Quotes from work
A Psalm of Life

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"A Psalm of Life" is a poem written by American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, often subtitled "What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist".

“Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us further than to-day.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

St. 3.
A Psalm of Life (1839)

“Let us, then, be up and doing.
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

St. 9.
A Psalm of Life (1839)
Source: Longfellow's Poems

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

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

St. 8.
A Psalm of Life (1839)

“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!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

St. 6.
A Psalm of Life (1839)

“Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

St. 2.
A Psalm of Life (1839)

“Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
"Life is but an empty dream!"
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

St. 1.
A Psalm of Life (1839)

“Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
"Life is but an empty dream!"”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
St. 1.
A Psalm of Life (1839)

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