Top 500 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “Big words do not smite like war-clubs, Boastful breath is not a bow-string, Taunts are not so sharp as arrows, Deeds are better things than words are, Actions mightier than boastings.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

302. “Chill air and wintry winds! My ear has grown familiar with your song; I hear it in the opening year, I listen, and it cheers me long.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

303. “Be noble in every thought And in every deed!”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

304. “O weary hearts! O slumbering eyes! O drooping souls, whose destinies Are fraught with fear and pain, Ye shall be loved again.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

305. “Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

306. “Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

307. “Dreams or illusions, call them what you will, they lift us from the commonplace of life to better things.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

308. “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 Wadsworth Longfellow

309. “The country is lyric, the town dramatic. When mingled, they make the most perfect musical drama.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

310. “Sometimes we may learn more from a man’s errors, than from his virtues.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

311. “The mind of the scholar, if he would leave it large and liberal, should come in contact with other minds.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

312. “Beautiful in form and feature, lovely as the day, can there be so fair a creature formed of common clay?”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

313. “The hearts of some women tremble like leaves at every breath of love which reaches them, and they are still again. Others, like the ocean, are moved only by the breath of a storm, and not so easily lulled to rest.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

314. “Down sank the great red sun, and in golden, glimmering vapors Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet descending from Sinai.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

315. “People of a lively imagination are generally curious, and always so when a little in love.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

316. “Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

317. “Whatever poet, orator, or sage may say of it, old age is still old age.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

318. “I am weary of your quarrels, Weary of your wars and bloodshed, Weary of your prayers for vengeance, Of your wranglings and dissensions.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

319. “The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

320. “And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

321. “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 Wadsworth Longfellow

322. “Where should the scholar live? In solitude, or in society? in the green stillness of the country, where he can hear the heart of Nature beat, or in the dark, gray town where he can hear and feel the throbbing heart of man?”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

323. “Ne speaketh not; and yet there lies a conversation in his eyes.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

324. “That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

325. “To charm, to strengthen, and to teach: these are the three great chords of might.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

326. “It was Autumn, and incessant Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves, And, like living coals, the apples Burned among the withering leaves.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

327. “Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man’s enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

328. “They are dead; but they live in each Patriot’s breast, And their names are engraven on honor’s bright crest.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

329. “The atmosphere breathes rest and comfort, and the many chambers seem full of welcomes.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

330. “Spake full well, in language quaint and olden, One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, Stars, that in earth’s firmament do shine.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

331. “To be left alone, and face to face with my own crime, had been just retribution.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

332. “Buried was the bloody hatchet; Buried was the dreadful war-club; Buried were all warlike weapons, And the war-cry was forgotten. Then was peace among the nations.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

333. “Nothing is or can be accidental with God.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

334. “Saint Augustine! well hast thou said, That of our vices we can frame A ladder, if we will but tread Beneath our feet each deed of shame.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

335. “The hooded clouds, like friars, Tell their beads in drops of rain.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

336. “All things are symbols: the external shows Of Nature have their image in the mind, As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

337. “As the heart is, so is love to the heart. It partakes of its strength or weakness, its health or disease.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

338. “Evil is only good perverted.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

339. “Whenever nature leaves a hole in a person’s mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

340. “Ah me! what wonder-working, occult science Can from the ashes in our hearts once more The rose of youth restore? What craft of alchemy can bid defiance To time and change, and for a single hour Renew this phantom-flower?”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

341. “The sun is set; and in his latest beams Yon little cloud of ashen gray and gold, Slowly upon the amber air unrolled, The falling mantle of the Prophet seems.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

342. “I see, but cannot reach, the height That lies forever in the light.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

343. “A solid man of Boston; A comfortable man with dividends, And the first salmon and the first green peas.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

344. “Weak minds make treaties with the passions they cannot overcome, and try to purchase happiness at the expense of principle; but the resolute will of a strong man scorns such means, and struggles nobly with his foe to achieve great deeds.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

345. “A thought often makes us hotter than a fire.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

346. “There rises the moon, broad and tranquil, through the branches of a walnut tree on a hill opposite. I apostrophize it in the words of Faust; “O gentle moon, that lookest for the last time upon my agonies!” – or something to that effect.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

347. “And as she looked around, she saw how Death the consoler, Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

348. “Every human heart is human.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

349. “Ripe in wisdom was he, but patient, and simple, and childlike.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

350. “In old age our bodies are worn-out instruments, on which the soul tries in vain to play the melodies of youth. But because the instrument has lost its strings, or is out of tune, it does not follow that the musician has lost his skill.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow