Thomas Bailey Aldrich's Quotes

A man is known by the company his mind keeps.

I like to have a thing suggested rather than told in full. When every detail is given, the mind rests satisfied, and the imagination loses the desire to use its own wings.

Civilization is the lamb's skin in which barbarism masquerades.

No bird has ever uttered note That was not in some first bird's throat; Since Eden's freshness and man's fall No rose has been original.

There must be such a thing as a child with average ability, but you can't find a parent who will admit that it is his child.

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age.

The man who suspects his own tediousness is yet to be born.

The ocean moans over dead men's bones.

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.

True art selects and paraphrases, but seldom gives a verbatim translation.

What is lovely never dies, But passes into other loveliness.

Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay.