Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

“Whoever lives true life, will love true love.”

“I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless.”

“I love you for the part of me that you bring out.”

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

“Many a crownCovers bald foreheads.”

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

“The flower-girl's prayer to buy roses and pinks, held out in the smoke, like stars by day.”

“Like to write? Of course, of course I do. I seem to live while I write - it is life, for me.”

“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”

“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.”

“Whatever's lost, it first was won.”

“Women know the way to rear up children (to be just). They know a simple, merry, tender knack of tying sashes, fitting baby-shoes, and stringing pretty words that make no sense. And kissing full sense into empty words.”

“He lives most life whoever breathes most air.”

“Books are men of higher stature.”

“Get work, get work; Be sure 'tis better than what you work to get.”

“And lilies are still lilies, pulled By smutty hands, though spotted from their white.”

“Guess now who holds thee?'--'Death,' I said. But,there,The silver answer rang, . . . 'Not Death, but Love.”

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

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

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

“The plague of gold strikes far and near.”

“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.”

“The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, 'Let no one be called happy till his death;' to which I would add, 'Let no one, till his death, be called unhappy.'”

“Nosegays! leave them for the waking,Throw them earthward where they grewDim are such, beside the breakingAmaranths he looks unto.Folded eyes see brighter colors than the open ever do.”

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