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Anne Bradstreet Quotes

Anne Bradstreet , née Dudley, was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in American Literature and notable for her large corpus of poetry, as well as personal writings published posthumously.

Born to a wealthy Puritan family in Northampton, England, Bradstreet was a well-read scholar especially affected by the works of Du Bartas. A mother of eight children and the wife of a public officer in the New England community, Bradstreet wrote poetry in addition to her other duties. Her early works read in the style of Du Bartas, but her later writings develop into her unique style of poetry which centers on her role as a mother, her struggles with the sufferings of life, and her Puritan faith.

✵ 20. March 1612 – 16. September 1672
Anne Bradstreet photo
Anne Bradstreet: 14 quotes9 likes

Famous Anne Bradstreet Quotes

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

Anne Bradstreet

14.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)
Source: The Works of Anne Bradstreet

“Wisdom with an inheritance is good, but wisdom without an inheritance is better than an inheritance without wisdom.”

Anne Bradstreet

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

Anne Bradstreet

12.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)

“Leave not thy nest, thy dam and sire,
Fly back and sing amidst this choir.”

Anne Bradstreet

In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659.

“If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.”

Anne Bradstreet

To my Dear and Loving Husband.

Anne Bradstreet Quotes

“If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none;
And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door.”

Anne Bradstreet

The Author to Her Book.

“Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.”

Anne Bradstreet

3.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)

“A Spring returns, and they more youthful made;
But Man grows old, lies down, remains where once he's laid.”

Anne Bradstreet

Contemplations.

“Fire hath its force abated by water, not by wind; and anger must be allayed by cold words, and not by blustering threats.”

Anne Bradstreet

43.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)

“The principal might yield a greater sum,
Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb;”

Anne Bradstreet

To Her Father with Some Verses.

“Such cold mean flowers the spring puts forth betime,
Before the sun hath thoroughly heat the clime.”

Anne Bradstreet

Of the Four Ages of Man.

“"Sister," quoth Flesh, "what liv'st thou on
Nothing but Meditation?”

Anne Bradstreet

The Flesh and the Spirit.

“What to my Saviour shall I give
Who freely hath done this for me?
I'll serve him here whilst I shall live
And Loue him to Eternity”

Anne Bradstreet

By Night when Others Soundly Slept.

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