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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Homer43 quotes
All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BCZeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment. — Homer · 700 BCAmong all men on Earth, bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the Muse has taught them songs, and loves the race of bards. — Homer · 700 BCOf all the creatures that breathe and move across the earth, there is nothing feebler than man. — Homer · 700 BCI should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead. — Homer · 700 BCBad herdsmen ruin their flocks. — Homer · 700 BCAll 43 quotes →William Blake42 quotes
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. — William Blake · 1793The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. — William Blake · 1793Everything that lives,
Lives not alone, nor for itself. — William Blake · 1789Great things are done when men and mountains meet. — William Blake · 1807To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour — William Blake · 1803The cistern contains: the fountain overflows. — William Blake · 1794All 42 quotes →Horace29 quotes
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow! — Horace · 23 BCI have erected a monument more lasting than bronze. — Horace · 23 BCLovely and honorable it is to die for one's country. — Horace · 23 BCIt is the mountaintop that the lightning strikes. — Horace · 23 BCThe centuries roll back to the ancient age of gold. — Horace · 23 BCIt's insane to carry timber to the forest. — Horace · 34 BCAll 29 quotes →Lord Byron29 quotes
How little do we know that which we are!
How less what we may be! — Lord Byron · 1824I am ashes where once I was fire. — Lord Byron · 1824There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the Lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I Love not Man the Less, but Nature more. — Lord Byron · 1818Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? — Lord Byron · 1818Man's love is of man's life a thing apart,
'Tis woman's whole existence. — Lord Byron · 1819Alas! the love of women! it is known
To be a lovely and a fearful thing. — Lord Byron · 1819All 29 quotes →John Milton28 quotes
Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light. — John Milton · 1667O fairest of Creation, last and best
Of all God's works. — John Milton · 1667Her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe
That all was lost. — John Milton · 1667Of Man's First Disobedience, and the fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing, Heav'nly Muse. — John Milton · 1667What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men. — John Milton · 1667Who overcomes
By force hath overcome but half his foe. — John Milton · 1667All 28 quotes →William Shakespeare27 quotes
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. — William Shakespeare · 1609But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. — William Shakespeare · 1609My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red...
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound. — William Shakespeare · 1609Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. — William Shakespeare · 1593Extreme fear can neither fight nor fly. — William Shakespeare · 1594I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. — William Shakespeare · 1609All 27 quotes →Alexander Pope23 quotes
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blessed. — Alexander Pope · 1733Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. — Alexander Pope · 1711To err is human, to forgive divine. — Alexander Pope · 1711A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again. — Alexander Pope · 1711The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine. — Alexander Pope · 1714True wit is Nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. — Alexander Pope · 1711All 23 quotes →Virgil22 quotes
Fortune favors the brave. — Virgil · 19 BCLove conquers all things; let us too surrender to love. — Virgil · 37 BCA fickle and changeable thing always is woman. — Virgil · 19 BCNight came down, and enfolded the earth in her dusky wings. — Virgil · 19 BCDo not trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts. — Virgil · 19 BCTime is flying never to return. — Virgil · 29 BCAll 22 quotes →Dante Alighieri21 quotes
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Consider your origin;
you were not born to live like brutes,
but to follow virtue and knowledge. — Dante Alighieri · 1321When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Haste denies all acts their dignity. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Thence we came forth to see the stars again. — Dante Alighieri · 1321My course is set for an uncharted sea. — Dante Alighieri · 1321All 21 quotes →Alfred Tennyson20 quotes
Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all. — Alfred Tennyson · 1850Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. — Alfred Tennyson · 1842Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change. — Alfred Tennyson · 1842But, friend, to me
He is all fault who hath no fault at all:
For who loves me must have a touch of earth. — Alfred Tennyson · 1859I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within. — Alfred Tennyson · 1850That which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. — Alfred Tennyson · 1842All 20 quotes →Percy Bysshe Shelley17 quotes
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! — Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1818"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away. — Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1818She faded, like a cloud which had outwept its rain. — Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1821Nought may endure but Mutability. — Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1816Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs. — Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1822I see the waves upon the shore,
Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown. — Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1824All 17 quotes →Samuel Taylor Coleridge17 quotes
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din? — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798Oh sleep! It is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole! — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious Sun uprist. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea! — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1798In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1816And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1799All 17 quotes →W.B. Yeats17 quotes
