Henry Wadworth Longfellow – The quality of a man (or woman) can be found in the prose they put into reality. Using this measure, Longfellow is among the greats. For a larger collection of Longfellow’s works Click Here.
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.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.Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!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!Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;–Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Henry Longfellow
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.
Henry Longfellow
Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place.
Henry Longfellow
Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.
Henry Longfellow
For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.
Henry Longfellow
Give what you have to somebody, it may be better than you think.
Henry Longfellow
Heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight but, while their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night.
Henry Longfellow
However things may seem, no evil thing is success and no good thing is failure.
Henry Longfellow
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
Henry Longfellow
If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.
Henry Longfellow
In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.
Henry Longfellow
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
Henry Longfellow
Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.
Henry Longfellow
Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.
Henry Longfellow
The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service.
Henry Longfellow
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after.
Henry Longfellow
Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom.
Henry Longfellow
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
Henry Longfellow
Whenever nature leaves a hole in a person’s mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit.
Henry Longfellow
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.
Henry Longfellow
Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.
Henry Longfellow
Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
Henry Longfellow
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
Henry Longfellow
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Henry Longfellow