"The most frightening pages of history are those which reveal how easily conditions making a desert of the human spirit may come into existence, with the oozings away of incentive and kindliness in our natural social structure."

"I am no theologian. I am a layman. I am among those who are preached to, and who listen. It is not for me to preach. I should not willingly forego being a listener, a man who reads the Gospels and then listens to what others say that our Lord meant. But sometimes a listener speaks out, and listens to his own voice."

"The year goes wrong, and tares grow strong, Hope starves without a crumb; But God's time is our harvest time, And that is sure to come."

"Has a man any fault a woman cannot weave with and try to change into something better, if the god her man prays to is a mother holding a baby?"

"This, in a way, would be exceeding odd And almost justify man’s ways to God— If, by the healing of these hills, the blind Receive an inner sight, and leave behind Their narrow greed, their numbing fears, and fare Forth with new souls to breathe the honest air;If rich man, poor man, lawyer, merchant, thief Declare with one accord that they'd as lief Laugh and forget, and make a gracious truce With sea and mountain; learn again the use Of earth and sky and ocean-ranging breeze, And dance, and dance beneath the pepper trees."

"Some day Love shall claim his own, Some day Right ascend his throne, Some day hidden Truth be known; Some day—some sweet day."

"this country might have been a pio neer land once. but. there ain't no mo indians blowing custer's mind with a different image of america."

"New England! ours Art thou, as England's thine: thy children own The common parentage. Nor they alone, But wheresoe'er is heard our English tongue — World-widely flung For coming hours. Be with us then, Thou greater England! second but in time: Our age shall welcome our young giant's prime, As in his sons a father takes delight, Proud of the height Of younger men."

"Like a hyacinth in the mountains, trampled by shepherds until only a purple stain remains on the ground."

"Some say a cavalry corps, some infantry, some, again, will maintain that the swift oars of our fleet are the finest sight on dark earth; but I say that whatever one loves, is."

"Hesperus, you herd homeward whatever Dawn’s light dispersedYou herd sheep—herd goats—herd children home to their mothers."

"Dapple-throned Aphrodite, eternal daughter of God, snare-knitter!"

"I wanted to hear Sappho’s laughter and the speech of her stringed shell.What I heard was whiskered mumble- ment of grammarians:Greek pterodactyls and Victorian dodos."

"'Tis the fire of the flint, each American warms; Let Rome's haughty victors beware of collision, Let them bring all the vassals of Europe in arms, We're a world by ourselves, and disdain a division."

"Let Fame to the world sound America's voice; No intrigues can her sons from their government sever; Her pride is her Adams; her laws are his choice, And shall flourish, till Liberty slumbers for ever."

"Eloquence may truly be considered in every country, where the freedom of speech is indulged, as synonimous with civic honours, wealth, dignity and might. In the last particular, its potency is that of a magician. It wields at will our fierce democracie."

"A democracy is scarcely tolerable at any period of national history. Its omens are always sinister, and its powers are unpropitious. It is on its trial here, and the issue will be civil war, desolation, and anarchy. No wise man but discerns its imperfections, no good man but shudders at its miseries, no honest man but proclaims its fraud, and no brave man but draws his sword against its force. The institution of a scheme of policy so radically contemptible and vicious is a memorable example of what the villany of some men can devise, the folly of others receive, and both establish in spite of reason, reflection, and sensation."

"Here come the old original Thirteen! Sir Walter ushers in the Virgin Queen; Catholic Mary follows her, whose land Smiles on soft Chesapeake from either strand; Then Georgia, with the sisters Caroline,— One the palmetto wears, and one the pine; Next, she who ascertained the rights of men Not by the sword but by the word of Penn,— The friendly language hers, of "thee" and "thou"; Then, she whose mother was a thrifty vrouw,— Mother herself of princely children now; And, sitting at her feet, the sisters twain,— Two smaller links in the Atlantic chain, They, through those long dark winters, drear and dire, Watched with our Fabius round the bivouac fire; Comes the free mountain maid, in white and green; One guards the Charter Oak with lofty mien; And lo! in the plain beauty once she wore, The pilgrim mother from the Bay State shore; And last, not least, is Little Rhody seen, With face turned heavenward, steadfast and serene,— She on her anchor, Hope, leans, and will ever lean."

