Alfred Austin Quotes

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.

He was not far wrong who said that, for choice, he would be a beautiful woman from seventeen to thirty, a successful General from thirty to fifty, and a Cardinal for the rest of his days. But of course he was thinking of Cardinals as they were in the days of Leo X, Julius II, and Sextus V, not as they are today, extremely pious and rather pinched for means.

A writer cannot take his occupation too seriously. He cannot take himself too lightly.

In vain would science scan and trace
Firmly her aspect. All the while,
There gleams upon her far-off face
A vague unfathomable smile.

Hospitality should be accidental, spontaneous, and impulsive, not pre-arranged and calculated.

It is always delightful to have one's feelings expressed by some one else in language of enthusiasm one might oneself be afraid to employ.

Doth logic in the lily hide,
And where's the reason in the rose?

Doth Nature draw me, 'tis because,
Unto my seeming, there doth lurk
A lawlessness about her laws,
More mood than purpose in her work.

Of all our feigned affections, there is none
So hollow, selfish, and injurious,
As what we christen Patriotism.

The Devil is an echo
Of search unsatisfied.

Women are more frequently charming than men, because they are less self-conscious.

There is no office in this needful world
But dignifies the doer if done well.

[…] there is no love,
That merits such high christening, but is built
Firm upon some foundation out of sight;
God, country, virtue, something not ourself,
To which ourself is nothing, save the proof
Of its invisible sureness.

Life seems like a haunted wood, where we tremble and crouch and cry.

If Man makes Conscience, then being good
Is only being worldly wise,
And universal brotherhood
A comfortable compromise.