Henry Wadsworth Longfellow cytaty

strona 6

„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.”

“The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows.”

“He speaketh not; and yet there lies
A conversation in his eyes.”

“Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,
Rising and reaching upward to the skies;
Listen to voices in the upper air,
Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.”

“I stood on the bridge at midnight,
As the clocks were striking the hour,
And the moon rose o'er the city,
Behind the dark church-tower.”

“By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.”

“When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.”

“His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.”

“Oh the long and dreary Winter!
Oh the cold and cruel Winter!”

“O thou child of many prayers!
Life hath quicksands; life hath snares!”

“St. Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!”

“The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!”

“Alike were they free from
Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics.
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows;
But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of their owners;
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.”

“He has singed the beard of the king of Spain.”

“And in the wreck of noble lives
Something immortal still survives.”

“One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

“Hospitality sitting with Gladness.”

“He is a little chimney and heated hot in a moment.”

“As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so change of studies a dull brain.”

“And suddenly through the drifting brume
The blare of the horns began to ring.”

“O Bells of San Blas in vain
Ye call back the Past again;
The Past is deaf to your prayer!
Out of the shadows of night
The world rolls into light;
It is daybreak everywhere.”

“Every great poem is in itself limited by necessity, — but in its suggestions unlimited and infinite.”

“"O father! I see a gleaming light.
Oh say, what may it be?"
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.”

“A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.”

“Build me straight, O worthy Master!
Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,
That shall laugh at all disaster,
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!”

“Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman's Woe!”

“But oftentimes celestial benedictions
Assume this dark disguise.”

“Thine was the prophet's vision, thine
The exaltation, the divine
Insanity of noble minds,
That never falters nor abates,
But labors and endures and waits,
Till all that it foresees it finds
Or what it can not find creates.”

“And see! she stirs!
She starts,—she moves,—she seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel,
And, spurning with her foot the ground,
With one exulting, joyous bound,
She leaps into the ocean's arms!”

“Big words do not smite like war-clubs,
Boastful breath is not a bow-string,
Taunts are not so sharp as arrows,
Deeds are better things than words are,
Actions mightier than boastings.”