Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) was an English poet. He was famous for Festus (1839,) a version of the Faust legend. First published anonymously, it comprised 50 scenes in 22,000 lines of blank-verse dialogue.
Born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Bailey was the son of the owner-publisher of the Nottingham Mercury. Bailey attended the University of Glasgow but did not graduate. He moved to London in 1835 and entered Lincoln’s Inn, but did not practice law earnestly. He settled at Old Basford near Nottingham.
Bailey was associated with the Spasmodic school-poets who, inspired by Romantic ideas of association and intuition, rejected literary form’s restraint.
Bailey’s voluminous poem Festus was first published anonymously in 1839 and then expanded with a second edition in 1845. He also wrote The Angel World (1850,) The Mystic (1855,) The Age (1858,) and The Universal Hymn (1867.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Philip James Bailey
Night brings out stars as sorrow shows us truths.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Suffering, Sorrow
Joys are bubble-like; what makes them bursts them too.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Joy
The sole equality on earth is death.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Equality, One liners
The worst men often give the best advice.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Advice
The stars, Which stand as thick as dewdrops on the fields Of heaven.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Stars
Morn, like a maiden glancing o’er her pearls, streamed o’er the manna-dew, as though the ground were sown with starseed.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Morning
There is no disappointment we endure one-half so great as what we are to ourselves.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Awareness, Self-Knowledge
Art is man’s nature: Nature is God’s art.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Nature
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Success & Failure
Kindness is wisdom.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Kindness
The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self. All sin is easy after that.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Corruption, Cheating, Deceit
There are whole veins of diamonds in thine eyes, Might furnish crowns for all the Queens of earth.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Eyes
Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is—it is her shadow.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Doubt
America, thou half-brother of the world; with something good and bad of every land.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: America
Surely the stars are images of love.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Stars
Our similarities are different.
—Philip James Bailey
We live in deeds, not years:
In thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Life, General, Achievement, Time Management, Action, Character
Walk boldly and wisely… There is a hand above that will help you on.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Divinity, Faith, God
Imagination is the air of mind.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Imagination
Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Prayer
Great thoughts, like great deeds, need no trumpet.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Thoughts, One liners, Greatness
Simplicity is nature’s first step, and the last of art.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Simplicity
Art is a man’s nature; nature is God’s art.
—Philip James Bailey
I love night more than day—she is so lovely; But I love night the most because she brings My love to me in dreams which scarcely lie.
—Philip James Bailey
Topics: Night
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
A. E. Housman English Scholar, Poet
Francis Thompson English Poet
Edmund Spenser English Poet
Philip Larkin English Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley English Poet
Anne Bradstreet American Poet
Edwin Arnold English Poet
John Webster English Dramatist
Hartley Coleridge British Poet
John Gay English Poet, Dramatist