Edgar Guest: Quotes about life

“No man is greater than his will;
No gods to him will lend a hand!
Upon his courage and his skill
The record of his life must stand.
What honors shall befall to him,
What he shall claim of fame or pelf,
Depend not on the favoring whim
Of fortune's god, but on himself.”

Edgar Guest

Source: Just Folks (1917), There Are No Gods, final stanza.

God , Dependency , Courage , Life

“Life is a jest;
Take the delight of it.
Laughter is best;
Sing through the night of it.
Swiftly the tear
And the hurt and the ache of it
Find us down here;
Life must be what we make of it.”

Edgar Guest

Life, stanza 1, All That Matters, p. 80 (1922).

Life , Tear , Laughter , Singing

“The joy of life is living it, or so it seems to me;
In finding shackles on your wrists, then struggling till you're free;
In seeing wrongs and righting them, in dreaming splendid dreams,
Then toiling till the vision is as real as moving streams.
The happiest mortal on the earth is he who ends his day
By leaving better than he found to bloom along the way.”

Edgar Guest

Improvement, stanza 1.
Just Folks (1917)

Life , Dreams , Way , Joy

“I hold no dream of fortune vast,
Nor seek undying fame.
I do not ask when life is past
That many know my name.I may not own the skill to rise
To glory's topmost height,
Nor win a place among the wise,
But I can keep the right.And I can live my life on earth
Contented to the end,
If but a few shall know my worth
And proudly call me friend.”

Edgar Guest

Success.
Just Folks (1917)

Life , Dreams , Past

“Life is a gift that the humblest may boast of
And one that the humblest may well make the most of.
Get out and live it each hour of the day,
Wear it and use it as much as you may;
Don't keep it in niches and corners and grooves,
You'll find that in service its beauty improves.”

Edgar Guest

Source: A Heap o' Livin' (1916), Life, stanza 2, p. 64.

Life , Beauty

“Courage was never designed for show;
It isn't a thing that can come and go;
It's written in victory and defeat
And every trial a man may meet.
It's part of his hours, his days and his years,
Back of his smiles and behind his tears.
Courage is more than a daring deed:
It's the breath of life and a strong man's creed.”

Edgar Guest

Source: A Heap o' Livin' (1916), Courage, stanza 4, p. 73.

Life , Smile , Courage , Tear

“I'd like to think when life is done
That I had filled a needed post,
That here and there I'd paid my fare
With more than idle talk and boast;
That I had taken gifts divine,
The breath of life and manhood fine,
And tried to use them now and then
In service for my fellow men.”

Edgar Guest

Source: The Path to Home (1919), p.36 - Compensation, stanza 1.

Thinking , Life , Men

“Whose luck is better far than ours?
The other fellow's.
Whose road seems always lined with flowers?
The other fellow's.
Who is the man who seems to get
Most joy in life, with least regret,
Who always seems to win his bet?
The other fellow.”

Edgar Guest

The Other Fellow, stanza 1.
Just Folks (1917)

Joy , Flowers , Life

“Oh, youth, go forth and do!
You, too, to fame may rise;
You can be strong and wise.
Stand up to life and play the man —
You can if you'll but think you can;
The great were once as you.
You envy them their proud success?
'Twas won with gifts that you possess.”

Edgar Guest

Source: All That Matters (1922), p.93 - To a Young Man, final stanza.

Strong , Youth , Success , Envy

“Are you one of the nine who pass men by
In this hasty life we live?
Do you refuse with a downcast eye
The help which you could give?
Or are you the one in ten whose creed
Is always to stop for the man in need?”

Edgar Guest

Source: All That Matters (1922), p.90 - The One in Ten, final stanza.

Help , Men , Life

“I must be fit for a child's glad greeting,
His are eyes that there is no cheating;
He must behold me in every test,
Not at my worst, but my very best;
He must be proud when my life is done
To have men know that he is my son.”

Edgar Guest

Source: All That Matters (1922), p.30 - The Boy's Ideal, final stanza.

Cheating , Life , Men

“Some day the world will need a man! I stand beside his cot at night
And wonder if I'm teaching him, as best I can, to know the right.
I am the father of a boy - his life is mine to make or mar -
And he no better can become than what my daily teachings are”

Edgar Guest

Source: Just Folks (1917), The Man To Be, lines from stanza 3.

Boy , World , Night , Life

“"It's not exactly to my best
But it may pass the final test;
And should it break, no man can know
It was my hand that made it so.
The thing is faulty, but perhaps
We'll never hear it when it snaps."
Of course the workman couldn't see
The mangled car beneath the tree,
The dead man, and the tortured wife
Doomed to a cripple's chair for life –
His chief concern was getting by
The stern inspector's eager eye.”

Edgar Guest

The Broken Wheel, fourth and fifth stanzas.
The Passing Throng (1923)

Tree , Dead , Cars , Life

“We have room for the man with an honest dream,
With his heart on fire and his eyes agleam;
We have room for the man with a purpose true,
Who comes to our shores to start life anew,
But we haven't an inch of space for him
Who comes to plot against life and limb.
We have room for the man who will learn our ways,
Who will stand by our Flag in its troubled days;
We have room for the man who will till the soil,
Who will give his hands to a fair day's toil,
But we haven't an inch of space to spare
For the breeder of hatred and black despair.”

Edgar Guest

Source: When Day is Done (1921), No Room for Hate, stanzas 1 and 2

Despair , Life , Learning , Dreams

“What do I want my boy to be?
Oft is the question asked of me,
And oft I ask it of myself -
What corner, niche or post or shelf
In the great hall of life would I
Select for him to occupy?
Statesman or writer, poet, sage
Or toiler for a weekly wage,
Artist or artisan? Oh, what
Is to become his future lot?
For him I do not dare to plan;
I only hope he'll be a man.I leave it free for him to choose
The tools of life which he shall use,
Brush, pen or chisel, lathe or wrench,
The desk of commerce or the bench,
And pray that when he makes his choice
In each day's task he shall rejoice.
I know somewhere there is a need
For him to labor and succeed;
Somewhere, if he be clean and true,
Loyal and honest through and through,
He shall be fit for any clan,
And so I hope he'll be a man.”

Edgar Guest

Source: When Day is Done (1921), A Father's Wish, stanzas 1 and 2.

Boy , Question , Life , Future

“No use weepin' when the milk is spilled,
No use growlin' when your hopes are killed,
No use kickin' when the lightnin' strikes
Or the floods come along an' wreck your dykes;
Only thing for a man right then
Is to grit his teeth an' start again.For it's how life is an' the way things are
That you've got to face if you travel far;
An' the storms will come an' the failures, too,
An' plans go wrong spite of all you do;
An' the only thing that will help you win,
Is the grit of a man and a stern set chin.”

Edgar Guest

Source: When Day is Done (1921), No Use Sighin' , stanzas 3 and 4.

Failure , Life , Help , Hope

“Strange thoughts come to the man alone;
'Tis then, if ever, he talks with God,
And views himself as a single clod
In the soil of life where the souls are grown.
'Tis then he questions the why and where,
The start and end of his years and days,
And what is blame and what is praise,
And what is ugly and what is fair.”

Edgar Guest

Source: The Path to Home (1919), p.145 - Alone, stanza 1.

God , Soul , Question , Life