There is in us a lyric germ or nucleus which deserves respect; it bids a man to ponder or create; and in this dim corner of himself he can take refuge and find consolations which the society of his fellow creatures does not provide. - Norman Douglas
Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine, the life, the soul of reading! Take them out and one cold eternal winter would reign in every page. Restore them to the writer - he steps forth like a bridegroom, bids them all-hail, brings in variety and forbids the appetite to fail. - Laurence Sterne
The devil is busytrying to take from uswhat we get from God,and so God bids us hold fast. - C. Nuzum
As prayer without faith is but a beating of the air, so trust without prayer [is] but a presumptuous bravado. He that promises to give, and bids us trust His promises, commands us to pray, and expects obedience to his commands. He will give, but not without our asking. - Thomas Lye
She gave thee beauty—blush of fire, That bids the flames of war retire! Woman! be fair, we must adore thee; Smile, and a world is weak before thee! - Anacreon - 485 BC
The world commands our desire for purity but bids that we not be too precise about it. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
A time when sky blue love bids farewell to the day and before dusk falls, the sunset ignites the smouldering embers of the moonlit soul... - Virginia Alison
Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws. - Sir Richard Francis Burton