Quote

I have learned to prize the quiet, lightning deed, not the applauding thunder at its heels that men call fame.

Alexander Smith

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alexander Smith
Age: 36 †
Born: 1830
Born: December 31
Died: 1867
Died: January 5
Poet
Cille Mheàrnaig
Fame
Quiet
Applauding
Learned
Deed
Call
Thunder
Men
Lightning
Heels
Prize
Deeds

More quotes by Alexander Smith

Image
Pleasure has no logic it never treads in its own footsteps.
Alexander Smith
Image
Christmas is the day that holds all time together.
Alexander Smith
Image
We have two lives The soul of man is like the rolling world, One half in day, the other dipt in night The one has music and the flying cloud, The other, silence and the wakeful stars.
Alexander Smith
Image
Vanity in its idler moments is benevolent, is as willing to give pleasure as to take it, and accepts as sufficient reward for its services a kind word or an approving smile.
Alexander Smith
Image
Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.
Alexander Smith
Image
To sit for one's portrait is like being present at one's own creation.
Alexander Smith
Image
In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October.
Alexander Smith
Image
In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October, when the trees are bare to the mild heavens, and the red leaves bestrew the road, and you can feel the breath of winter, morning and evening - no days so calm, so tenderly solemn, and with such a reverent meekness in the air.
Alexander Smith
Image
The pleased sea on a white-breasted shore-- A shore that wears on her alluring brows Rare shells, far brought, the love-gifts of the sea, That blushed a tell-tale.
Alexander Smith
Image
Eternity doth wear upon her face the veil of time. They only see the veil, and thus they know not what they stand so near!
Alexander Smith
Image
Style, after all, rather than thought, is the immortal thing in literature.
Alexander Smith
Image
In my garden I spend my days, in my library I spend my nights. My interests are divided between my geraniums and my books. With the flower I am in the present with the book I am in the past.
Alexander Smith
Image
How beautiful the yesterday that stood Over me like a rainbow! I am alone, The past is past. I see the future stretch All dark and barren as a rainy sea.
Alexander Smith
Image
In my garden, care stops at the gate and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.
Alexander Smith
Image
If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death.
Alexander Smith
Image
Trees are your best antiques
Alexander Smith
Image
A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.
Alexander Smith
Image
A thought may be very commendable as a thought, but I value it chiefly as a window through which I can obtain insight on the thinker.
Alexander Smith
Image
Thoughts must come naturally, like wild-flowers they cannot be forced in a hot-bed, even although aided by the leaf-mould of your past.
Alexander Smith
Image
A poem round and perfect as a star.
Alexander Smith