quote · Legacy record
Few and precious are the words which the lips of wisdom utter; To what shall their rarity be likened? what price shall count their worth? Perfect and much to be desired, and giving joy with riches, No lovely thing on earth can picture all their beauty. They be chance pearls, flung among the rocks by the sullen waters of oblivion, Which diligence loveth to gather, and hang round the neck of memory; They be white-winged seeds of happiness, wafted from the islands of the blessed, Which thought carefully tendeth, in the kindly garden of the heart; They be sproutings of an harvest for eternity, bursting through the tilth of time, Green promise of the golden wheat, that yieldeth angel’s food; They be drops of the crystal dew, which the wings of seraphs scatter, When on some brighter sabbath, their plumes quiver most with delight: Such, and so precious, are the words which the lips of wisdom utter.
Few and precious are the words which the lips of wisdom utter; To what shall their rarity be likened? what price shall count their worth? Perfect and much to be desired, and giving joy with riches, No lovely thing on earth can picture all their beauty. They be chance pearls, flung among the rocks by the sullen waters of oblivion, Which diligence loveth to gather, and hang round the neck of memory; They be white-winged seeds of happiness, wafted from the islands of the blessed, Which thought carefully tendeth, in the kindly garden of the heart; They be sproutings of an harvest for eternity, bursting through the tilth of time, Green promise of the golden wheat, that yieldeth angel’s food; They be drops of the crystal dew, which the wings of seraphs scatter, When on some brighter sabbath, their plumes quiver most with delight: Such, and so precious, are the words which the lips of wisdom utter.
Approximate author period: c. 1849 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Martin F. Tupper
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1849 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1810–1889)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 675 · printed citation: Martin F. Tupper · subject: WISDOM
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