Famous William Wordsworth Quotations

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"The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this."
by William Wordsworth
"The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benedictions."
by William Wordsworth
"To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
by William Wordsworth
"Neither evil tongues, rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all the dreary intercourse of daily life, shall ever prevail against us."
by William Wordsworth
"Nature never did betray The heart that loved her."
by William Wordsworth
"How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold."
by William Wordsworth
"A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone."
by William Wordsworth
"A poet who has not produced a good poem before he is twenty-five, we may conclude cannot, and never will do so."
by William Wordsworth
"A slumber did my spirit seal;/ I had no human fears:/ She seemed a thing that could not feel/ The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force;/ She neither hears nor sees;/ Rolled round in earth's diurnal course. . ."
by William Wordsworth
"And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the lawIn calmness made, and sees what he foresaw."
by William Wordsworth
"As a huge stone is sometimes seen to lie/ Couched on the bald top of an eminence."
by William Wordsworth
"As high as we have mounted in delight,In our dejection do we sink as low."
by William Wordsworth
"Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished"
by William Wordsworth
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
by William Wordsworth
"For still, the more he works, the moreDo his weak ankles swell."
by William Wordsworth
"Four years and thirty, told this very week,Have I been now a sojourner on earth,And yet the morning gladness is not goneWhich then was in my mind."
by William Wordsworth
"How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold Because the lovely little flower is free Down to its root, and in that freedom bold."
by William Wordsworth
"I listened, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more."
by William Wordsworth
"Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future."
by William Wordsworth
"Many are our joysIn youth, but oh! what happiness to liveWhen every hour brings palpable accessOf knowledge, when all knowledge is delight,And sorrow is not there!"
by William Wordsworth
"More like a man/ Flying from something that he dreads than one/ Who sought the thing he loved."
by William Wordsworth
"My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky."
by William Wordsworth
"My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky."
by William Wordsworth
"Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room;And hermits are contented with their cells."
by William Wordsworth
"Oh, be wiser thou!Instructed that true knowledge leads to love."
by William Wordsworth
"Often have I sighed to measureBy myself a lonely pleasure,Sighed to think, I read a bookOnly read, perhaps, by me."
by William Wordsworth
"One of those heavenly days that cannot die."
by William Wordsworth
"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."
by William Wordsworth
"Poetry is most just to its divine origin, when it administers the comforts and breathes the thoughts of religion"
by William Wordsworth
"Rapine, avarice, expense, This is idolatry; and these we adore; Plain living and high thinking are no more"
by William Wordsworth
"She was a phantom of delight When first she gleam'd upon my sight A lovely apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament."
by William Wordsworth
"Small service is true service, while it lasts."
by William Wordsworth
"Small circles glittering idly in the moon,/ Until they melted all into one track/ Of sparkling light."
by William Wordsworth
"Soft is the music that would charm for ever;The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly."
by William Wordsworth
"Stern winter loves a dirge-like sound."
by William Wordsworth
"Surprised by joy -- impatient as the windI wished to share the transport."
by William Wordsworth
"That best portion of a man's life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love."
by William Wordsworth
"That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."
by William Wordsworth
"The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life."
by William Wordsworth
"The oldest man he seemed that ever wore grey hairs."
by William Wordsworth
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"
by William Wordsworth
"The world is too much with us late and soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our powersLittle we see in Nature that is oursWe have given our hearts away, a sordid boon"
by William Wordsworth
"Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong."
by William Wordsworth
"To Tennessee Williams, children were 'no-neck monsters,' while William Wordsworth apotheosized the newborn infant as a 'Mighty Prophet Seer Blest' Most adults know the truth is somewhere in between."
by Eloise Salholz
"Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks;Why all this toil and trouble?"
by William Wordsworth
"What are fears but voices airy? Whispering harm where harm is not. And deluding the unwary Till the fatal bolt is shot!"
by William Wordsworth
"What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be not forever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
Grief not, rather find,
Strength in what remains behind,
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be,
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of Human suffering,
In the faith that looks through death
In years that bring philophic mind."
