My Small Boat

I rang them up whilst touring Timbuctoo,
Those bosom chums to whom you’re known as “Who?”

There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.

And as he, too, seemed disinclined for chit-chat, we stood for some moments like a couple of Trappist monks who have run into each other at the dog races.

No fury more righteous than that of a sinner accused of the wrong sin.

To a Goose
If thou didst feed on western plains of yore;
Or waddle wide with flat and flabby feet
Over some Cambrian mountain’s plashy moor;
Or find in farmer’s yard a safe retreat
From gipsy thieves, and foxes sly and fleet;
If thy grey quills, by lawyer guided, trace
Deeds big with ruin to some wretched race,
Or love-sick poet’s sonnet, sad […]

Simplicate, then add lightness
Colin Chapman was the founder of Lotus cars and the Team Lotus Formula 1 team.

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

Work without Hope
Lines composed 21st February 1825
All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair–
The bees are stirring–birds are on the wing–
And winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring !
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.
Yet well I ken […]

There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

Explanation is nothing but condensed descriptions.

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

The Taxis
In the first taxi he was alone tra-la,
No extras on the clock. He tipped ninepence
But the cabby, while he thanked him, looked askance
As though to suggest someone had bummed a ride.
In the second taxi he was alone tra-la
But the clock showed sixpence extra; he tipped according
And the cabby from out his muffler said: ‘Make […]