Henry Wadsworth Longfellow quotes
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882): American poet and educator. The library holds 220 quotes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, drawn from Michael Angelo, Evangeline, A Psalm of Life and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, time, nature, love, faith, art
The best-known Henry Wadsworth Longfellow quotes
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Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
A Psalm of Life, Voices of the Night -
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.
The Rainy Day, Ballads and Other Poems -
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.
A Psalm of Life -
War is a terrible trade; but in the cause that is righteous, Sweet is the smell of powder.
Courtship of Miles Standish, Pt. iv., Line 135 -
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!
A Psalm of Life -
The hooded clouds, like friars, Tell their beads in drops of rain.
Midnight Mass -
Oh, fear not in a world like this, And thou shalt know erelong,—Know how sublime a thing it is To suffer and be strong.
The Light of Stars -
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.
Evangeline, Part i. 3 -
I hear the wind among the trees Playing celestial symphonies; I see the branches downward bent, Like keys of some great instrument.
A Day of Sunshine -
The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of Night, As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle in his flight.
The Day is done -
This is the place. Stand still, my steed,—Let me review the scene, And summon from the shadowy past The forms that once have been.
A Gleam of Sunshine -
Let us, then, be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things Keep ourselves loyal to truth and the sacred professions of friendship.
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Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before.
Children -
In the elder days of Art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; For the gods see everywhere.
The Builders -
There is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there; There is no fireside, howsoe’er defended, But has one vacant chair.
Resignation -
A feeling of sadness and longing That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain.
The Day is done -
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.
The Ladder of Saint Augustine -
And as she looked around, she saw how Death the consoler, Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.
Evangeline, Part ii. 5 -
Kind messages, that pass from land to land; Kind letters, that betray the heart’s deep history, In which we feel the pressure of a hand,—One touch of fire,—and all the rest is mystery!
The Seaside and the Fireside: Dedication -
The light upon her face Shines from the windows of another world. Saints only have such faces.
Michael Angelo -
Safe from temptation, safe from sin’s pollution, She lives whom we call dead.
Resignation -
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.
A Psalm of Life -
Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.
The Rainy Day -
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.
A Psalm of Life -
There is no death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call Death.
Resignation -
No one is so accursed by fate, No one so utterly desolate, But some heart, though unknown, Responds unto his own.
Endymion -
Spake full well, in language quaint and olden, One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, Stars, that in earth’s firmament do shine.
Flowers -
Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest; Home-keeping hearts are happiest, For those that wander they know not where Are full of trouble and full of care; To stay at home is best.
Song -
Whatever hath been written shall remain, Nor be erased nor written o’er again; The unwritten only still belongs to thee: Take heed, and ponder well, what that shall be.
Morituri Salutamus -
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,—Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o’er our fears, Are all with thee,—are all with thee!
The Building of the Ship -
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.
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Every house was an inn, where all were welcomed and feasted.
Evangeline, Pt. I., iv., Line 15 -
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
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When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.
Evangeline, Part i. 1 -
Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as the blazing meteor when it descends to earth is only a stone.
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The blossoms of passion, gay and luxuriant flowers, are brighter and fuller of fragrance, but they beguile us and lead us astray, and their odor is deadly.
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The day is done, and the darkness falls from the wings of night.
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Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak. It serves for food and raiment.
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There is no fireside, howsoe’er defended, but has one vacant chair!
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When one is truly in love, one not only says it, but shows it.
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If I am not worth the wooing, I surely am not worth the winning.
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God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting.
The Courtship of Miles Standish. iv -
Love is ever busy with his shuttle, is ever wearing into life’s dull warp bright gorgeous flowers and scenes Arcadian.
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Man is unjust, but God is just; and finally justice triumphs.
Evangeline, Pt. I., iii., Line 34 -
Simplicity in character, in manners, in style: in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.
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A word that has been said may be unsaid: it is but air. But when a deed is done, it cannot be undone, nor can our thoughts reach out to all the mischiefs that may follow.
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Mercy more becomes a magistrate than the vindictive wrath which men call justice!
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Little waves with their soft white hands efface the footprints in the sands.
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Each man’s chimney is his golden milestone, is the central point from which he measures every distance through the gateways of the world around him.
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The day is done; and slowly from the scene the stooping sun upgathers his spent shafts, and puts them back into his golden quiver!
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Where the heart goes before, like a lamp, and illumines the pathway, many things are made clear that else lie hidden in darkness.
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Short allowance of victual, and plenty of nothing but Gospel!
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The rapture of pursuing is the prize the vanquished gain.
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The star of the unconquered will.
The Light of Stars -
Know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.
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A banner with the strange device.
Excelsior -
He is a little man; let him go and work with the women!
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It is a dream, sweet child! a waking dream, A blissful certainty, a vision bright, Of that rare happiness, which even on earth Heaven gives to those it loves.
The Spanish Student, Act iii. Sc. 5 -
But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise.
Resignation -
In the wreck of noble lives Something immortal still survives.
Where these quotes come from
- Michael Angelo (9 quotes)
- Evangeline (8 quotes)
- A Psalm of Life (6 quotes)
- Resignation (6 quotes)
- The Light of Stars (4 quotes)
- Morituri Salutamus (4 quotes)
- Christus, Golden Legend (4 quotes)
- Courtship of Miles Standish (3 quotes)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .