Bret Harte Quotes (1839-1902)

Author, Poet

About Bret Harte

Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1839 – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.

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β€œAh Sin was his name.”
Bret Harte
β€œEach lost day has its patron saint!”
β€œWe are ruined by Chinese cheap labor.”
β€œWith the smile that was childlike and bland.”
β€œThere is peace in the swamp, though the quiet is Death,”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte Quotes by Topic

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Bret Harte on War 3 quotes

β€œAn hour ago, a Star was falling. A star? There's nothing strange in that. No, nothing; but above the thicket, Somehow it seemed to me that God Somewhere had just relieved a picket.”
Bret Harte
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Bret Harte on Smiling

β€œWith the smile that was childlike and bland.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Tears

β€œNever a tear bedims the eye That time and patience will not dry.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Bells

β€œYour voices break and falter in the darkness,β€” Break, falter, and are still.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Barter

β€œWith all his learning and all his lore; And the Judge would have bartered Maud's fair face For more refinement and social...”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Horses

β€œMorgan! β€” She ain't nothing else, and I've got the papers to prove it. Sired by Chippewa Chief, and twelve hundred dollars won't buy her.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Words

β€œIf of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, "It might have been," More sad are these we daily see, "It is, but it hadn't ought to be."”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Dishonesty

β€œWhich I wish to remarkβ€” And my language is plain,β€” That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Pansies

β€œThe 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

Bret Harte on Youth

β€œOver the trackless past, somewhere, Lie the lost days of our tropic youth, Only regained by faith and prayer, Only recalled by prayer and plaint, Each lost day has its patron saint!”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Coyote

β€œBlown out of the prairie in twilight and dew Half bold and half timid, yet lazy all through; Loath ever to leave, and yet fearful to stay, He limps in the clearing, an outcast in gray.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Childhood

β€œBut still when the mists of doubt prevail, And we lie becalmed by the shores of age, We hear from the misty troubled shore The voice of the children gone before. Drawing the soul to its anchorage.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Death

β€œAnd I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay The song of the sailors in glee: So I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o'er dark Galilee, And wait for the signal to go to the shore, To the ship that is waiting for me.”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on Perfume

β€œAnd ever since then, when the clock strikes two, She walks unbidden from room to room, And the air is filled that she passes through With a subtle, sad perfume. The delicate odor of mignonette, The ghost of a dead and gone bouquet, Is all that tells of her storyβ€”yet Could she think of a sweeter way?”
Bret Harte

What Bret Harte Said About Others

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Bret Harte on Charles Dickens

β€œAnd on that grave where English oak and holly And laurel wreaths entwine, Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly, This spray of Western pine!”
Bret Harte

Bret Harte on John Greenleaf Whittier

β€œAlas for maiden, alas for Judge, For rich repiner and household drudge! God pity them both! and pity us all, Who vainly the dreams of youth recall; For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!"”
Bret Harte

About Bret Harte

Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1839 – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.
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