Authors:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes - Page 18

All Quotes Accidents Adversity Age Ambition Art Autumn Beach Beauty Change Character Childhood Children Choices Christmas Church Country Criticism Darkness Death Defeat Depression Design Desire Destiny Earth Enthusiasm Evil Excellence Fate Fear Feelings Forgiveness Freedom Friendship Future Genius Giving Glory Grace Grief Grieving Growth Happiness Hate Heart Heaven History Holiday Home Hope House Humanity Inspirational Journey Joy Judging Justice Kissing Labor Labor Day Language Learning Life Literature Love Lying Memories Mercy Moon Morning Motivational Mountain Mourning Music Nature Opportunity Pain Painting Parting Passion Past Patience Peace Perseverance Poetry Prayer Progress Purity Rain Reading Reality Regret Romance Running Sabbath Sad Sadness Self Esteem Silence Singing Sleep Solitude Sorrow Soul Spring Strength Struggle Success Suffering Summer Sunshine Sympathy Time Today Twilight Understanding Victory Virtue Vision Waiting Wall War Warrior Water Weakness Weed Wine Winning Winter Wisdom Work Writing Youth
The course of my long life hath reached at last in fragile bark over a tempestuous sea the common harbor, where must rendered be account for all the actions of the past.

The course of my long life hath reached at last in fragile bark over a tempestuous sea the common harbor, where must rendered be account for all the actions of the past.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Death, Past, Sea
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2012). “My Complete Poetical Works (Annotated Edition)”, p.1688, Jazzybee Verlag

The first pressure of sorrow crushes out from our hearts the best wine; afterwards the constant weight of it brings forth bitterness, the taste and stain from the lees of the vat.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Crush, Heart, Wine
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1873). “Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, p.455

The sunshine fails, the shadows grow more dreary, And I am near to fall, infirm and weary.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Fall, Sunshine, Shadow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2008). “Michael Angelo and Translations”, p.353, Wildside Press LLC

What seems to us but dim funeral tapers may be heaven's distant lamps.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Memorial, Funeral, Heaven

Ah me! what wonder-working, occult science Can from the ashes in our hearts once more The rose of youth restore? What craft of alchemy can bid defiance To time and change, and for a single hour Renew this phantom-flower?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Flower, Heart, Rose
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (185?). “The Poetical Works of Henry W. Longfellow”, p.503

Good-night! good-night! as we so oft have said Beneath this roof at midnight, in the days That are no more, and shall no more return. Thou hast but taken up thy lamp and gone to bed; I stay a little longer, as one stays To cover up the embers that still burn.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sympathy, Good Night, Condolences
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.922, Delphi Classics

But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dark, Assuming, Assumption
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867). “The Poetical Works of H. W. Longfellow. Complete Edition”, p.134

Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth, to some good angel leave the rest; For Time will teach thee soon the truth, there are no birds in last year's nest!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Love, Time, Retirement
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847). “The Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Complete in One Volume”, p.49

The surest pledge of a deathless name Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Names, Ideas, Silence
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2012). “My Complete Poetical Works (Annotated Edition)”, p.888, Jazzybee Verlag

There rises the moon, broad and tranquil, through the branches of a walnut tree on a hill opposite. I apostrophize it in the words of Faust; "O gentle moon, that lookest for the last time upon my agonies!" --or something to that effect.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Moon, Opposites, Agony
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1967). “The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Volume I-II: 1814-1843”, p.469, Harvard University Press

O little feet! that such long years Must wander on through hopes and fears, Must ache and bleed beneath your load; I, nearer to the wayside inn Where toil shall cease and rest begin, Am weary, thinking of your road!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sad, Thinking Of You, Feet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1864). “Tales of a Wayside Inn”, p.224

Thus thought I, as by night I read Of the great army of the dead, The trenches cold and damp, The starved and frozen camp,-- The wounded from the battle-plain, In dreary hospitals of pain, The cheerless corridors, The cold and stony floors. Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom And flit from room to room. And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls Upon the darkening walls.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dream, Wall, Pain
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1871). “The Poetical Works”, p.283

Time rides with the old At a great pace. As travellers on swift steeds See the near landscape fly and flow behind them, While the remoter fields and dim horizons Go with them, and seem wheeling round to meet them, So in old age things near us slip away, And distant things go with us.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Time, Age, Horizon
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.1525, Delphi Classics

Winter giveth the fields, and the trees so old, their beards of icicles and snow.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Winter, Snow, Tree
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1866). “Outre-mer”, p.121

Two ways the rivers Leap down to different seas, and as they roll Grow deep and still, and their majestic presence Becomes a benefaction to the towns They visit, wandering silently among them, Like patriarchs old among their shining tents.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sea, Two, Rivers
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1871). “The Poetical Works”, p.185

Simplicity is the character of the spring of life, costliness becomes its autumn; but a neatness and purity, like that of the snow-drop or lily of the valley, is the peculiar fascination of beauty, to which it lends enchantment, and gives what amiability is to the mind.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Spring, Character, Autumn

Take them, O Death! and bear away Whatever thou canst call thine own! Thine image, stamped upon this clay, Doth give thee that, but that alone!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sad, Giving, Clay
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1871). “The Poetical Works”, p.139

No one is so accursed by fate, no one so utterly desolate, but some heart though unknown responds unto his own.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Heart, Fate, Destiny
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1849). “The Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ; Complete in One Volume”, p.49

Maiden, that read'st this simple rhyme, Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay; Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime, For oh, it is not always May!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Simple, May, Youth
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1871). “The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, p.216

Sculpture is more divine, and more like Nature, That fashions all her works in high relief, And that is Sculpture. This vast ball, the Earth, Was moulded out of clay, and baked in fire; Men, women, and all animals that breathe Are statues, and not paintings.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Fashion, Animal, Men
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.1578, Delphi Classics

Think of your woods and orchards without birds! Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams As in an idiot's brain remembered words Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dream, Thinking, Bird
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.743, Delphi Classics

Work is my recreation, The play of faculty; a delight like that Which a bird feels in flying, or a fish In darting through the water,--Nothing more.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Work, Play, Water
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2008). “Michael Angelo and Translations”, p.88, Wildside Press LLC

All was ended now, the hope, and the fear and the sorrow, All the aching of the heart, the restless, unsatisfied longing, All the dull, deep pain, and constant anguish of patience!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Pain, Heart, Grieving
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1861). “The poetical works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, including his translations and notes”, p.40

Something the heart must have to cherish, Must love and joy and sorrow learn; Something with passion clasp, or perish And in itself to ashes burn.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Passion, Learning, Heart
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2008). “Michael Angelo and Translations”, p.289, Wildside Press LLC

Don Quixote thought he could have made beautiful bird-cages and toothpicks if his brain had not been so full of ideas of chivalry. Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Beautiful, Ambition, Ideas
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J. D. McClatchy (2000). “Poems and Other Writings”, p.796, Library of America

You May Also Like: