Top 694 Quotes & Sayings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Last updated on October 10, 2024.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England.
It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know that it has begun.
That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.
Music is the universal language of mankind.
Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait.
Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.
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.
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, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.
The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.
Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man's enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion.
If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
The nearer the dawn the darker the night.
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.
Each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close; Something attempted, something done, has earned a night's repose.
Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.
Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning - an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.
A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.
Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him.
Something attempted, something done, Has earned a nights repose.
People demand freedom only when they have no power.
Youth comes but once in a lifetime.
Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service.
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.
In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.
Thy fate is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall.
Perseverance 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.
There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.
Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions.
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books.
In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.
All things must change to something new, to something strange.
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.
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
Sometimes we may learn more from a man's errors, than from his virtues.
The human voice is the organ of the soul.
There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love, the first fluttering of its silken wings.
Joy, temperance, and repose, slam the door on the doctor's nose.
If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it.
It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a disappointed passion. Such wounds always leave a scar.
Give what you have to somebody, it may be better than you think.
The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.
Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place.
He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.
The dawn is not distant, nor is the night starless; love is eternal.
All things come round to him who will but wait.
Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.
Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak.
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after.
Love gives itself; it is not bought.
Into each life some rain must fall.
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.
The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.
They who go Feel not the pain of parting; it is they Who stay behind that suffer.
Talk not of wasted affection - affection never was wasted.