Top 500 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “The day is done; and slowly from the scene the stooping sun upgathers his spent shafts, and puts them back into his golden quiver!”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

402. “You would attain to the divine perfection.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

403. “The Mormons make the marriage ring, like the ring of Saturn, fluid, not solid, and keep it in its place by numerous satellites.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

404. “Shepherds at the grange, Where the Babe was born, Sang with many a change, Christmas carols until morn.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

405. “O flower-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river Linger to kiss thy feet! O flower of song, bloom on, and make forever The world more fair and sweet.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

406. “It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

407. “Each new epoch in life seems an encounter. There is a tussle and a cloud of dust, and we come out of it triumphant or crest-fallen, according as we have borne ourselves.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

408. “A man must be of a very quiet and happy nature, who can long endure the country; and, moreover, very well contented with his own insignificant person.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

409. “Life is the gift of God, and is divine.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

410. “A life that is worth writing at all is worth writing minutely.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

411. “Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining, Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day, Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining, Buds that open only to decay.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

412. “From labor there shall come forth rest.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

413. “If the mind, that rules the body, ever so far forgets itself as to trample on its slave, the slave is never generous enough to forgive the injury, but will rise and smite the oppressor.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

414. “In the mouths of many men soft words are like roses that soldiers put into the muzzles of their muskets on holidays.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

415. “The things that have been and shall be no more, The things that are, and that hereafter shall be, The things that might have been, and yet were not, The fading twilight of joys departed.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

416. “Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals or forts.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

417. “The true poet is a friendly man. He takes to his arms even cold and inanimate things, and rejoices in his heart.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

418. “Then fell upon the house a sudden gloom, a shadow on those features fair and thin. And softly, from the hushed and darkened room, two angels issued, where but one went in.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

419. “Many people do not allow their principles to take root, but pull them up every now and then, as children do the flowers they have planted, to see if they are growing.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

420. “The pleasant books, that silently among Our household treasures take familiar places, And are to us as if a living tongue Spake from the printed leaves or pictured faces!”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

421. “People demand freedom only when they have no power.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

422. “Think not because no man sees, such things will remain unseen.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

423. “Make not thyself the judge of any man.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

424. “Many a poem is marred by a superfluous word.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

425. “We often excuse our own want of philanthropy by giving the name of fanaticism to the more ardent zeal of others.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

426. “Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

427. “Southward with fleet of ice Sailed the corsair Death; Wild and fast blew the blast, And the east-wind was his breath.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

428. “Day, like a weary pilgrim, had reached the western gate of heaven, and Evening stooped down to unloose the latchets of his sandal shoon.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

429. “Bell, thou soundest merrily, When the bridal party To the church doth hie! Bell, thou soundest solemnly, When, on Sabbath morning, Fields deserted lie!”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

430. “Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

431. “A spirit of criticism, if indulged in, leads to a censoriousness of disposition that is destructive of all nobler feeling. The man who lives to find faults has a miserable mission.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

432. “The bravest are the tenderest.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

433. “All things are symbols.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

434. “The heaven of poetry and romance still lies around us and within us.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

435. “Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

436. “The poor too often turn away unheard, From hearts that shut against them with a sound That will be heard in heaven.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

437. “At first laying down, as a fact fundamental, That nothing with God can be accidental.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

438. “Ah, the souls of those that die Are but sunbeams lifted higher.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

439. “The first pressure of sorrow crushes out from our hearts the best wine; afterwards the constant weight of it brings forth bitterness, the taste and stain from the lees of the vat.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

440. “Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their feelings.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

441. “None but yourself who are your greatest foe.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

442. “Love makes its record in deeper colors as we grow out of childhood into manhood; as the Emperors signed their names in green ink when under age, but when of age, in purple.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

443. “Into a world unknown,-the corner-stone of a nation!”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

444. “There’s not a ship that sails the ocean, But every climate, every soil, Must bring its tribute, great or small, And help to build the wooden wall!”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

445. “I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls, The burial-ground God’s-Acre.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

446. “I love thee, as the good love heaven.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

447. “Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and silence.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

448. “To say the least, a town life makes one more tolerant and liberal in one’s judgment of others.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

449. “Thinking the deed, and not the creed, Would help us in our utmost need.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

450. “Very hot and still the air was, Very smooth the gliding river, Motionless the sleeping shadows.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow