Alfred Austin Quotes

People living and dead, things past and present, all are contributories to that diminutive stream, oneself; a reflection which is essentially consoling, since it associates one with the sum of things and prevents one from living in barren isolation.

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

[H]e who saves an ancient tree does better even than he who plants a new one.

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

[N]o verse which is unmusical or obscure can be regarded as Poetry, whatever other qualities it may possess.

And Clara dies that Claribel may dance.

Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As Spring revives the year,
And hails us with the cuckoo's song,
To show that she is here;

Lo, where huge London, huger day by day,
O'er six fair counties spreads its hideous sway.

Then, without toil, by vale and mountain side,
Men found their few and simple wants supplied;
Plenty, like dew, dropped subtle from the air,
And Earth's fair gifts rose prodigal as prayer.
Love, with no charms except its own to lure,
Was swiftly answered by a love as pure.
No need for wealth; each glittering fruit and flower,
Each star, each streamlet, made the maiden's dower.

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.

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.

Imagination should
A reconciler, not a rebel, be,
To teach the heart of man to apprehend
Nature's vicissitudes, and bear his own,
With sympathetic fancy.

Who loves his country never forfeits heaven.

Public opinion is no more than this,
What people think that other people think.

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