Tobias Smollett Quotes

Facts are stubborn things.

Those sculptur'd halls my feet shall never tread,
Where varnish'd vice and vanity combin'd,
To dazzle and seduce, their banners spread,
And forge vile shackles for the free-born mind.

To send the injur'd unredress'd away,
How great soe'er th' offender, or the wrong'd
Howe'er obscure, is wicked—weak and vile:
Degrades, denies, and should dethrone a king!

Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye.
Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare,</br>Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.

To exult
Ev'n o'er an enemy oppress'd, and heap
Affliction on the afflicted, is the mark
And the mean triumph of a dastard soul.

Thy fatal shafts unerring move,
I bow before thine altar, Love!

Keen are the pangs
Of hapless love, and passion unapprov'd:
But where consenting wishes meet, and vows
Reciprocally breath'd, confirm the tie,
Joy rolls on joy, an inexhausted stream!
And virtue crowns the sacred scene.

To-day, in snow array'd, stern winter rules
The ravag'd plain—Anon the teeming earth
Unlocks her stores, and spring adorns the year:
And shall not we—while fate, like winter, frowns,
Expect revolving bliss?

Writing is all a lottery -- I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age.

True courage scorns
To vent her prowess in a storm of words;
And, to the valiant, actions speak alone.