The voices / 167 fragments

Henry W. Longfellow

1807 AD — 1882 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Author and source reference ↗

▷ Play this voice Search within this voice ↗Place in time ↗life death courage time faith work learning nature

Historical source references

Voices of the Night
A Psalm of Life
The Reaper and the Flowers
The Light of Stars
Flowers
Midnight Mass
Sunrise on the Hills
Endymion
It is not always May
The Rainy Day
The Goblet of Life
Maidenhood
The Spanish Student
Excelsior
A Gleam of Sunshine
The Day is done
The Building of the Ship
The Fire of Drift-wood
Resignation
The Builders
Evangeline
The Courtship of Miles Standish
The Ladder of Saint Augustine
The Herons of Elmwood
The Dutch Picture
Morituri Salutamus
The Masque of Pandora
Tales of a Wayside Inn
The Golden Legend
Translation from Frithiof's Saga

Archive entries

01c. 1844 AD

All things come round to him who will but wait.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

02c. 1844 AD

Time has laid his hand Upon my heart gently, not smiting it, But as a harper lays his open palm Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

03c. 1844 AD

Hospitality sitting with Gladness.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

04c. 1844 AD

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.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

05c. 1844 AD

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.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

06c. 1844 AD

Alas! it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

07c. 1844 AD

There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

08Undated

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

09Undated

I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

10Undated

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

11Undated

Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto his glory.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

12Undated

The motives and purposes of authors are not always so pure and high, as, in the enthusiasm of youth, we sometimes imagine. To many the trumpet of fame is nothing but a tin horn to call them home, like laborers from the field, at dinner-time, and they think themselves lucky to get the dinner.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

13Undated

Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their feelings—as some savage tribes determine the power of muskets by their recoil; that being considered best which fairly prostrates the purchaser.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

14Undated

It is a very indiscreet and troublesome ambition which cares so much about fame; about what the world says of us; to be always looking in the faces of others for approval; to be always anxious about the effect of what we do or say; to be always shouting, to hear the echoes of our own voices.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

15Undated

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

16Undated

It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know it has begun. A thousand heralds proclaim it to the listening air, a thousand messengers betray it to the eye. Tone, act, attitude and look, the signals upon the countenance, the electric telegraph of touch,—all these betray the yielding citadel before the word itself is uttered, which, like the key surrendered, opens every avenue and gate of entrance, and renders retreat impossible.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

17Undated

Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak. It serves for food and raiment.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

18Undated

Let us be merciful as well as just.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

19Undated

Morality without religion, is only a kind of dead reckoning,—an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have to run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

20Undated

The laws of nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the laws of man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the laws of nature,—were man as unerring in his judgments as nature.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

21Undated

Every man has a paradise around him till he sins, and the angel of an accusing conscience drives him from his Eden.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

22Undated

Let us then be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred professions of friendship.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

23Undated

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without a thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

24Undated

War is a terrible trade; but in the cause that is righteous sweet is the smell of powder.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

↗

Henry W. Longfellow

Archive entries

Read further

Tao Te Ching

The Prophet

Confessions