“Something the heart must have to cherish,
Must love and joy and sorrow learn;
Something with passion clasp, or perish
And in itself to ashes burn.”
Hyperion, book ii.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 202
American poet 1807–1882Related quotes

" Take Something Like a Star http://somethingbeautiful.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/robert_frost_to.html" (1949)
General sources
Context: O Star (the fairest one in sight)
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud —
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us that we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says "I burn."

“In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.”
Variant: In order to rise
From its own ashes
A phoenix
First
Must
Burn.
Source: Parable of the Talents

Vol. XIII, p. 251
Posthumous publications, The Collected Works

“But love for an object eternal and infinite feeds the mind with joy alone, and a joy which is free from all sorrow. This is something greatly to be desired and to be sought with all our strength.”
Sed amor erga rem aeternam et infinitam sola laetitia pascit animum, ipsaque omnis tristitiae est expers; quod valde est desiderandum totisque viribus quaerendum.
I, 10; translation by W. Hale White (Revised by Amelia Hutchison Stirling)
On the Improvement of the Understanding (1662)

“The heart that sins must sorrow.”
Morning and Evening Thoughts