Top 15 John Godfrey Saxe Quotes

I'm growing fonder of my staff;
I'm growing dimmer in my eyes;
I'm growing fainter in my laugh;
I'm growing deeper in my sighs;
I'm growing careless of my dress;
I'm growing frugal of my gold;
I'm growing wise; I'm growing — yes, — I'm growing old.

Give me kisses! Nay, 'tis true
I am just as rich as you;
And for every kiss I owe,
I can pay you back, you know.
Kiss me, then,
Every moment, and again.

I love vast libraries; yet there is a doubt,
If one be better with them or without,
Unless he use them wisely, and, indeed,
Knows the high art of what and how to read.

At Learning's fountain it is sweet to drink,
But 'tis a nobler privilege to think.

Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.

Tis well to borrow from the good and the great; 'Tis wise to learn: 'tis God-like to create!

When Nature gives a gorgeous rose, Or yields the simplest fern, She writes this motto on the leaves, — "To whom it may concern!" And so it is the poet comes And revels in her bowers, And, — though another hold the land, Is owner of the flowers.

The Poet's License! — 't is the right, Within the rule of duty, To look on all delightful things Throughout the world of beauty. <p> To gaze with rapture at the stars That in the skies are glowing; To see the gems of perfect dye That in the woods are growing, — And more than sage astronomer, And more than learned florist, To read the glorious homilies Of Firmament and Forest.

Bless me! this is pleasant
Riding on the Rail.

A youth would marry a maiden, For fair and fond was she; But their sires disputed about the Mass, And so it might not be.

A youth would marry a maiden, For fair and fond was she; But he was high and she was low, And so it might not be.

A youth would marry a maiden, For fair and fond was she; But she was rich, and he was poor, And so it might not be.

'T is wise to learn; 't is God-like to create.

I asked of Echo 't other day
(Whose words are few and often funny),
What to a novice she could say Of courtship, love, and matrimony. Quoth Echo, plainly, — "Matter-o'-money."

I'm growing fonder of my staff;
I'm growing dimmer in the eyes;
I'm growing fainter in my laugh;
I'm growing deeper in my sighs;
I'm growing careless of my dress;
I'm growing frugal of my gold;
I'm growing wise; I'm growing — yes, — I'm growing old!