If solid happiness we prize,
Within our breast this jewel lies,
And they are fools who roam.
The world has nothing to bestow;
From our own selves our joys must flow,
And that dear hut, our home.

Nathaniel Cotton (1707 – August 2, 1788) was an English physician and poet.

Quotes

• If solid happiness we prize,
  Within our breast this jewel lies,
  And they are fools who roam.
  The world has nothing to bestow;
  From our own selves our joys must flow,
  And that dear hut, our home.
  • The Fireside, stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• To be resign'd when ills betide,
  Patient when favours are deni'd,
  And pleas'd with favours given,—
  Dear Chloe, this is wisdom's part;
  This is that incense of the heart
  Whose fragrance smells to heaven.
  • The Fireside, stanza 11, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "The incense of the heart may rise", Pierpont, Every Place a Temple, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Thus hand in hand through life we'll go;
  Its checker'd paths of joy and woe
  With cautious steps we'll tread
  • The Fireside, Stanza 31, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Yet still we hug the dear deceit.
  • Content, Vision iv, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee.
  • To-morrow, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

External links

• Visions in Verse, in an 1826 anthology