Thomas Hood

“A certain portion of the human race has certainly a taste for being diddled.”

“To attempt to advise conceited people is like whistling against the wind.”

“Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine!”

“Peace and rest at length have comeAll the day's long toil is past,And each heart is whispering, 'Home,Home at last.”

“No sun—no moon! No morn—no noon—No dawn— No sky—no earthly view— No distance looking blue—No road—no street—no "t'other side the way"— No end to any Row— No indications where the Crescents go— No top to any steeple—No recognitions of familiar people— No courtesies for showing 'em— No knowing 'em!No traveling at all—no locomotion,No inkling of the way—no notion— "No go"—by land or ocean— No mail—no post— No news from any foreign coast—No park—no ring—no afternoon gentility— No company—no nobility—No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, No comfortable feel in any member—No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!”

“I saw old Autumn in the misty mornStand shadowless like silence, listeningTo silence, for no lonely bird would singInto his hollow ear from woods forlorn,Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn; --Shaking his languid locks all dewy brightWith tangled gossamer that fell by night,Pearling his coronet of golden corn.”

“'Extremes meet', as the whiting said with its tail in its mouth.”

“Frost is the greatest artist in our clime - he paints in nature and describes in rime.”

“SilenceTHERE is a silence where hath been no sound, There is a silence where no sound may be, In the cold grave—under the deep, deep sea, Or in wide desert where no life is found, Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound; No voice is hush'd—no life treads silently, But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free, That never spoke, over the idle ground: But in green ruins, in the desolate walls Of antique palaces, where Man hath been, Though the dun fox or wild hyæna calls, And owls, that flit continually between, Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan— There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.”

“There is even a happiness - that makes the heart afraid.”

“Some minds improve by travel, others, rather, resemble copper wire, or brass, which get the narrower by going farther.”

“I saw old Autumn in the misty morn stand shadowless like silence, listening to silence.”

“That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.”

“There are three things which the public will always clamor for, sooner or later: namely, novelty, novelty, novelty.”

“A moment's thinking is an hour in words.”

“The best of friends fall out, and so his teeth had done some years ago.”

“Lives of great men oft remind us as we o'er their pages turn, That we too may leave behind us - Letters that we ought to burn.”