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Quotes of the day: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Published Monday, March 24, 2014 @ 4:33 AM EDT
Mar 24 2014

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 - March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)

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A great part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them.

Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.

Books are sepulchres of thought.

For after all, the best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending;

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where.

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.

Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought. Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide.

It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

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.

Look upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in anger.

Many critics are like woodpeckers who instead of enjoying the fruit and shadow of a tree, hop incessantly around the trunk pecking holes in the bark to discover some little worm or other.

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled by great ambitions.

Music is the universal language of mankind- poetry their universal pastime and delight.

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

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.

Ships that pass in the night, and speak to each other in passing, only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness. So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak to one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and silence.

Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.

Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.

The holiest of all holidays are those Kept by ourselves in silence and apart; The secret anniversaries of the heart.

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

This vast ball, the Earth was moulded out of clay, and baked in fire; Men, women and animals and all that breathe are statues and not paintings.

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.


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