Henry Wadsworth Longfellow > Quotes

“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Music is the universal language of mankind.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“A torn jacket is soon mended, but hard words bruise the heart of a child.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Be still sad heart and cease repining, behind the clouds the sun is shining; thy fate is the common fate of all; into each life some rain must fall-some days must be dark and dreary.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“I do not believe anyone can be perfectly well, who has a brain and a heart”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“As Unto the bow the the cord is ,
So unto the man is woman;
Though she bends him, she obeys him,
Though she draws him , yet she follows:
Useless each without the other.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Quotes about Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
and things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art; to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Talk not of wasted affection; affection never was wasted.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The heart, like the mind, has a memory.
And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“There are things of which I may not speak;
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained in sudden flight but, they while their companions slept, they were toiling upwards in the night.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“A Psalm of Life

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints
on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Art is the child of nature in whom we trace the features of the mothers face.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
and silently steal away.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“In character, in manner, in style, in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Favorite Poems

“For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Let us labor for an inward stillness--
An inward stillness and an inward healing.
That perfect silence where the lips and heart
Are still, and we no longer entertain
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,
But God alone speaks to us and we wait
In singleness of heart that we may know
His will, and in the silence of our spirits,
That we may do His will and do that only”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it: Every arrow that flies feels the pull of the earth.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.
”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poems Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Love gives itself; it is not bought.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“A noble type of good.
Heroic womanhood. ”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves
that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Glorious indeed is the world of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion
that if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,
Spilled on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Perserverence is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Stay, stay at home, my heart and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Resolve and thou art free”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“...for it is the fate of a woman
Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a ghost that is speechless,
Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence.
Hence is the inner life of so many suffering women
Sunless and silent and deep, like subterranean rivers
Runnng through caverns of darkness...”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The courtship of Miles Standish, and other poems

“When thou are not pleased, beloved,
Then my heart is sad and darkened,
As the shining river darkens
When the clouds drop shadows on it!

When thou smilest, my beloved,
Then my troubled heart is brightened,
As in sunshine gleam the ripples
That the cold wind makes in rivers.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha

“For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hiawatha: The Story and Song

“Let us, then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Longfellow's Poems

“Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing:
Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence. ”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The leaves of memory seemed to make A mournful rustling in the dark”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow