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Our lives are songs; God writes the words, And we set them to music at leisure: And the song is sad, or the song is glad As we choose to fashion the measure. We must write the song, Whatever the words, Whatever its rhyme, or meter; And if it is sad, we must make it glad, And if sweet, we must make it sweeter.

Our lives are songs; God writes the words, And we set them to music at leisure: And the song is sad, or the song is glad As we choose to fashion the measure. We must write the song, Whatever the words, Whatever its rhyme, or meter; And if it is sad, we must make it glad, And if sweet, we must make it sweeter.

Approximate author period: c. 1765 AD · early modern

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Edward Gibbon
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1765 AD · early modern
author lifetime midpoint (1737–1794)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken.
Recorded source
Thoughts: Selected from the writings of favorite authors (1901) (1901 AD)

Complete signed selection 55; printed byline: Gibbon; New York: Dodge Publishing Company, 1901

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.