Harbinger Quotes

• The true harbinger of spring is not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of the bat on the ball.

  Bill Veeck

  Spring, Sound, Bats

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• [All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies in which they live.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Faith Religion, Daylight

  Thomas Jefferson (1964). “The Jefferson Bible: With the Annotated Commentaries on Religion of Thomas Jefferson”

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• Exceptions are not always the proof of the old rule; they can also be the harbinger of a new one.

  Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

  Proof, Exception

  Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1994). “Aphorisms”, Ariadne Press (CA)

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• Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given,
  That brought into this world a world of woe,
  Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery,
  Death's harbinger.

  John Milton

  Shadow, World, Woe

  John Milton (1750). “Paradise Lost: A Poem, in Twelve Books. The Author John Milton”, p.125

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• Welcome, wild harbinger of spring!
  To this small nook of earth;
  Feeling and fancy fondly cling,
  Round thoughts which owe their birth,
  To thee, and to the humble spot,
  Where chance has fixed thy lowly lot.

  Bernard Barton

  Spring, Humble, Feelings

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• In all parts of the Old World, as well as of the New, it was evident that Columbus had kindled a fire in every mariner's heart. That fire was the harbinger of a new era, for it was not to be extinguished.

  Charles Kendall Adams

  Heart, Fire, World

  Charles Kendall Adams (1892). “Christopher Columbus: His Life and His Work”, New York : Dodd, Mead

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• Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint,
  And sweet thyme true,
  Primrose, first born child of Ver,
  Merry Spring-time's harbinger.

  Francis Beaumont

  Sweet, Children, Spring

  Francis Beaumont (1887). “The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher: Selected”

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• Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Lying, Wish, Able

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• Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death.

  Roddy McDowall

  Sports, Brother, Home

  "Fictional character: Cornelius". "Planet of the Apes", www.imdb.com. February 8, 1968.

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• Our desires presage the capacities within us; they are harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish. What we can do and want to do is projected in our imagination, quite outside ourselves, and into the future. We are attracted to what is already ours in secret. Thus passionate anticipation transforms what is indeed possible into dreamt-for reality.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Future, Reality, Imagination

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• It appears then, that capitalist production comprises conditions independent of good or bad will, conditions which permit the working-class to enjoy that relative prosperity only momentarily, and at that always only as the harbinger of a coming crisis.

  Karl Marx

  Independent, Class, Prosperity

  Karl Marx (1997). “Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: .. Karl Marx: Capital vol.II”

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• Even drunk, I knew any escape plan that involved going to Detroit, Michigan, was a harbinger of doom.

  Mat Johnson

  Drunk, Michigan, Detroit

  Mat Johnson (2011). “Pym: A Novel”, p.8, Spiegel & Grau

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• The other me, who did not mean to drown herself, went under the sea and remained there for a long time. Eventually she surfaced near Japan and people gave her gifts but she had been so long under the sea she did not recognize what they were. She is a sly one. Mostly at night we commune. Night. Harbinger of dream and nightmare and bearer of omens which defy the music of words. In the morning the fear of her going is very real and very alarming. It can make one tremble. Not that she cares. She is the muse. I am the messenger.

  Edna O'Brien

  Dream, Morning, Real

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• But who is this, what thing of sea or land,- Female of sex it seems,- That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay, Comes this way sailing Like a stately ship Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles Of Javan or Gadire, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails fill'd, and streamers waving, Courted by all the winds that hold them play, An amber scent of odorous perfume Her harbinger?

  John Milton

  Sex, Gay, Wind

  John Milton (1832). “The Poetical Works of John Milton”, p.34

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• The highest greatness, surviving time and stone, is that which proceeds from the soul of man. Monarchs and cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of court and the circumstance of war, in the lapse of time disappear from sight; but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose example elevates human nature, and teaches the rights of man, so that "a government of the people, by the people, for the people, may not perish from the earth;" such a harbinger can never be forgotten, and their renown spreads co-extensive with the cause they served so well.

  Charles Sumner

  War, Greatness, Men

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• A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the prophet of those to come, and the harbinger of a greater friend.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friendship, Children, Future

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1347, Delphi Classics

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• It has passed over mountain ranges and
  The waters of the seven seas.
  It has shown upon laborers in the fields,
  Into the windows of homes,
  And shops, and factories.
  
  It has beheld cities with gleaming towers,
  And also the hovels of the poor.
  It has been witness to both good and evil,
  The works of honest men and women and
  The conspiracy of knaves.
  
  It has seen marching armies, bomb-blasted villages
  And "the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
  Now, unsullied from its tireless journey,
  It comes to us,
  Messenger of the morning.
  Harbinger of a new day.

  Clinton Lee Scott

  Morning, Home, Army

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• Stay, little cheerful Robin! stay, And at my casement sing, Though it should prove a farewell lay And this our parting spring. * * * * * Then, little Bird, this boon confer, Come, and my requiem sing, Nor fail to be the harbinger Of everlasting spring.

  William Wordsworth

  Spring, Farewell, Bird

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• Life's sunniest hours are not without
  The shadow of some lingering doubt--
  Amid its brightest joys will steal
  Spectres of evil yet to feel--
  Its warmest love is blent with fears,
  Its confidence a trembling one--
  Its smile--the harbinger of tears--
  Its hope--the change of April's sun!
  A weary lot--in mercy given,
  To fit the chastened soul for heaven.

  John Greenleaf Whittier

  Love Is, Evil, Joy

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• If we're not able to launch our own people and operate our own spacecraft anymore then, you know, space - whether it should be or not, it's seen as like a harbinger of technology. If you can fly people into space, if you can operate into space, then you've got high technology and if you're the leader of that, then you're the leader in technology. If we lose that on a more or less permanent basis, or for a long period of time, my fear is that it will creep into the national psyche in all areas and we as a nation as a whole will kind of be diminished.

  Leroy Chiao

  Technology, Long, People

  Source: bigthink.com

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• That sorrow which is the harbinger of joy is preferable to the joy which is followed by sorrow.

  Saadi

  Joy, Sorrow

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• For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger; At whose approach ghosts wandring here and there Troop home to church-yards.... For fear lest day should look their shames upon, They willfully exile themselves from light, And must for aye consort with black brow'd night.

  William Shakespeare

  Home, Cutting, Night

  William Shakespeare (1768). “The Works of Shakespear, from Mr. Pope's Edition”, p.122

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• Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger, comes dancing from the east.

  John Milton

  Morning, Stars, Dancing

  John Milton, Henry John Todd (1826). “The poetical works of John Milton: With notes of various authors”, p.66

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• The hopeless hope is one of the early harbingers of spring, bespeaking an innocent belief that the world might right its wrongs and reverse its curses simply because the trees are coming into leaf.

  Aleksandar Hemon

  Spring, Tree, World

  Aleksandar Hemon (2013). “The Book of My Lives”, p.9, Pan Macmillan

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• The propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained...

  George Washington

  Order, Heaven, Addresses

  George Washington's Inaugural Address, www.archives.gov. April 30, 1789.

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