How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

As night the life-inclining stars best shows,
So lives obscure the starriest souls disclose.

As night the life-inclining stars best shows,
So lives obscure the starriest souls disclose.

Darkness is to space what silence is to sound, i.e., the interval.

Darkness is to space what silence is to sound, i.e., the interval.

I give the fight up; let there be an end,
A privacy, an obscure nook for me,
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I give the fight up; let there be an end,
A privacy, an obscure nook for me,
I want to be forgotten even by God.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none read more

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.

He who has lived obscurely and quietly has lived well.
[Lat., Bene qui latuit, bene vixit.]

He who has lived obscurely and quietly has lived well.
[Lat., Bene qui latuit, bene vixit.]

Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honour as deserving real distinction are those who read more

Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honour as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity.

Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not read more

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.