Thomas Moore Quotes

Where bastard Freedom waves
The fustian flag in mockery over slaves.

When twilight dews are falling soft
Upon the rosy sea, love,
I watch the star whose beam so oft
Has lighted me to thee, love.

Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are!
From this hour let the blood in their dastardly veins,
That shrunk at the first touch of Liberty's war,
Be wasted for tyrants, or stagnate in chains.

Love on through all ills, and love on till they die.

When thus the heart is in a vein
Of tender thought, the simplest strain
Can touch it with peculiar power.

The bird let loose in Eastern skies,
Returning fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam;
But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.

Like Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye,
But turn to ashes on the lips.

Wert thou all that I wish thee, great, glorious, and free,
First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea.

The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.

'T is believ'd that this harp which I wake now for thee
Was a siren of old who sung under the sea.

Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed—his people are free.

Alas! how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love!
Hearts that the world in vain had tried,
And sorrow but more closely tied;
That stood the storm when waves were rough,
Yet in a sunny hour fall off,
Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity.

This world is all a fleeting show,
For man's illusion given;
The smiles of joy, the tears of woe,
Deceitful shine, deceitful flow,—
There's nothing true but Heaven.

The moon looks
On many brooks,
"The brook can see no moon but this."

Accurst is the march of that glory
Which treads o'er the hearts of the free.