by William Wordsworth
"What though the radiance which was once so bright Be not forever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower Strength in what remains behind, In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be, In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of Human suffering, In the faith that looks through death In years that bring philophic mind."
by William Wordsworth
"When a damp/ Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand/ The thing became a trumpet; whence he blew/ Soul-animating strains - alas, too few!"
by William Wordsworth
"When from our better selves we have too long been parted by the hurrying world, and droop. Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, how gracious, how benign in solitude."
by William Wordsworth
"Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar."
by William Wordsworth
"Wisdom and spirit of the Universe Thou soul is the eternity of thought That giv'st to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion Not in vain By day or star-light thus from by first dawn Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul, Not with the mean and vulgar works of man, But with high objects, with enduring things, With life and nature, purifying thus The elements of feeling and of thought, And sanctifying, by such discipline Both pain and fear, until we recognize A grandeur in the beatings of the heart."
by William Wordsworth
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting. The soul that rises with us, our life's star, hath had elsewhere its setting, and comet from afar: not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home."
by William Wordsworth
"This city now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of the morning; silent bare, ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie open unto the fields and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air."
by William Wordsworth
"That blessed mood in which the burthen of the mystery, in which the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world is lightened."
by William Wordsworth
"The flower that smells the sweetest is shy and lowly."
by William Wordsworth
"Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore of nicely-calculated less or more."
by William Wordsworth
"That best portion of a good man's life; His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."
by William Wordsworth
"Rapine, avarice, expense, This is idolatry; and these we adore; Plain living and high thinking are no more."
by William Wordsworth
"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"
by William Wordsworth
"Hearing often-times the still, sad music of humanity, nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power to chasten and subdue."
by William Wordsworth
"For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity."
by William Wordsworth
"The ocean is a mighty harmonist."
by William Wordsworth
"That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind."
by William Wordsworth
"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind."
by William Wordsworth
"What is a Poet? 'He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them.'"
by William Wordsworth
"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things."
by William Wordsworth
"The Solitary answered: Such a Form Full well I recollect. We often crossed Each other's path; but, as the Intruder seemed Fondly to prize the silence which he kept, And I as willingly did cherish mine, We met, and passed, like shadows. I have heard, From my good Host, that being crazed in brain By unrequited love, he scaled the rocks, Dived into caves, and pierced the matted woods, In hope to find some virtuous herb of power To cure his malady!"
by William Wordsworth
"Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy."
by William Wordsworth
"A creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food;..."
by William Wordsworth
"A simple child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death?"
by William Wordsworth
"And mighty poets in their misery dead."
by William Wordsworth
"'But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven!'..."
by William Wordsworth
"feelings too Of unremembered pleasure; such, perhaps,..."
by William Wordsworth
"'How is it that you live, and what is it you do?'"
by William Wordsworth
"Imagination, which in truth Is but another name for absolute power..."
by William Wordsworth
"Is there not An art, a music, and a stream of words That shalt be life, the acknowledged voice of life?"
by William Wordsworth
"O joy! that in our embers Is something that doth live,"
by William Wordsworth
"One great Society alone on Earth, The noble Living, and the noble Dead."
by William Wordsworth
"Our Luke shall leave us, Isabel; the land Shall not go from us, and it shall be free;..."
by William Wordsworth
"Our haughty life is crowned with darkness, Like London with its own black wreath,"
by William Wordsworth
"She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and oh, The difference to me!"
by William Wordsworth
"So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay."
by William Wordsworth
"The good old rule Sufficeth them, the simple plan, That they should take, who have the power, And they should keep who can."
by William Wordsworth
"The good die first And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust Burn to the socket."
by William Wordsworth
"the fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,"
by William Wordsworth
"The power, which all Acknowledge when thus moved, which Nature thus..."
by William Wordsworth
"The rapt One, of the godlike forehead, The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth:..."
by William Wordsworth
"Three years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower..."
by William Wordsworth
"Thou hast left behind Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;..."
by William Wordsworth
"Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,..."
by William Wordsworth


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