Eugene Field Quotations

Ideas came with explosive immediacy, like an instant birth. Human thought is like a monstrous pendulum; it keeps swinging from one extreme to the other.

He played the King as though under momentary apprehension that someone else was about to play the ace.

Here we have a baby. It is composed of a bald head and a pair of lungs.

I'm being assessed for it. I get nothing, ... I was told by the time I got my tax bill I would get water. My mistake was in not asking them what year.

All human joys are swift of wing, For heaven doth so allot it; That when you get an easy thing, You find you haven't got it

What smells so? Has somebody been burning a Rag, or is there a Dead Mule in the Back yard? No, the Man is Smoking a Five-Cent Cigar.

I never lost a little fish - Yes, I'm free to say. It always was the biggest fish I caught, that got away.

The best of all physiciansIs apple pie and cheese!

Used to think that luck wuz luck and nuthin' else but luck-- It made no diff'rence how or when or where or why it struck; But sev'ral years ago I changt my mind, an' now proclaim That luck's a kind uv science--same as any other game.

I'd like a stocking made for a giant, And a meeting house full of toys, Then I'd go out in a happy hunt For the poor little girls and boys; Up the street and down the street, And across and over the town, I'd search and find them everyone, Before the sun went down.

Some statesmen go to Congress and some go to jail. It is the same thing, after all.

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace.

When I demanded of my friend what viands he preferred, He quoth: "A large cold bottle, and a small hot bird!"

He is so mean, he won't let his little baby have more than one measle at a time.

But he who truly loves books loves all books alike, and not only this, but it grieves him that all other men do not share with him this noble passion. Verily, this is the most unselfish of loves!

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night Sailed off in a wooden shoe, - Sailed on a river of crystal light Into a sea of dew.

Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod, one night sailed off in a wooden shoe; Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew. "Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the three. "We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea. Nets of silver and gold have we," said Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

Have you an unexpurgated copy of Hannah More's 'Letters to a Village Maiden'?

How gracious those dews of solace that over my senses fall At the clink of the ice in the pitcher the boy brings up the hall.

Father calls me William, sister calls me Will, Mother calls me Willie, but the fellows call me Bill!.

The biggest fish he ever caught were those that got away.

A mighty good sausage stuffer was spoiled when the man became a poet.

There is a glorious candor in an honest quart of wine, A certain inspitation which I cannot well define.

Let my temptation be a book, which I shall purchase, hold and keep.

Let my temptation be a book.

All good and true book-lovers practice the pleasing and improving avocation of reading in bed ... No book can be appreciated until it has been slept with and dreamed over.

But I, when I undress me Each night, upon my knees Will ask the Lord to bless me With apple-pie and cheese.

Books do actually consume air and exhale perfumes.

Not so, however, with books, for books cannot change. A thousand years hence they are what you find them to-day, speaking the same words, holding forth the same cheer, the same promise, the same comfort; always constant, laughing with those who laugh and weeping with those who weep.

No book can be appreciated until it has been slept with and dreamed over.

I cannot sing the old songs I sang long years ago, And yet I cannot say I'm sad That time hath changed us so, For when I used to sing those songs, My Papa blankety blanked, And Mama took me on her knee And I, alas! was spanked

The gingham dog and the calico cat, Side by side on the table sat