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. — W.B. Yeats · 1920The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. — W.B. Yeats · 1920Things said or done long years ago,
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled. — W.B. Yeats · 1933A pity beyond all telling
Is hid in the heart of love. — W.B. Yeats · 1893O, who could have foretold
That the heart grows old? — W.B. Yeats · 1919I have spread my dreams under your feet.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. — W.B. Yeats · 1899All 17 quotes →Lucretius16 quotes
Life is one long struggle in the dark. — Lucretius · 55 BCAnd life is given to none freehold, but it is leasehold for all. — Lucretius · 55 BCThe ring on the finger becomes thin beneath by wearing, the fall of dripping water hollows the stone. — Lucretius · 55 BCA tree cannot grow in the sky, nor clouds be in the deep sea, nor fish live in the fields, nor can blood be in sticks nor sap in rocks. — Lucretius · 55 BCPleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive what ills you are free from yourself is pleasant. — Lucretius · 55 BCLovely it is, when the winds are churning up the waves on the great sea, to gaze out from the land on the great efforts of someone else; not because it's an enjoyable pleasure that somebody is in difficulties, but because it's lovely to realize what troubles you are yourself spared. — Lucretius · 55 BCAll 16 quotes →William Wordsworth16 quotes
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man? — William Wordsworth · 1798Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher. — William Wordsworth · 1798The best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of Love. — William Wordsworth · 1798Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither. — William Wordsworth · 1807I wandered lonely as a cloud. — William Wordsworth · 1804The Child is father of the Man. — William Wordsworth · 1802All 16 quotes →Henry Wadsworth Longfellow15 quotes
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1861Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1842Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1838If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it;
Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1882Not in the clamor of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1878Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1838All 15 quotes →Walt Whitman15 quotes
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. — Walt Whitman · 1855I celebrate myself, and sing myself. — Walt Whitman · 1855Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.) — Walt Whitman · 1855I celebrate myself and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. — Walt Whitman · 1855When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars. — Walt Whitman · 1867The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. — Walt Whitman · 1855All 15 quotes →Juvenal11 quotes
Only two things does he anxiously wish for-bread and circuses. — Juvenal · 127The traveler with nothing on him sings in the robber’s face. — JuvenalThe people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things-bread and circuses! — Juvenal · 127Travel light and you can sing in the robber's face. — Juvenal · 127We are now suffering the evils of a long peace. Luxury, more deadly than war, broods over the city, and avenges a conquered world. — Juvenal · 127All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price. — Juvenal · 100All 11 quotes →Robert Burns11 quotes
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men,
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief and pain,
For promis'd joy. — Robert Burns · 1785Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne? — Robert Burns · 1796But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed,
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white - then melts for ever. — Robert Burns · 1791Nae man can tether time or tide. — Robert Burns · 1791Man's inhumanity to man,
Makes countless thousands mourn! — Robert Burns · 1784O Life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I! — Robert Burns · 1786All 11 quotes →T.S. Eliot11 quotes
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper. — T.S. Eliot · 1925I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. — T.S. Eliot · 1915Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. — T.S. Eliot · 1936Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky. — T.S. Eliot · 1915Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still. — T.S. Eliot · 1936April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain. — T.S. Eliot · 1922All 11 quotes →W.H. Auden11 quotes
Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our table. — W.H. Auden · 1940If equal affection cannot be
let the more loving one be me. — W.H. Auden · 1957I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return. — W.H. Auden · 1939I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade — W.H. Auden · 1939The sky is darkening like a stain;
Something is going to fall like rain,
And it won't be flowers. — W.H. Auden · 1935He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. — W.H. Auden · 1936All 11 quotes →Hesiod10 quotes
Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows. — Hesiod · 700 BCHe harms himself who does harm to another, and the evil plan is most harmful to the planner. — Hesiod · 700 BCIf you should put even a little on a little, and should do this often, soon this too would become big. — Hesiod · 700 BCLove, who is most beautiful among the immortal gods, the melter of limbs, overwhelms in their hearts the intelligence and wise counsel of all gods and all men. — Hesiod · 700 BCGossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it too is a kind of divinity. — Hesiod · 700 BCThe fool learns by suffering. — Hesiod · 700 BCAll 10 quotes →Matthew Arnold10 quotes
So, loath to suffer mute,
We, peopling the void air,
Make Gods to whom to impute
The ills we ought to bear. — Matthew Arnold · 1852Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean. — Matthew Arnold · 1867Who order'd, that their longing's fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who renders vain their deep desire?
