The Infinite Library

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”

“We love the things we love for what they are.”

“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”

“Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.”

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

“These woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”

“The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”

“The best way out is always through.”

“Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.”

“Poetry is what gets lost in translation.”

“Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.”

“A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.”

“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”

“There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people.”

“If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.”

“You don't have to deserve your mother's love. You have to deserve your father's. He's more particular.”

“A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone.”

“There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.”

“The heart can think of no devotion Greater than being shore to the ocean- Holding the curve of one position, Counting an endless repetition.”

“You have freedom when you're easy in your harness.”

“Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.”

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

“For dear me, why abandon a belief Merely because it ceases to be true”

“Home is the place, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

“My sorrow, when she's here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.”

“Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.”

“Humour is the most engaging cowardice. With it myself I have been able to hold some of my enemy in play far out of gunshot.”

“A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.”

“Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his sons the hardships that made him rich.”

“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.”

“I often say of George Washington that he was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power.”

“What is done is done for the love of it- or not really done at all.”

“By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be a boss and work 12 hours a day.”

“The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader. I know people who read without hearing the sentence sounds and they were the fastest readers. Eye readers we call them. They get the meaning by glances. But they are bad readers because they miss the best part of what a good writer puts into his work.”

“Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.”

“The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.”

“And 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 had a lover's quarrel with the world.”

“Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.”

“The only way round is through.”

“I never dared be radical when young For fear it would make me conservative when old.”

“Being the boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so.”

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on.”

“Acquainted with the Night I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away an interrupted cry Came over houses from another street, But not to call me back or say good-bye; And further still at an unearthly height, One luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night.”

“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”

“A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.”

“Two such as you with such a master speed, cannot be parted nor be swept away, from one another once you are agreed, that life is only life forevermore, together wing to wing and oar to oar.”