"Because comparatively few poets today write in meters, rhymes, and stanzas, my use of these has resulted in my being labeled a 'formalist.' But I find this term meaningless and even objectionable. It suggests, among other things, an interest in style rather than substance, whereas I believe that the two are mutually vital in any successful poem. I employ the traditional instruments of verse simply because I love the symmetries and surprises that they pro-duce and because meter especially allows me to render feelings and ideas more flexibly and precisely than I otherwise could. This preference is personal and aesthetic, how-ever, I have never imagined that it provided me with access to cultural or spiritual virtue. And despite allegations to the contrary about Missing Measures, I have never said that vers libre is somehow wrong and immoral or that meter is somehow right and pure. The experimental school of Pound, Eliot, Lawrence, and Williams has its own beauties and achievements. But we can prize them justly and build on them, it seems to me, only if we retain a knowledge and appreciation of the time-tested principles of standard versification. Free verse cannot be free, unless there is something for it to be free of."

"We enter life and thus inherit The kingdom of the human voice. The Word is Word because we share it. Wonder encourages our choice To sort out life’s conflicting data, To come to terms with its traumata, To shape ourselves to nothing less Than reasoned self-forgetfulness."

"I never tell lies—I just let them believe."

"What is a king without women to kneel? A throne with no warmth, a crown that ain’t real."

"She was the storm I couldn’t sail through. The door I couldn’t kick open. The silence that swallowed my name whole."

"Love is a locked door, and I’ve never been the type to beg for keys."

"I’m not asking for the full revelation, just a glimpse to know I’m not lost."

"Does grace have a breaking point?"

"If You are the answer, why am I drowning in questions?"

"You can master the game and still lose the house."

"I’ve learned that freedom isn’t the absence of it—it’s the willingness to stand under the weight, to let it shape me into someone stronger."

"I’ve built a life around the absence and it doesn’t collapse when I say your name. It just trembles a little."

"We heal in pieces, in music, in laughter, in each other."

"The mirror was his enemy, its truth sharper than any insult."

"Why do my feet ache for the cliff’s edge when a whisper could have held me still?"

"If You are my Shepherd, why does the void mouth my name like an old hymn?"

"I’d still pick you in a room full of choices, in a world where everyone else chooses me first."

"Who prays for the man who played himself? Who cries for the fool who ran toward the flood?"

"I don’t need to be the love of your life. Just the one who didn’t let you fall alone."

"When declaring the infallibility of the pope, the Vatican Council did not have in mind a situation in which, his papal prerogative acknowledged, the faithful might have a wider field of thought and action in religious matters; rather the infallibility was declared in order to provide against the special evils of our times, of license which is confounded with liberty, and the habit of thinking, saying, and printing everything regardless of truth. It was not intended to hamper real serious study or research, or to conflict with any well-ascertained truth, but only to use the authority and wisdom of the Church more effectually in protecting men against error."

"I learned to walk the tightrope between threat and survival, to smile when I wanted to scream, to fight when I longed to be held."

"They made me a weapon, then feared the sharpness of my edges."

"I do not write for permission. I do not exist for approval. I am the dream and the dreamer."

"I built my own hell. And I live here now."

"I loved you too deeply to ever take it back. And if this was wrong, I’d still do it again. Because loving you was mine. And it made me real."

"You didn’t break my heart. You just never held it. You just stood close enough for me to hand it over and far enough to let it hit the ground."

"I’m not asking for a reply... All I want now is to love you quietly. Without interruption. Without guilt."

"The kingdom I thought I built has fallen, but from its ashes, something new might rise."

"Unbecoming isn’t weakness; it’s the beginning of finding the truth beneath the layers."

"You don’t have to love me back. I already forgave you for the leaving you haven’t done yet."

"Maybe I don’t need faster answers. Maybe I need slower faith."

"Karma don’t care about crowns."