Bret Harte Quotations

But, when the goddess' work is done,The woman's still remains.

Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands, And of armèd men the hum; Lo, a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum Saying, Come, Freemen, Come! Ere your heritage be wasted, Said the quick alarming drum.

Each lost day has its patron saint!

Thiar ain't no sense In gittin' riled!

Crude at first [the short story] received a literary polish in the press, but its dominant quality remained. It was concise and condense, yet suggestive. It was delightfully extravagant - or a miracle of understatement

Which I wish to remark-- And my language is plain,-- That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.

And then, for an old man like me, it's not exactly right,This kind o' playing soldier with no enemy in sight.

The delicate thought, that cannot find expression, For ruder speech too fair, That, like thy petals, trembles in possession, And scatters on the air.

Don't be too quickTo break bad habits: better stick,Like the Mission folk, to your arsenic.

When folks find I ain't afeard to speak my mind on their affairs, they kinder guess I'm tellin' the truth about my own.