“I know not whether, in the eyes of the world, a brilliant death is not preferred to an obscure life of rectitude. Most men are remembered as they died, and not as they lived. We gaze with admiration upon the glories of the setting sun, yet scarcely bestow a passing glance upon its noonday splendor.”

—  Davy Crockett

As quoted in David Crockett : His Life and Adventures (1875) by John Stevens Cabot Abbott, Ch. 11

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 "I know not whether, in the eyes of the world, a brilliant death is not preferred to an obscure life of rectitude. Most …" by Davy Crockett?
Davy Crockett photo
Davy Crockett29
American politician 1786–1836

Related quotes

John Keats photo

“I scarcely remember counting upon happiness — I look not for it if it be not in the present hour — nothing startles me beyond the moment. The setting sun will always set me to rights, or if a sparrow come before my Window I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to Benjamin Bailey (November 22, 1817)
Letters (1817–1820)

Thomas Moore photo

“As half in shade and half in sun
This world along its path advances,
May that side the sun's upon
Be all that e'er shall meet thy glances!”

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

Peace be around Thee.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Francis Bacon photo

“In causes of life and death, judges ought (as far as the law permitteth) in justice to remember mercy; and to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the person.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

John Ruysbroeck photo

“Even though the eagle,
King of birds,
Can with his powerful sight
Gaze steadfastly upon
The brightness of the sun;
Yet do the weaker eyes of the bat
Fail and falter in the same.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

The Twelve Beguines

Ataol Behramoğlu photo

“They were eyes, that while gazing on the world
Rendered it brilliant with meaning”

Ataol Behramoğlu (1942) Turkish writer

&quot;They Were Eyes&quot;, as translated at Kritya : A Journal of Poetry http://www.kritya.in/0703/en/editors_choice.html <br class="br">Context: They were eyes, that while gazing on the world<br>Rendered it brilliant with meaning They were eyes, that embraced me with glances<br>They were eyes, for which I now hopelessly long

“Gayly we glide in the gaze of the world
With streamers afloat and with canvas unfurled,
All gladness and glory to wandering eyes,
Yet chartered by sorrow and freighted with sighs.”

Thomas Kibble Hervey (1799–1859) British poet and critic

The convict Ship.

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“You are mine-you know you're mine!" he cried wildly… the moonlight twisted in through the vines and listened… the fireflies hung upon their whispers as if to win his glance from the glory of their eyes.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book This Side of Paradise

Source: This Side of Paradise

Cassandra Clare photo

“Many who have gazed upon me have compared the experience to gazing at the radiance of the sun.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Madison Cawein photo

“A rope; a prayer; and an oak-tree near,
And a score of hands to swing him clear.
A grim, black thing for the setting sun
And the moon and the stars to gaze upon.”

Madison Cawein (1865–1914) poet from Louisville, Kentucky

The Man Hunt.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

“The Night has a thousand eyes,
And the Day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.”

Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) British poet

"Light" (popularly known as "The Night has a Thousand Eyes"), published in The Spectator (October 1873).
Context: p>The Night has a thousand eyes,
And the Day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.</p

Related topics