“By cool Siloam's shady rill
How sweet the lily grows!”
Reginald Heber (1783–1826) English clergyman
"First Sunday After Epiphany", no. 2 (1812).
Hymns
“On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows, In every rill a sweet instruction flows.”
Last update Oct. 29, 2021. History
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Edward Young110
English poet 1683–1765Related quotes
William Blake book Songs of Experience
Source: Poems from the Pickering Manuscript (c. 1805), Auguries of Innocence, Line 123
Source: Songs of Experience
“He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure, by delighting and instructing the reader at the same time.”
Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci,
lectorem delectando pariterque monendo.
Source: Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (c. 18 BC), Line 343
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician
Stanza 3.
1710s, Psalm 98 "Joy to the World!" (1719)
“Every noble crown is, and on earth will forever be, a crown of thorns.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
Bk. III, ch. 7.
1840s, Past and Present (1843)
“First delight, then instruct.”
Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835) German (Prussian) philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the University of Berlin
Erst erfreuen, dann belehren.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Gustav Friedrich Waagen in "On the Purpose of the Berlin Gallery" [Über die Aufgabe der Berliner Galerie] (1828); occasionally attributed to von Humboldt, who had quoted Schinkel and Waagen in a report.
Misattributed
“every time I've held a rose,
It seems I only felt the thorns”
Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist
“First delight, then instruct (original German: ).”
Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1794–1868) German art historian
From an 1828 proposal "On the Purpose of the Berlin Gallery" (
This quotation is occasionally attributed to Wilhelm von Humboldt, which appears to be erroneous; von Humboldt had quoted Schinkel and Waagen in a report.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Compensation
Context: Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to answer for its moderation with its life. For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something. If riches increase, they are increased that use them. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate, but kills the owner. Nature hates monopolies and exceptions.