William Blake - William Wordsworth - Laurence Sterne - Douglas Adams - Walter Scott - William Shakespeare - Wilfred Owen - John Milton - Thomas Mordant -
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour. William Blake
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind ...
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind. William Wordsworth, Ode Intimations of Immortality, 1807
He was within a few hours of giving his enemies the slip for ever. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
‘So the hours are pretty good then?’ he resumed.
The Vogon stared down at him as sluggish thoughts moiled around in the murky depths.
‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘but now you come to mention it, most of the actual minutes are pretty lousy.’ Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The hour is come, but not the man. Walter Scott, The Heart of Midlothian, 1818
Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,
And now I find it. William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus V iii 154-155
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour, we rot and rot:
And thereby hangs a tale. William Shakespeare, As You Like It II xii 26
You have stayed in a happy hour. William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing IV i 283
Thou cam’st on earth to make the earth my hell ...
What comfortable hour canst thou name
That ever graced me in thy company? William Shakespeare, Richard III IV iv 167 & 174-175, Duchess of York to King Richard
You come most carefully upon the hour. William Shakespeare, Hamlet I i 6
Come what come may,
Time and hour runs through the roughest day. William Shakespeare, Macbeth I iii 146
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. William Shakespeare, Othello II iii 269, Iago
But know you canst not knit
Thy web of hours so close as to regain
E’en one lost stitch. Wilfred Owen, Lines Written on My Nineteenth Birthday
Fly envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours. John Milton, On Time
One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name. Thomas Mordaunt, other attributions inc Walter Scott