William Wordsworth > Quotes

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
― William Wordsworth

“Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be...”
― William Wordsworth

“I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”
― William Wordsworth

“The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.”
― William Wordsworth

“poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”
― William Wordsworth

“A word is not the same with one writer as it is with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.”
― William Wordsworth

“She Was A Phantom of Delight

She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair;
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful Dawn;
A dancing Shape, an Image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and way-lay.

I saw her upon a nearer view,
A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin liberty;
A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.

And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveler between life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly planned,
To warm, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright,
With something of angelic light.”
― William Wordsworth

“Nature never did betray, The heart that loved her.”
― William Wordsworth

“What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind.”
― William Wordsworth, Intimations of Inmortality

“Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.”
― William Wordsworth

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.”
― William Wordsworth

“Come grow old with me. The best is yet to be.”
― William Wordsworth

“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come ”
― William Wordsworth

“The music in my heart I bore
Long after it was heard no more.”
― William Wordsworth, Great Narrative Poems Of The Romantic Age

“Wisdom is sometimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.”
― William Wordsworth

“My heart leaps up when I behold
A Rainbow in the sky:”
― William Wordsworth

“Rest and be thankful.”
― William Wordsworth

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”
― William Wordsworth

“There is a comfort in the strenght of love; 'Twill make a thing endurable, which else would overset the brain, or break the heart.”
― William Wordsworth

“When from our better selves we have too long been parted by the hurrying world, and droop. Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, how gracious, how benign (is) solitude. ”
― William Wordsworth

“Great God! I'd rather be a Pagan.... ”
― William Wordsworth

“Love betters what is best”
― William Wordsworth

“Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good.
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.”
― William Wordsworth

“Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.”
― William Wordsworth

“Be mild, and cleave to gentle things,
thy glory and thy happiness be there.”
― William Wordsworth

“The child is father of the man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety. ”
― William Wordsworth

“Then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.”
― William Wordsworth

“The eye - it cannot choose but see;
We cannot bid the ear be still;
Our bodies feel, where'er they be,
Against or with our will.”
― William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads: With a Few Other Poems

“That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind. ”
― William Wordsworth

“Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive
But to be young was very heaven.”
― William Wordsworth, The Prelude

“Delight and liberty, the simple creed of childhood.”
― William Wordsworth

“For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity. ”
― William Wordsworth

“Habit rules the unreflecting herd. ”
― William Wordsworth

“A simple child. That lightly draws its breath. And feels its life in every limb. What should it know of death?”
― William Wordsworth

“Imagination! lifting up itself
Before the eye and progress of my Song
Like and unfather'd vapour; here that Power
In all the might of its endowments, came
Athwart me; I was lost as in a cloud,
Halted without a struggle to break through,
And now recovering to my Soul I say
I recognize they glory; in such strength
Of usurpation, in such visitings
Of awful promise, when the light of sense
Goes out in flashes that have shewn to us
The invisible world, doth Greatness make abode
There harbours whether we be young or old.
Our destiny, our nature, and our home
Is with infinitude, and only there;
With hope it is, hope that can never die,
Effort, and expectation, and desire,
And something evermore about to be.”
― William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth's The prelude : with a selection from the shorter poems, the sonnets, The recluse, and The excursion and three essays on the art of poetry

“One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the ages can.”
― William Wordsworth

“For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude”
― William Wordsworth

“And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.”
― William Wordsworth, Selected Poetry

“The mind of man is a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells.”
― William Wordsworth

“poetry is the breath and finer spirit of knowledge”
― William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads: With a Few Other Poems

“The earth was all before me. With a heart
Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty,
I look about; and should the chosen guide
Be nothing better than a wandering cloud,
I cannot miss my way.”
― William Wordsworth, The Prelude

“Surprised by joy- impatient as the Wind
I turned to share the transport-- Oh! with whom
But thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind--
But how could I forget thee? Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind
To my most grievous loss? -- That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,
Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.”
― William Wordsworth, The Works of William Wordsworth (Wordsworth Collection)

“Pictures deface walls more often than they decorate them.”
― William Wordsworth

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”
― William Wordsworth

“Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge - it is as immortal as the heart of man.”
― William Wordsworth

“Books! tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.”
― William Wordsworth, Wordsworth: Poems

“From the body of one guilty deed a thousand ghostly fears and haunting thoughts proceed.”
― William Wordsworth

“Bagian terindah dari kehidupan manusia yang baik, adalah segala tindakan yang kecil, tak bernama, terlupakan, dari kebaikan dan cinta”
― William Wordsworth

“The good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust, burn to the socket.”
― William Wordsworth

“This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.”
― William Wordsworth