“Can storied urn, or animated bust / Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?”

— Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (written 1750, publ. 1751), St. 11

About Thomas Gray

1716 – 1771

English poet, author of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".

“The still small voice of gratitude.”

“Alas, regardless of their doom, / The little victims play!”

“Yet ah! why should they know their fate?”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”