A God, a God their severance rul'd!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea. — Matthew Arnold · 1852Thou hast no right to bliss. — Matthew Arnold · 1852Truth sits upon the lips of dying men. — Matthew Arnold · 1853The Day in its hotness,
The strife with the palm;
The Night in its silence,
The Stars in their calm. — Matthew Arnold · 1852All 10 quotes →Robert Frost10 quotes
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ––
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. — Robert Frost · 1916Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in. — Robert Frost · 1914And were an epitaph to be my story
I'd have a short one ready for my own.
I would have written of me on my stone:
I have a lovers quarrel with the world. — Robert Frost · 1941Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. — Robert Frost · 1942I have been one acquainted with the night. — Robert Frost · 1928Now no joy but lacks salt
That is not dashed with pain
And weariness and fault;
I crave the stain
Of tears, the aftermark
Of almost too much love,
The sweet of bitter bark
And burning clove. — Robert Frost · 1923All 10 quotes →Edgar Allan Poe9 quotes
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1845Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form
from off my door!
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." — Edgar Allan Poe · 1845We loved with a love that was more than love. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love,
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849All 9 quotes →Edward Young9 quotes
Too low they build, who build beneath the stars. — Edward Young · 1745A God all mercy, is a God unjust. — Edward Young · 1743Procrastination is the thief of time. — Edward Young · 1742Death! great proprietor of all! 'tis thine
To tread out empire, and to quench the stars. — Edward Young · 1742At thirty, Man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same. — Edward Young · 1742Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer. — Edward Young · 1742All 9 quotes →Emily Dickinson9 quotes
Much Madness is divinest Sense —
To a discerning Eye —
Much Sense—the starkest Madness —
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail —
Assent—and you are sane —
Demur—you're straightway dangerous —
And handled with a Chain — — Emily Dickinson · 1886If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain. — Emily Dickinson · 1886Inebriate of Air - am I -
And debauchee of dew -
Reeling - thro endless summer days -
From inns of Molten Blue. — Emily Dickinson · 1861Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need. — Emily Dickinson · 1864We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies. — Emily Dickinson · 1886That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love;
It is enough, the freight should be
Proportioned to the groove. — Emily Dickinson · 1886All 9 quotes →John Keats9 quotes
And still they were the same bright, patient stars. — John Keats · 1820Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings. — John Keats · 1820There is not a fiercer hell than the failure in a great object. — John Keats · 1818Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too. — John Keats · 1820Beauty is truth, truth beauty. — John Keats · 1820A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. — John Keats · 1818All 9 quotes →Langston Hughes9 quotes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how
beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America. — Langston Hughes · 1926What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore -
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over -
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode? — Langston Hughes · 1951I swear to the Lord
I still can't see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me. — Langston Hughes · 1943O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free. — Langston Hughes · 1936I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers. — Langston Hughes · 1921Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow. — Langston Hughes · 1923All 9 quotes →Rudyard Kipling9 quotes
East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet. — Rudyard Kipling · 1889Take up the White Man's burden —
Send forth the best ye breed —
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need. — Rudyard Kipling · 1899They change their skies above them,
But not their hearts that roam! — Rudyard Kipling · 1895If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied. — Rudyard Kipling · 1919Four things greater than all things are,—
Women and Horses and Power and War. — Rudyard Kipling · 1890The female of the species is more deadly than the male. — Rudyard Kipling · 1911All 9 quotes →