William Wordsworth

England
7 Apr 1770 // 23 Apr 1850
Poet

Quotes

<< Prev Next >>

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,�
Of moral evil and of good,�
Than all the sages can.

The Tables Turned

The feather, whence the pen
Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men,
Dropped from an angel's wing.

Walton's Book of Lives
Sad fancies do we then affect,
In luxury of disrespect
To our own prodigal excess
Of too familiar happiness.

Ode to Lycoris
But thou that didst appear so fair
To fond imagination,
Dost rival in the light of day
Her delicate creation.

Yarrow Visited
A simple child
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?

We are Seven
We must be free or die who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spake, the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held.
There is a luxury in self-dispraise;
And inward self-disparagement affords
To meditative spleen a grateful feast.

The Excursion
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.

Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 2
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh
The difference to me!

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
<< Prev Next >>
Search

 

On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays