Alfred Austin Quotes

[A]mbition should be spoken of as not the last, but the first infirmity of noble minds, of which they gradually purge themselves as they grow more mature.

Omit death's certain sharpness, life would lack
The salt that lends it savour.

Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As there is wrong to right,
Wail of the weak against the strong,
Or tyranny to fight;

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

If you are not something of a philosopher,—and by philosophy I understand a serene temper, and the maintaining of an equable mind under the sharpest disappointments,—I do not advise you to cultivate, or at any rate to grow enamoured of, a garden.

My virgin sense of sound was steeped
In the music of young streams;
And roses through the casement peeped,
And scented all my dreams.

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

Why should you,
Because the world is foolish, not be wise?

A little knowledge is said to be a dangerous thing, but it is not dangerous to the imagination. Knowledge is to the imagination what fuel is to flame. A little feeds it; a great deal extinguishes it.

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

To homes pervaded by charm, as to works of Art that approach perfection, the more happily constituted minds say 'Yes' without any qualification. The proper homage due to them is absolute assent.

A person of the right sort is one who has a solid grasp and realistic apprehension of people and things as they are, an irresistible inclination to transfigure them according to his imagination, and an inexhaustible supply of philosophic humour.

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.

Who once has doubted never quite believes.

Who once believed will never wholly doubt.