“Thou in such a cloud dost bind us,
That our worst foes cannot find us,
And ill fortune, that would thwart us,
Shoots at rovers, shooting at us;
While each man, through thy height'ning steam,
Does like a smoking Etna seem.”

Source: Last Sacrifice

The Sun Rising, stanza 1

The Rosary and Other Poems, On the Ramparts at Angoulême; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 769-70.

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero As King
Context: To me, in these circumstances, that of "Hero-worship" becomes a fact inexpressibly precious; the most solacing fact one sees in the world at present. There is an everlasting hope in it for the management of the world. Had all traditions, arrangements, creeds, societies that men ever instituted, sunk away, this would remain. The certainty of Heroes being sent us; our faculty, our necessity, to reverence Heroes when sent: it shines like a polestar through smoke-clouds, dust-clouds, and all manner of down-rushing and conflagration.

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 240

To Fortune; song reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

Source: Sweethearts

An Affair with Grouse (1982)