“All the world is sad and dreary,
Everywhere I roam.”
As quoted at Family Book of Best Loved Poems, by David L. George, (1952)
Old Folks at Home
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Stephen Foster 8
American songwriter 1826–1864Related quotes

A Dirge http://poetryarchive.bravepages.com/RSTU_poets/shelley_percy.b.htm#dirge (1821)

Day of Absence, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Room to roam, but only one home
For all the world to win.”
Phantastes (1858)
Context: Thou goest thine, and I go mine —
Many ways we wend;
Many days, and many ways,
Ending in one end.
Many a wrong, and its curing song;
Many a road, and many an inn;
Room to roam, but only one home
For all the world to win.

“The sadness which reigned everywhere was but an excuse for unfailing kindness.”
Source: Les Misérables

“What a dreary world we live in, gentlemen.”
How the Two Ivans Quarrelled (1835)

Transition (1927)
Context: I felt more keenly than before the need of a philosophy that would do justice to the infinite vitality of nature. In the inexhaustible activity of the atom, in the endless resourcefulness of plants, in the teeming fertility of animals, in the hunger and movement of infants, in the laughter and play of children, in the love and devotion of youth, in the restless ambition of fathers and the lifelong sacrifice of mothers, in the undiscourageable researches of scientists and the sufferings of genius, in the crucifixion of prophets and the martyrdom of saints — in all things I saw the passion of life for growth and greatness, the drama of everlasting creation. I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic process... I became almost reconciled to mortality, knowing that my spirit would survive me enshrined in a fairer mold... and that my little worth would somehow be preserved in the heritage of men. In a measure the Great Sadness was lifted from me, and, where I had seen omnipresent death, I saw now everywhere the pageant and triumph of life.