Page:Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922).djvu/246

1

Take up the White Man's burden.

Kipling—The White Man's Burden. To the United States. Feb. 4, 1899. In McClure's Magazine. Feb., 1899.

2

Thet tells the story! Thet's wut we shall git
By tryin' squirtguns on the burnin' Pit;
For the day never comes when it'll du
To kick off dooty like a worn-out shoe.

Lowell—The Biglow Papers. No. 11.

3

Straight is the line of duty;
Curved is the line of beauty;
Follow the straight line, thou shalt see
The curved line ever follow thee.

William MacCall—Duty.

4

Every mission constitutes a pledge of duty. Every man is bound to consecrate his every faculty to its fulfilment. He will derive his rule of action from the profound conviction of that duty.

Mazzini—Life and Writings. Young Europe. General Principles.

5

The things which must be, must be for the best,
God helps us do our duty and not shrink,
And trust His mercy humbly for the rest.

Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton)—Imperfection.

5

Left that command
Sole daughter of his voice.

Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. IX. L. 652.

(See also Wordsworth)

7

Knowledge is the hill which few may wish to climb;
Duty is the path that all may tread.

Lewis Morris—Epic of Hades. Quoted by John Bright at Unveiling of Cobden Statue.

8

Thy sum of duty let two words contain,
(O may they graven in thy heart remain!)
Be humble and be just.

Prior—Solomon- on the Vanity of the World. Bk. III.

9

And I read the moral—A brave endeavour
To do thy duty, whate'er its worth,
Is better than life with love forever,
And love is the sweetest thing on earth.

James J. Roche—Sir Hugo's Choice.

10

Alas! when duty grows thy law, enjoyment fades away.

Schiller—The Playing Infant.

11

I do perceive here a divided duty.

Othello. Act 1. Sc. 3. L. 181.

13

I thought the remnant of mine age
Should have been cherish'd by her child-like duty.

Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 74.

13

Not once or twice in our rough island story,
The path of duty was the way to glory.

Tennyson—Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. St. 8.

14

Simple duty hath no place for fear.

Whittier—Tent on the Beach. Abraham Davenport. Last Line.

15

The primal duties shine aloft, like stars;
The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless
Are scattered at the feet of Man, like flowers.

Wordsworth—The Excursion. Bk. IX.

16

Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;
And in the light of truth thy
Bondman let me live!

Wordsworth—Ode to Duty.

17

Stern Daughter of the Voice of God.

Wordsworth—Ode to Duty.

18

Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove.

Wordsworth—Ode to Duty.

(See also Milton)

EAGLE

19

So, in the Libyan fable it is told
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
"With our own feathers, not by others' hand
Are we now smitten."

Æschylus—Fragment. 123. Plumptre's trans. The idea of the eagle struck by a feather from her own wing is proverbial. See note by Porson, 139, to Euripides' Medea. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Reiske's ed. 970. Eustathius—ad Iliad. P. 632. 489. Schollast—On Lucian. Vol. I. P. 794. Roger L' Estrange, Fables of Æsop. 48. Eagle and the Arrow.

(See also Byron, Moore, Waller, also Phillips under Religion)

20

So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quivered in his heart.

Byron—English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. L. 826.

21

Tho' he inherit
Nor the pride, nor ample pinion,
That the Theban eagle bear,
Sailing with supreme dominion
Thro' the azure deep of air.

Gray—Progress of Poesy.

22

King of the peak and glacier,
King of the cold, white scalps,
He lifts his head at that close tread,
The eagle of the Alps.

Victor Hugo—Swiss Mercenaries.