W. H. Davies Quotes

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

People are not to be blamed for their doubts, but that they make no effort to arrive at the truth.

This man has talent, that man genius,
And here's the strange and cruel difference:
Talent gives pence and his reward is gold,
Genius gives gold and gets no more than pence.

I also love a quiet place
That's green, away from all mankind;
A lonely pool, and let a tree
Sigh with her bosom over me.

Sweet Stay-at-Home, sweet Well-content,
Thou knowest of no strange continent;
Thou hast not felt thy bosom keep
A gentle motion with the deep;
Thou hast not sailed in Indian seas,
Where scent comes forth in every breeze.

It was the Rainbow gave thee birth,
And left thee all her lovely hues.

Go you and, with such glorious hues,
Live with proud peacocks in green parks.

What a glorious time of the year is this [Spring]! With the warm sun travelling through serene skies, the air clear and fresh above you, which instils new blood in the body, making one defiantly tramp the earth, kicking the snows aside in the scorn of action.

From my own kind I only learn
How foolish comfort is

Cats — by day the most docile of God's creatures, everyone of them in the night enlisting under the devil's banner — took the place by storm after the human voice had ceased.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

The collier's wife had four tall sons
Brought from the pit's mouth dead,
And crushed from foot to head

What sweet, what happy days had I,
When dreams made Time Eternity!

Thou shalt not laugh, thou shalt not romp,
Let's grimly kiss with bated breath;
As quietly and solemnly
As Life when it is kissing Death.

Autumn grows old: he, like some simple one,
In Summer's castaway is strangely clad