Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Men Quotations

Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.

The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service.

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.

Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom.

I have an affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighborhood of man, and enjoy the sweet security of the streets.

Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man's enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion.

Some men must follow, and some command, though all are made of clay

Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather that its defects. The passions of men have made it malignant, as a bad heart of Procreates turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture.

I will be a man among men; and no longer a dreamer among shadows. Henceforth be mine a life of action and reality! I will work in my own sphere, nor wish it other than it is. This alone is health and happiness.

There in seclusion and remote from men The wizard hand lies cold, Which at its topmost speed let fall the pen, And left the tale half told. Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power, And the lost clew regain? The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower Unfinished must remain!

The everyday 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 its wheels, the pendulum no longer swings, the hands no longer move the clock stands still.

God is not dead; nor doth He sleep; ... The wrong shall fail, The right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.

Among the noblest in the land - Though man may count himself the least - That man I honor and revere, Who without favor, without fear, In the great city dares to stand, The friend of every friendless beast.

Were a star quenched on high,For ages would its light,Still travelling downward from the sky,Shine on our mortal sight. So when a great man dies,For years beyond our ken,The light he leaves behind him liesUpon the paths of men.

As Unto the bow the the cord is , So unto the man is woman; Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him , yet she follows: Useless each without the other.

Some must follow and some command, through all are made oclay.

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

I promise myself great pleasure from my visit to England. You know I am to stay with Dickens while in London; and beside his own very agreeable society, I shall enjoy that of the most noted literary men of the day, which will be a great gratification to me.

I cannot believe any man can be perfectly well in body, who has much labor of the mind to perform.

Perhaps the greatest lesson which the lives of literary men teach us is told in a single word* Wait!

No man is so poor as to have nothing worth giving.

Even the blackest of them all, the crow, Renders good service as your man-at-arms, Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail. And crying havoc on the slug and snail.

Look at this vigorous plant that lifts its head from the meadow, See how its leaves are turned to the north, as true as the magnet; This is the compass-flower, that the finger of God has planted Here in the houseless wild, to direct the traveller's journey. Over the sea-like, pathless, limitless waste of the desert, Such in the soul of man is faith.

Every man has a paradise around him till he sins, and the angel of an accusing conscience drives him from his Eden.

The history of the past is a mere puppet-show. A little man comes out and blows a little trumpet, and goes in again. You look for something new, and lo! another little man comes out, and blows another little trumpet, and goes in again. And it is all over.

Men should soon make up their minds to be forgotten, and look about them, or within them, for some higher motive in what they do than the approbation of men, which is fame, namely, their duty; that they should be constantly and quietly at work, each in his sphere, regardless of effects, and leaving their fame to take care of itself.

Mercy more becomes a magistrate than the vindictive wrath which men call justice.

The little I have seen of the world teaches me to look upon the errors of others 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 has passed through, the brief pulsations of joy, the feverish inquietude of hope and fear, the pressure of want, the desertion of friends, I would fain leave the erring soul of my fellow-man with Him from whose hand it came.

A coquette is a young lady of more beauty than sense, more accomplishments than learning, more charms not person than graces of mind, more admirers than friends, mole fools than wise men for attendants.

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

Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God.

Sculpture is more divine, and more like Nature, That fashions all her works in high relief, And that is Sculpture. This vast ball, the Earth, Was moulded out of clay, and baked in fire; Men, women, and all animals that breathe Are statues, and not paintings.

The great tragedy of the average man is that he goes to his grave with his music still in him.

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

The men that women marry, And why they marry them, will always be A marvel and a mystery to the world.

O gift of God! O perfect day: Whereon shall no man work, but play; Whereon it is enough for me, Not to be doing, but to be!

O Music! language of the soul, Of love, of God to man; Bright beam from heaven thrilling, That lightens sorrow's weight.

Every man is in some sort a failure to himself. No one ever reaches the heights to which he aspires.

Some poems are like the Centaurs--a mingling of man and beast, and begotten of Ixion on a cloud.

Often times we call a man [or woman] cold when he [or she] is only sad.

Make not thyself the judge of any man.

Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.

Man is unjust, but God is just; and finally justice triumphs.

No man is so poor as to have nothing worth giving; as well might the mountain streamlets say they have nothing to give the sea because they are not rivers. Give what you have. To someone it may be better than you dare to think.

How wonderful is the human voice! It is indeed the organ of the soul. The intellect of man is enthroned visibly on his forehead and in his eye, and the heart of man is written on his countenance, but the soul, the soul reveals itself in the voice only.

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

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.

I will be a man among men; and no longer a dreamer among shadows.

He looks the whole world in the face for he owes not any man.

When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him, lies on the paths of men.

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.

Every man must patiently bide his time. He must wait -- not in listless idleness but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavors, always willing and fulfilling and accomplishing his task, that when the occasion comes he may be equal to the occasion.