And their meaning is, Whence can comfort spring
When prayer is of no avail?”

—  William Wordsworth

Force of Prayer.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote ""What is good for a bootless bene?" With these dark words begins my tale; And their meaning is, Whence can comfort sp…" by William Wordsworth?
William Wordsworth photo
William Wordsworth 306
English Romantic poet 1770–1850

Related quotes

William Wordsworth photo

“What is good for a bootless bene?”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

With these dark words begins my tale;
And their meaning is, Whence can comfort spring
When prayer is of no avail?
Force of Prayer
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

John Lancaster Spalding photo

“Work, mental or manual, is the means whereby attention is compelled, it is the instrument of all knowledge and virtue, the root whence all excellence springs.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 116

“The advantage to being a wicked bastard is that everyone pesters the Lord on your behalf; if volume of prayers from my saintly enemies means anything, I'll be saved when the Archbishop of Canterbury is damned. It's a comforting thought.”

George MacDonald Fraser Flashman at the Charge

Source: Flashman at the Charge

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin photo

“A breeze passes in the night. When did it spring up? Whence does it come? Whither is it going? No man knows.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

The Divine Milieu, p. 128
The Divine Milieu (1960)

Gloria Estefan photo

“[To beginning readers (ages 4 to 8) at a reading of "Noelle's Treasure Tale"]: If you discover a word in my book that you don't understand, ask your parents so they can look it up in the dictionary for you.”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

comment to audience at book signing at Macy's in New York City (November 21, 2006
2007, 2008

Suzanne Collins photo

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss and Peeta (p. 388; closing words of the main text)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real."

“If this is not what springs immediately to mind as soon as the words “on average” are appended to a description of mean differences, then the words “on average” have not rectified the damage done by the use of means to describe populations of varied individuals.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: The Ape that Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2013), p. 268

Ludwig Feuerbach photo

“"Can any good come out of Nazareth?" This is always the question of the wiseacres and the knowing ones. But the good, the new, comes from exactly that quarter whence it is not looked for, and is always something different from what is expected. Everything new is received with contempt, for it begins in obscurity. It becomes a power unobserved.”

Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872) German philosopher and anthropologist

As quoted in "Voices of the New Time" as translated by C. C. Shackford in The Radical Vol. 7 (1870), p. 329

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Like prisoners escaped during night from their prison,
The waters fling gaily their spray to the sun;
Who can tell me from whence that glad river has risen?
Who can say whence it springs in its beauty?—not one.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Minstrel’s Monitor from Literary Souvenir, 1827
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Thomas Moore photo

“As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean
Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see,
So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion,
Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee.

As still to the star of its worship, though clouded,
The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea,
So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded,
The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

The Heart's Prayer.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Related topics