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 ↗

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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

01Undated

When one is truly in love, one not only says it, but shows it.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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02Undated

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, / Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, / Our hearts, in glad surprise, / To higher levels rise.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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03Undated

Where the heart goes before, like a lamp, and illumines the pathway, many things are made clear that else lie hidden in darkness.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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04Undated

"Wouldst thou," so the helmsman answered, / "Learn the secret of the sea? / Only those who brave its dangers / Comprehend its mystery!"

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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05Undated

The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colourless when unbroken.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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06Undated

In the life of every man there are sudden transitions of feeling, which seem almost miraculous. At once, as if some magician had touched the heavens and the earth, the dark clouds melt into the air, the wind falls, and serenity succeeds the storm. The causes which produce these changes may have been long at work within us, but the changes themselves are instantaneous, and apparently without sufficient cause.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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07Undated

The shadows of the mind are like those of the body. In the morning of life they all lie behind us, at noon we trample them under foot, and in the evening they stretch long, broad, and deepening before us.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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08Undated

How absolute and omnipotent is the silence of the night! And yet the stillness seems almost audible. From all the measureless depths of air around us comes a half sound, a half whisper, as if we could hear the crumbling and falling away of the earth and all created things in the great miracle of nature—decay and reproduction—ever beginning, never ending—the gradual lapse and running of the sand in the great hour-glass of Time.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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09Undated

With many readers brilliancy of style passes for affluence of thought: they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable gold mines under the ground.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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10Undated

O how wonderful is the human voice! It is indeed the organ of the soul. The intellect of man sits enshrined visibly upon his forehead and in his eye; and the heart of man is written upon his countenance. But the soul reveals itself in the voice only, as God revealed himself to the prophet in the still small voice, and in a voice from the Burning Bush. The soul of man is audible, not visible. A sound alone betrays the flowing of the eternal fountain invisible to man.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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11Undated

The every-day cares and duties which men call drudgery are the weights and counterpoises of the clock of Time, giving its pendulum a true vibration, and its hands a regular motion; and when they cease to hang upon the wheels, the pendulum no longer sways, the hands no longer move, the clock stands still.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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12Undated

It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought. Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide themselves.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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13Undated

Love gives itself, and is not bought.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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14Undated

A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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15Undated

The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. The brightness of our life is gone.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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16Undated

The little that I have seen in the world, and known of the history of mankind, teaches me to look upon their errors in sorrow, not in anger. When I take the history of one poor heart that has sinned and suffered, and represent to myself the struggles and temptations it passed through, the brief pulsations of joy, the tears of regret, the feebleness of purpose, the scorn of the world that has little charity, the desolation of the soul's sanctuary, and threatening voices within, health gone, happiness gone,—I would fain leave the erring soul of my fellow-man with Him from whose hands it came.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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17Undated

Ships that pass at night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness: So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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18Undated

Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest; Home-keeping hearts are happiest, For those that wander they know not where Are full of trouble, and full of care; To stay at home is best.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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19Undated

I am as homeless as the wind that moans And wanders through the streets.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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20Undated

Into each life some rain must fall, Some days be dark and dreary But— Behind the cloud the sun's still shining.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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21Undated

Whatever hath been written shall remain, Nor be erased nor written o'er again; The unwritten only still belongs to thee: Take heed, and ponder well what that shall be.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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22Undated

If thou art worn and hard beset With sorrow that thou wouldst forget; If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, Go to the woods and hills!—No tears Dim the sweet looks that Nature wears.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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23Undated

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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24Undated

Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying: ‘Here is a story book Thy Father has written for thee.’ ‘Come, wander with me,’ she said, ‘Into regions yet untrod; And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God.’ And he wandered away and away With Nature, the dear old nurse, Who sang to him night and day The rhymes of the universe. And whenever the way seemed long, Or his heart began to fail, She would sing a more wonderful song, Or tell a more marvellous tale.

Henry W. Longfellow / quote

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Henry W. Longfellow

Archive entries

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