Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Or from Browning some "Pomegranate," which if cut deep down the middle Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity.”

“The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy, chancy and temperamental; it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chewing a hunk of melon in the dust.”

“A child's kiss Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest.”

“Too much beauty, I reckon, is nothing but too much sun.”

“The plague of gold strikes far and near.”

“I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use”

“Death forerunneth Love to win "Sweetest eyes were ever seen."”

“Much of the possibility of being cheerful comes from the faculty of throwing oneself beyond oneself.”

“For 'Tis not in mere death that men die most.”

“We have hearts within, Warm, live, improvident, indecent hearts.”

“She lived, we'll say, A harmless life, she called a virtuous life, A quiet life, which was not life at all (But that she had not lived enough to know)”

“Yes, I answered you last night; No, this morning, sir, I say: Colors seen by candle-light Will not look the same by day.”

“Deep violets, you liken to The kindest eyes that look on you, Without a thought disloyal.”

“I would not be a rose upon the wallA queen might stop at, near the palace-door,To say to a courtier, "Pluck that rose for me,It's prettier than the rest." O Romney Leigh!I'd rather far be trodden by his foot,Than lie in a great queen's bosom.”

“Of writing many books there is no end.”

“Get leave to work In this world,--'tis the best you get at all.”

“Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest!”

“Books are men of higher stature.”

“A great man leaves clean work behind him, and requires no sweeper up of the chips.”

“Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.”

“But the child's sob curses deeper in the silence than the strong man in his wrath!”

“And there my little doves did sit With feathers softly brown And glittering eyes that showed their right To general Nature's deep delight.”

“We get no good By being ungenerous, even to a book, And calculating profits--so much help By so much reading. It is rather when We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound, Impassioned for its beauty, and salt of truth-- 'Tis then we get the right good from a book.”

“And Marlowe, Webster, Fletcher, Ben, Whose fire-hearts sowed our furrows when The world was worthy of such men.”

“Nor myrtle--which means chiefly love: and loveIs something awful which one dare not touchSo early o' mornings.”

“Gaze up at the stars knowing that I see the same sky and wish the same sweet dreams.”

“But since he had The genius to be loved, why let him have The justice to be honoured in his grave.”

“A woman is always younger than a man at equal years.”

“In your patience ye are strong.”

“Love that endures, from life that disappears!”

“What is art but the life upon the larger scale, the higher. When, graduating up in a spiral line of still expanding and ascending gyres, it pushes toward the intense significance of all things, hungry for the infinite?”

“My love for him was so exquisitely pure that if we all were capable of giving and receiving such a beautiful gift the world would be a far more brilliant place; I think we'd all be poets.”

“Why, what is to live? Not to eat and drink and breathe,—but to feel the life in you down all the fibres of being, passionately and joyfully.”

“Sleep on, Baby, on the floor, Tired of all the playing, Sleep with smile the sweeter for That you dropped away in! On your curls' full roundness stand Golden lights serenely-- One cheek, pushed out by the hand, Folds the dimple inly.”

“He lives most life whoever breathes most air.”

“The English have a scornful insular way Of calling the French light.”

“Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished.”

“Books are men of higher stature, and the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear.”

“There are nettles everywhere, but smooth, green grasses are more common still; the blue of heaven is larger than the cloud.”

“How joyously the young sea-mewLay dreaming on the waters blue,Whereon our little bark had thrownA little shade, the only one;But shadows ever man pursue.”

“The music soars within the little lark, And the lark soars.”

“With stammering lips and insufficient sound I strive and struggle to deliver right the music of my nature.”

“Behold me! I am worthyOf thy loving, for I love thee!”

“A man may love a woman perfectly, and yet by no means ignorantly maintain a thousand women have not larger eyes. Enough that she alone has looked at him with eyes that, large or small, have won his soul.”

“I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless.”

“Eyes of gentianellas azure,Staring, winking at the skies.”

“Many a fervid man writes books as cold and flat as graveyard stones.”

“There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb The crowns o' the world; oh, eyes sublime With tears and laughter for all time!”

“Children use the fist until they are of age to use the brain.”

“With what cracked pitchers go we to deep wells In this world!”