“The stately ship is seen no more,
The fragile skiff attains the shore;
And while the great and wise decay,
And all their trophies pass away,
Some sudden thought, some careless rhyme,
Still floats above the wrecks of Time.”
On an old Song. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
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William Edward Hartpole Lecky 10
British politician 1838–1903Related quotes

A History of Economics (1991), ch. 21

The Ladder of St. Augustine, st. 10.
Source: Good Poems for Hard Times

“As a little skiff attached to a great ship, when the storm blows high, takes in her small share of the raging waters and tosses in the same south wind.”
Immensae veluti conexa carinae
cumba minor, cum saevit hiems, pro parte furentis
parva receptat aquas et eodem volvitur austro.
iv, line 120
Silvae, Book I

“I'm tired of Love; I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But money gives me pleasure all the time.”
"Fatigued", Sonnets and Verse (1923)
Flipped (2001)