'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;

A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,

Which sought through the world is ne'er met with elsewhere.

An exile from home splendour dazzles in vain,

Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again;

The birds singing gayly, that came at my call,

Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than all.

J Howard Payne (1792-1852): Home, Sweet Home. (From the opera of "Clari, the Maid of Milan.")

She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;

And humble cares, and delicate fears;

A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;

And love and thought and joy.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Sparrow's Nest.

I knew, by the smoke that so gracefully curl'd

Above the green elms, that a cottage was near;

And I said, "If there's peace to be found in the world,

A heart that was humble might hope for it here."

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): Ballad Stanzas.

'T is better to be lowly born,

And range with humble livers in content,

Than to be perked up in a glistering grief,

And wear a golden sorrow.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. 3.

None shall rule but the humble,

And none but Toil shall have.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Boston Hymn. 1863.

From humble Port to imperial Tokay.

James Townley (1715-1778): High Life below Stairs. Act ii. Sc. 1.

The best of men

That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer;

A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,

The first true gentleman that ever breathed.

Thomas Dekker (1572-1632): The Honest Whore. Part i. Act i. Sc. 12.

Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much;

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

Books are not seldom talismans and spells.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book vi. Winter Walk at Noon. Line 96.