Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Concord Hymn

By RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

   Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

   And fired the shot heard round the world.

–

The foe long since in silence slept;

   Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

   Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

–

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

   We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

   When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

–

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

   To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

   The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Quotable Quotes #12

I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does the much better. – Plutarch, Greek essayist

Love is love’s reward. – John Dryden

There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice. – Mark Twain

Life is too important to be taken seriously. – Oscar Wilde

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination. – Voltaire, French philosopher

The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool. – Rudyard Kipling

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. – Buddha

It is not length of life but depth of life. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotable Quotes #6

Giants Fall by Francesca Battistelli

Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know. – William Shakespeare

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. – Thomas Jefferson, 3^rd U.S. President

A person should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. – Johann Goethe, German poet

Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age. – George Sand (Aurore Lucille Dupin), French novelist

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are. – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life. – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more. – Mark Twain

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. – John Quincy Adams, 6^th U. S. President

Every man should keep a fair sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends. – Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator of all I have not seen. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth; we are happy when we are growing. – William Butler Yeats, Irish poet

Quotable Quotes #4

In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality. – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher

Conscience makes cowards of us all. –William Shakespeare

It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company. – George Washington

Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be. – John Dryden, English poet

Easy reading is damn hard writing. – Nathaniel Hawthorne

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned. – Edna St. Vincent Millay

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. – William Shakespeare

One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human. – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher

And say my glory was I had such friends. – William Butler Yeats, Irish poet

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. – Mark Twain

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. – William Shakespeare

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. – Ralph Waldo Emerson