Inspirational Quotations by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  • If you would hit the mark,
    you must aim a little above it;
    every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.
    From Issue 89
  • The heights by great men reached and kept,
    were not attained by sudden flight;
    But they while their companions slept,
    were toiling upwards in the night.
    From Issue 105
  • We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing,
    while others judge us by what we have already done.
    From Issue 168
  • We see but dimly through the mists and vapors;
    Amid these earthly damps
    What seem to us but sad, funeral tapers
    May be heaven's distant lamps.
    From Issue 219
  • If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find
    in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
    From Issue 266
  • If spring came but once a century instead of once a year,
    or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake and not in silence,
    what wonder and expectation there would
    be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change.
    From Issue 297
  • Enjoy the spring of love and youth,
    to some good angel leave the rest;
    For time will teach thee soon the truth,
    there are no birds in last year's nest.
    From Issue 299
  • It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
    From Issue 355
  • He spake well who said that graves are the footprints of angels.
    From Issue 365
  • The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service.
    From Issue 365
  • Many men 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.
    From Issue 365
  • Look not sorrowfully 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.
    From Issue 365
  • Let us then be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things keep ourselves loyal to truth.
    From Issue 365
  • Hope has as many lives as a cat or a king.
    From Issue 365
  • Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.
    From Issue 365
  • Noble souls, through dust and heat, rise from disaster and defeat the stronger.
    From Issue 365
  • Some must follow and some command, through all are made of clay.
    From Issue 365
  • Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.
    From Issue 365
  • The bravest are the tenderest. The loving are the daring.
    From Issue 365
  • Love gives itself; it is not bought.
    From Issue 365
  • Some critics are like chimneysweepers; they put out the fire below, and frighten the swallows from their nests above; they scrape a long time in the chimney, cover themselves with soot, and bring nothing away but a bag of cinders, and then sing from the top of the house as if they had built it.
    From Issue 365
  • He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.
    From Issue 428

A design by Nagesh Belludi • 16-Mar-2012 • Protected under a Creative Commons License