Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Kavanagh, 1849)
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it ; Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of the Earth.
Let him not boast who puts his armor on
As he who puts it off, the battle done.
Study yourselves; and most of all note well
Wherein kind Nature meant you to excel.
Not every blossom ripens into fruit.
It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a disappointed passion. Such wounds always leave a scar.
Let us, then, be up and doing.
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
The grave itself is but a covered bridge,
Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!
The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service.
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place.
There is a Reaper, whose name is Death,
And, with his sickle keen,
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
And the flowers that grow between.
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.
Art is the child of Nature; yes,
Her darling child, in whom we trace
The features of the mother's face,
Her aspect and her attitude.
Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
All your strength is in your union,
All your danger is in discord;
Therefore be at peace henceforward,
And as brothers live together.
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well; and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame.
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.
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.
Heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight but, while their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night.
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.
All things must change
To something new, to something strange;
Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
To-morrow be to-day.
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.
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.
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.
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 strain from the lees of the vat.
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.
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.
Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden And keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine Kind words and kind deeds.
