.
His father, who himself published both prose and verse, owned and edited from 1845 to 1852 the Nottingham Mercury, one of the chief journals in his native town. Philip James Bailey received a local education until his sixteenth year, when he matriculated at Glasgow University
. He did not, however, take his degree, but moved in 1835 to London
and entered Lincoln's Inn
.
Art is man's nature; nature is God's art. 
Let each man think himself an act of God,His mind a thought, his life a breath of God;And let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds,To show the most of Heaven he hath in him.
Men might be better if we better deemedOf them. The worst way to improve the worldIs to condemn it.
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 livesWho thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.Life's but a means unto an end; that endBeginning, mean, and end to all things, —God.
Who never doubted never half believedWhere doubt there truth is—'t is her shadow.
America thou half-brother of the world!With something good and bad of every land.
Music tells no truths.
Poets are all who love, who feel great truths,And tell them; and the truth of truths is love.
The worst men often give the best advice.
They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.