Quote

This world is a vaporous jest at best, Tossed off by the gods in laughter, And a cruel attempt at wit were it, If nothing better came after.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Age: 68 †
Born: 1850
Born: November 5
Died: 1919
Died: October 30
Author
Poet
Writer
Janesville
Wisconsin
Cruel
Nothing
Wit
Life
World
Attempt
Gods
Laughter
Vaporous
Came
Tossed
Best
Jest
Better

More quotes by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Image
Say you are well, or all is well with you, and God shall hear your words and make them true.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Laugh, and the world laughs with you: Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Through strife the slumbering soul awakes, We learn on error's troubled route The truths we could not prize without The sorrow of our sad mistakes.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Let the dream go. Are there not other dreams In vastness of clouds hid from thy sight That yet shall gild with beautiful gold gleams, And shoot the shadows through and through with light? What matters one lost vision of the night? Let the dream go!
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
The splendid discontent of God With chaos made the world. And from the discontent of man The worlds best progress springs.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Love is the impulse which directs the world, And all things know it and obey its power. Man, in the maelstrom of his passions whirled The bee that takes the pollen to the flower The earth, uplifting her bare, pulsing breast To fervent kisses of the amorous sun-- Each but obeys creative Love's behest, Which everywhere instinctively is done.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Love is the only thing that pays for birth, Or makes death welcome. Oh, dear God above This beautiful but sad, perplexing earth, Pity the hearts that know--or know not--Love!
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
God sent us here to make mistakes
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Oh! not for the great departed, Who formed our country's laws, And not for the bravest-hearted, Who died in freedom's cause, And not for some living hero To whom all bend the knee, My muse would raise her song of praise - But for the man to be.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Thank Fate for foes! I hold mine dear As valued friends. He cannot know The zest of life who runneth here His earthly race without a foe.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
It is never too late to begin rebuilding, Though all into ruins your life seems hurled For see! how the light of the New Year is gilding The wan, worn face of the bruised old world.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Who would attain to summits still and fair,Must nerve himself through valleys of despair.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Day's sweetest moments are at dawn.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
I was as pure as the morning When I first looked on your face I knew I never could reach you In your high, exalted place.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
It is easy enough to be virtuous When nothing tempts you to stray When without or within No voice of sin Is luring your soul away. But it is only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire. For the soul that is worth the treasures of the earth is the soul that resists desire.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
The loves of men but vary in degrees-- They find no new expression for the flame.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
It has always been my belief that children inherit the suppressed tendencies of their parents. A clergyman's son frequently shows abnormal tastes for the pleasures that his father denied himself.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Image
The passion you forbade my lips to utter Will not be silenced. You must hear it in The sullen thunders when they roll and mutter: And when the tempest nears, with wail and din, I know your calm forgetfulness is broken, And to your heart you whisper, He has spoken.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox