Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landorwas an English writer and poet. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem Rose Aylmer, but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity. As remarkable as his work was, it was equalled by his rumbustious character and lively temperament...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth30 January 1775
flower men smell
As there are some flowers which you should smell but slightly to extract all that is pleasant in them ... so there are some men with whom a slight acquaintance is quite sufficient to draw out all that is agreeable; a more intimate one would be unsafe and unsatisfactory.
flower cities soul
The sweetest souls, like the sweetest flowers, soon canker in cities, and no purity is rarer there than the purity of delight.
beauty flower light
God scatters beauty as he scatters flowers O'er the wide earth, and tells us all are ours. A hundred lights in every temple burn, And at each shrine I bend my knee in turn.
flower too-much fruit
The vain poet is of the opinion that nothing of his can be too much: he sends to you basketful after basketful of juiceless fruit, covered with scentless flowers.
politics argument truth-prevails
In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.
stupid practice religion
The most pernicious of absurdities is that weak, blind, stupid faith is better than the constant practice of every human virtue.
We think that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.
fading grave power rest transient
Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame; A grave to rest in, and a fading name!
Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked.
mind
An ingenuous mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.
easy few leading life within
There is no easy path leading out of life, and few easy ones that lie within it.
ridicule
Ridicule has followed the vestiges of truth, but never usurped her place.
teacher war experience
Experience is our only teacher both in war and peace.
errors understanding mastery
Consciousness of error is, to a certain extent, a consciousness of understanding; and correction of error is the plainest proof of energy and mastery.