Quotes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I hear in the chamber above me The patter of little feet, The sound of a door that is opened, And voices soft and sweet. From my study I see in the lamplight, Descending the broad hall stair, Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, And Edith with golden hair.

thou art worn and hard beset With sorrows, that thou wouldst forget, If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, Go to the woods and hills! No tears  35 Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day.

Success is not something to wait for, it is something to work for.

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.

Nothing is or can be accidental with God.

I will forget her! All dear recollections Pressed in my heart, like flowers within a book, Shall be torn out, and scattered to the winds!

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books

Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions.

We often excuse our own want of philanthropy by giving the name of fanaticism to the more ardent zeal of others.

Give what you have to somebody, it may be better than you think.

The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy.

The mind of the scholar, if he would leave it large and liberal, should come in contact with other minds.

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.

How sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining, Behind the clouds the sun is shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall, - Some days must be dark and dreary.

Thou, too, sail on, O Shipof State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

Ah, to build, to build! That is the noblest of all the arts.

To persevere in one's duty and to be silent is the best answer to calumny.

The night shall be filled with music And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, And as silently steal away.

There was a little girl, And she had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead; When she was good she was very, very good, When she was bad she was horrid.

The bravest are the tenderest. The loving are the daring.

Every dew-drop and raindrop had a whole heaven within it.

Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.