Bret Harte Quotes

• A bird in the hand is a certainty, but a bird in the bush may sing.

  Bret Harte

  Inspirational, Hands, Bird

  52 Copy quote

• The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.

  Bret Harte

  Leadership, Sports, Money

  29 Copy quote

• If, of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, It might have been,' More sad are these we daily see: 'It is, but hadn't ought to be!'

  Bret Harte

  Might, Tongue, Ought

  'Mrs Judge Jenkins.'

  14 Copy quote

• Never a tear bedims the eye that time and patience will not dry.

  Bret Harte

  Patience, Eye, Tears

  Bret Harte (1872). “Prose and Poetry”, p.305

  14 Copy quote

• Never a lip is curved with pain that can't be kissed into smiles again.

  Bret Harte

  Life, Smile, Pain

  Bret Harte (2016). “Poetical Works, Complete: Top American Novelist”, p.112, VM eBooks

  18 Copy quote

• The creator who could put a cancer in a believer's stomach is above being
  interfered with by prayers.

  Bret Harte

  God, Prayer, Cancer

  18 Copy quote

• For the glory born of Goodness Never dies, And its flag is not half-masted In the skies.

  Bret Harte

  Sky, Flags, Half

  Bret Harte (1914). “The Writings of Bret Harte”

  14 Copy quote

• The dominant expression of a child is gravity.

  Bret Harte

  Children, Expression, Childhood

  14 Copy quote

• There is peace in the swamp, though the quiet is Death

  Bret Harte

  Swamps, Quiet

  Bret Harte (2016). “Poetical Works, Complete: Top American Novelist”, p.24, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

• Perhaps there is no gift of nature that requires as little exertion on the part of the owner as personal beauty. I am not certain but that it is this very absence of effort which excites our admiration.

  Bret Harte

  Effort, Littles, Admiration

  Bret Harte (1914). “The Writings of Bret Harte”

  15 Copy quote

• But still when the mists of doubt prevail,
  And we lie becalmed by the shores of age,
  We hear from the misty troubled shore
  The voce of children gone before.
  Drawing the soul to its anchorage.

  Bret Harte

  Children, Lying, Drawing

  Bret Harte (2016). “Poetical Works, Complete: Top American Novelist”, p.193, VM eBooks

  13 Copy quote

• Each lost day has its patron saint!

  Bret Harte

  Saint, Lost, Patron

  Bret Harte (2016). “Poetical Works, Complete: Top American Novelist”, p.118, VM eBooks

  13 Copy quote

• Besides writing, I have been teaching myself to 'develop' my own photographic plates, and I haven't a stick of clothing or an exposed finger that isn't stained. I sit for hours in a dark-room feeling as if I were a very elderly Faust at some dreadful incantation, and come out of it, blinding at the light, like a Bastille prisoner. And yet I am not successful!

  Bret Harte

  Teaching, Writing, Successful

  14 Copy quote

• Thiar ain't no sense In gittin' riled!

  Bret Harte

  'Jim'

  7 Copy quote

• Love differs from all the other contagious diseases: the last time a man is exposed to it, he takes it most readily, and has it the worst!

  Bret Harte

  Love, Men, Disease

  Bret Harte (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Bret Harte (Illustrated)”, p.6563, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• It may be broadly stated that.....of all animals kept for the recreation of mankind the horse is alone capable of exciting a passion that shall be absolutely hopeless.

  Bret Harte

  Horse, Passion, Animal

  10 Copy quote

• It would seem evident, therefore, that the secret of the American short story was the treatment of characteristic American life, with absolute knowledge of its peculiarities and sympathy with its method.

  Bret Harte

  Secret, Stories, Characteristics

  Bret Harte (2001). “The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Writings”, p.222, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• Nobody shoulders a rifle in defense of a boarding house.

  Bret Harte

  House, Rifles, Defense

  7 Copy quote

• Crude at first [the short story] received a literary polish in the press, but its dominant quality remained. It was concise and condense, yet suggestive. It was delightfully extravagant - or a miracle of understatement

  Bret Harte

  Miracle, Quality, Stories

  Bret Harte (2001). “The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Writings”, p.218, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• When folks find I ain't afeard to speak my mind on their affairs, they kinder guess I'm tellin' the truth about my own.

  Bret Harte

  Honesty, Mind, Speak

  Bret Harte (2016). “The Argonauts of North Liberty”, p.56, The Floating Press

  7 Copy quote

• But, when the goddess' work is done,The woman's still remains.

  Bret Harte

  Done, Goddess, Stills

  Bret Harte (1886). “The Complete Poetical Works of Bret Harte”, p.12, Library of Alexandria

  4 Copy quote

• One big vice in a man is apt to keep out a great many smaller ones.

  Bret Harte

  Men, Vices, Great Men

  Bret Harte (1887). “The Poetical Works, Including the Drama of "The Two Men of Sandy Bar", of Bret Harte ...”

  4 Copy quote

• Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands, And of armèd men the hum; Lo, a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum Saying, Come, Freemen, Come! Ere your heritage be wasted, Said the quick alarming drum.

  Bret Harte

  Men, Heritage, Arms

  Bret Harte (2016). “Poetical Works, Complete: Top American Novelist”, p.15, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

• Your voices break and falter in the darkness, Break, falter, and are still.

  Bret Harte

  Voice, Darkness, Bells

  Bret Harte (1871). “That heathen Chinee, and other poems mostly humorous”, p.113

  7 Copy quote

• The delicate thought, that cannot find expression, For ruder speech too fair, That, like thy petals, trembles in possession, And scatters on the air.

  Bret Harte

  Air, Expression, Speech

  Bret Harte (1904). “The Writings of Bret Harte”

  79 Copy quote

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