Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes


"All things come round to him who will but wait."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Will)

"A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Heart, Words)

"A thought often makes us hotter than a fire."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Thought, Fire)

"All things must change to something new, to something strange."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Change)

"Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: People, Succeed)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Age, Opportunity, Day, Dress, Evening, Sky, Stars, Twilight, Youth)

"Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Mind, Reverie)

"Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Character, Excellence, Manners, Simplicity, Style)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Life, Darkness, Night, Ocean, Ships, Silence, Voice)

"Resolve and thou art free."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Art)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Success, Perseverance)

"People demand freedom only when they have no power."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Power, People, Freedom)

"Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Defeat)

"Something attempted, something done, Has earned a nights repose."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Sometimes we may learn more from a man's errors, than from his virtues."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Errors, Man, May)

"Talk not of wasted affection - affection never was wasted."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Affection, Talk)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Success, Talent, Thought, Fame, Nothing, Will)

"Youth comes but once in a lifetime."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Youth)

"Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man's enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Benefits, Devotion, Enemies, Enemy, Intention, Man, Will)

"Whenever nature leaves a hole in a person's mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Nature, Mind, Self)

"When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Music)

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Thy fate is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Life, Fate, Rain)

"Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Thought, Freedom, Man)

"They who go Feel not the pain of parting; it is they Who stay behind that suffer."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Pain, Parting)

"Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Trust, Heart, World)

"There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love, the first fluttering of its silken wings."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Life, Love, Consciousness, First, Nothing)

"That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Life, Heart, Chance, Emotion, Moments, Water, Word)

"The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Art, Nature)

"The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Strength, Criticism, Lies, Weakness)

"The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Day, Sky, Stars)

"The rapture of pursuing is the prize the vanquished gain."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Gain)

"The nearer the dawn the darker the night."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Dawn, Night)

"The mind of the scholar, if he would leave it large and liberal, should come in contact with other minds."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Liberal, Mind)

"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Love, Books, Learning, Serenity)

"The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Life, Dreams, Charity, Man, Service, Visions)

"The human voice is the organ of the soul."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Soul, Voice)

"The Helicon of too many poets is not a hill crowned with sunshine and visited by the Muses and the Graces, but an old, mouldering house, full of gloom and haunted by ghosts."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Old, Poets)

"The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Firmness, Mercy)

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Rain)

"There is no grief like the grief that does not speak."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Grief)

"Like a French poem is life; being only perfect in structure when with the masculine rhymes mingled the feminine are."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Life, Being)

"In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Man, World)

"Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined; Often in a wooden house a golden room we find."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Intelligence, Courtesy)

"Into each life some rain must fall."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Life, Rain)

"It is a beautiful trait in the lover's character, that they think no evil of the object loved."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Character, Evil)

"It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know that it has begun."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Love)

"It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a disappointed passion. Such wounds always leave a scar."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Passion, Wounds)

"It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Time, Right, Wrong)

"Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Destiny, Fame)

"Joy, temperance, and repose, slam the door on the doctor's nose."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Joy, Temperance)

"If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Men, Time)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Heart, Fear, Future, Past, Present)

"Love gives itself; it is not bought."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Love)

"Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Love)

"Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Time, Accomplishments, Man, Will)

"Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Men, Genius, Society, Earth)

"Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Control, Strength, Enemies)

"Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Defeat)

"Music is the universal language of mankind."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Music, Language, Mankind)

"Evil is only good perverted."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Evil)

"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Man, World)

"Each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close; Something attempted, something done, has earned a night's repose."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Evening, Night)

"Critics are sentinels in the grand army of letters, stationed at the corners of newspapers and reviews, to challenge every new author."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Army, Challenge, Letters, Newspapers)

"Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Today, Tomorrow)

"As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Mind)

"Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Ambition, Passion)

"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Character, Excellence, Simplicity, Style)

"For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Art, Work, Heart, Grace)

"If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Give what you have to somebody, it may be better than you think."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: May)

"The dawn is not distant, nor is the night starless; love is eternal."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Love, Dawn, Night)

"He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Mail)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Men, Night)

"However things may seem, no evil thing is success and no good thing is failure."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Success, Failure, Evil, May)

"I have an affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighborhood of man, and enjoy the sweet security of the streets."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Affection, Man, Security)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: History, Life, Enemies, Man, Sorrow, Suffering)

"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."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Religion, Morality, Observation, Sea)