Quotes from Carl Sandburg

Someday they'll give a war and nobody will come.

Beware of advice—even this.

Lay me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.

The greatest cunning is to have none at all.

I took to wearing a black tie known as the Ascot, with long drooping ends. I had seen pictures of painters, sculptors, poets, wearing this style of tie.

I have in later years taken to Euclid, Whitehead, Bertrand Russell, in an elemental way.

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.

Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.

We had two grand antique professors who had been teaching at Lombard since before I was born.

The drum in a dream pounds loud to the dreamer.

In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning.

Every blunder behind us is giving a cheer for us, and only for those who were willing to fail are the dangers and splendors of life.

I am an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way.

When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along.

Such a Big miracle in such a tiny baby. Big things often have small beginnings A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.

I doubt if you can have a truly wild party without liquor.

It is the business of little minds to shrink.

There is a formal poetry perfect only in form?the number of syllables, the designated and required stresses of accent, the rhymes if wantedthey come off with the skill of a solved crossword puzzle.

The greatest certainty in life is death. The greatest uncertainty is the time.

Life goes before we know what it is. / One fool is enough in any house. / Even God gets tired of too much hallelujah. / Take it easy and live long as brothers.

What if someone gave a war & Nobody came? / Life would ring the bells of Ecstasy and Forever be Itself again.

What else have I done nearly all my life than go hungry and go on singing?

All my life I have been trying to learn to read, to see and hear, and to write.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.