Henry Wadsworth Longfellow cytaty

strona 4

„Statki, które mijają się nocą,
w przelocie do siebie coś mówią.
Daleki znak, syreny zew,
co znów w ciemnościach się gubią.
Tak i my w życiu oceanie
mówimy, a ktoś nas słyszy,
Spojrzenie tylko, tylko głos,
tylko znak – potem znów ciemność i cisza.”

„Miłość chroni przed zimnem lepiej niż najcieplejszy płaszcz.”

„Życie jest jak francuski wierszyk; ma kształt doskonały tylko wtedy, gdy męskie rymy przeplata z żeńskimi.”

„Wlej czarodziejstwo głosu kobiety.”

„Muzyka jest uniwersalnym językiem rodzaju ludzkiego.”

„W końcu kiedy pada deszcz, najlepsze, co można zrobić, to nie robić nic – niech sobie pada.”

„Duma mniej wartą od dzieła!”

„Nie ma nic świętszego w tym naszym życiu niż pierwsze dotknięcie miłości, pierwszy trzepot jej jedwabnych skrzydeł.”

„Wiele utworów niszczy zbyteczna ilość linijek.”

„O, jakie to wspaniałe uczucie trzymać dłoń starego przyjaciela!”

„Bohaterem bądź w walk noc.”

„Rzeczą wzniosłą jest przyjmować cierpienie z odwagą.”

„Życie prawdą!”

„Miłość w każdym sercu kobiecym pragnie mieć wszystko, a nie cząstkę; to, według planu Natury, jest dla niej ważniejsze niż ambicja dla mężczyzny, to jej światło, jej życie, jej powietrze, których alternatywą jest tylko śmierć.”

„Wy, co wierzycie w miłość, cierpiącą z nadzieją i wiarą,
Wy, co wierzycie w piękność i moc poświęcenia kobiety.”

„Oceniamy się zwykle na podstawie tego, czego chcielibyśmy dokonać, ale inni oceniają nas zgodnie z tym, czego naprawdę dokonaliśmy.”

„Ten, kto szanuje samego siebie, nie obawia się innych, nosi kolczugę, której nikt nie może przebić.”

“Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours
Weeping upon his bed has sate,
He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.”

“Hermes:
Much must he toil who serves the Immortal Gods.”

“The air is full of farewells to the dying,
And mournings for the dead.”

“She floats upon the river of his thoughts.”

“It is the fate of a woman
Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a ghost that is speechless,
Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence.”

“The scholar and the world! The endless strife,
The discord in the harmonies of life!
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books;
The market-place, the eager love of gain,
Whose aim is vanity, and whose end is pain!”

“Footprints, that perhaps another,
Travelling o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.”

“If the great Captain of Plymouth is so very eager to wed me,
Why does he not come himself, and take the trouble to woo me?
If I am not worth the wooing, I surely am not worth the winning!”

“Three Silences there are: the first of speech,
The second of desire, the third of thought;
This is the lore a Spanish monk, distraught
With dreams and visions, was the first to teach.”

“There is no Death! What seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call Death.”

“Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start.”

“Stronger than steel is the sword of the Spirit;
Swifter than arrows, the light of the truth;
Greater than anger is love that subdueth.”

“No one is so accursed by fate,
No one so utterly desolate,
But some heart, though unknown,
Responds unto his own.”

“And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.”

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.”

“Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act in the living present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!”

“Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals and forts.”

“Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.”

“The surest pledge of a deathless name
Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.”

“This is the place. Stand still, my steed,—
Let me review the scene,
And summon from the shadowy past
The forms that once have been.”

“I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where.”

“Moons waxed and waned, the lilacs bloomed and died,
In the broad river ebbed and flowed the tide,
Ships went to sea, and ships came home from sea,
And the slow years sailed by and ceased to be.”

“Look, then, into thine heart, and write!”

“The first pressure of sorrow crushes out from our hearts the best wine; afterwards the constant weight of it brings forth bitterness, — the taste and stain from the lees of the vat.”

“Let him not boast who puts his armor on
As he who puts it off, the battle done.
Study yourselves; and most of all note well
Wherein kind Nature meant you to excel.
Not every blossom ripens into fruit.”

“What land is this? Yon pretty town
Is Delft, with all its wares displayed:
The pride, the market-place, the crown
And centre of the Potter's trade.”

“In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the gods see everywhere.”

“When we reflect that all the aspects of Nature, all the emotions of the soul, and all the events of life, have been the subjects of poetry for hundreds and thousands of years, we can hardly wonder that there should be so many resemblances and coincidences of expression among poets, but rather that they are not more numerous and more striking.”

“Into a world unknown,—the corner-stone of a nation.”