Carl Sandburg Quotes - Page 6

There is a formal poetry perfect only in form?the number of syllables, the designated and required stresses of accent, the rhymes if wantedthey come off with the skill of a solved crossword puzzle.

Poetry is a section of river-fog and moving boat-lights, delivered between bridges and whistles, so one says, 'Oh!' and another, 'How?'

An ambition is a little creeper that creeps and creeps in your heart night and day, singing a little song, "Come and find me, come and find me."

In the night the cabbages catch at the moon, the leaves drip silver, the rows of cabbages are a series of little silver waterfalls in the moon.

Gather the stars if you wish it so Gather the songs and keep them. Gather the faces of women. Gather for keeping years and years. And then... Loosen your hands, let go and say good-bye. Let the stars and songs go. Let the faces and years go. Loosen your hands and say good-bye.

What is there more of in the world than anything else? Ends.

To work hard, to live hard, to die hard, and then go to hell after all would be too damned hard.

The greatest cunning is to have none at all.

I was up day and night with Lincoln for years. I couldn't have picked a better companion.

Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.

There are people who want to be everywhere at once, and they get nowhere

Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head.

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.

Time is the coin of our live. We must take care how we spend it.

POETRY: A sliver of the moon lost in the belly of a golden frog.

Poetry is the report of a nuance between two moments, when people say, 'Listen!' and 'Did you see it?' 'Did you hear it? What was it?'

Enough small empty boxes thrown into a big empty box fill it full.

Nothing happens... but first a dream.

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.

Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.

The dead hold in their hands only what they have given away.

I had taken a course in Ethics. I read a thick textbook, heard the class discussions and came out of it saying I hadn't learned a thing I didn't know before about morals and what is right or wrong in human conduct.

I am the people the mob the crowd the mass. Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?

The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over the harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

Now I am here - now read me - give me a name.