William Wordsworth Quotes

411 Sourced Quotes

Chains tie us down by land and sea; And wishes, vain as mine, may be All that is left to comfort thee.

William Wordsworth
Worlds unthought of till the searching mind Of Science laid them open to mankind.

William Wordsworth
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
And, even with something of a mother's mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely nurse doth all she can
To make her foster child, her inmate man,
Forget the glories he hath known
And that imperial palace whence he came.

William Wordsworth
Tis said, fantastic ocean doth enfold The likeness of whate'er on land is seen.

William Wordsworth
Wisdom and Spirit of the universe! Thou soul, that art the eternity of thought, And giv'st to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion.

William Wordsworth
Great men have been among us; hands that penn'd
And tongues that utter'd wisdom--better none

William Wordsworth
To let a creed, built in the heart of things, Dissolve before a twinkling atom!

William Wordsworth
Careless of books, yet having felt the power
Of Nature, by the gentle agency
Of natural objects, led me on to feel
For passions that were not my own, and think
(At random and imperfectly indeed)
On man, the heart of man, and human life.

William Wordsworth
The beetle, panoplied in gems and gold A mailed angel on a battle day.

William Wordsworth
I've measured it from side to side: 'Tis three feet long, and two feet wide.

William Wordsworth
Rapt into still communion that transcends The imperfect offices of prayer and praise, His mind was a thanksgiving to the power That made him; it was blessedness and love!

William Wordsworth
My brain
Worked with a dim and undetermined sense
Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts
There hung a darkness, call it solitude
Or blank desertion.

William Wordsworth
I, methought, while the sweet breath of heaven Was blowing on my body, felt within A correspondent breeze, that gently moved With quickening virtue, but is now become A tempest, a redundant energy, Vexing its own creation.

William Wordsworth
The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink I heard a voice it said Drink, pretty creature, drink'

William Wordsworth
Tis not in battles that from youth we train The Governor who must be wise and good, And temper with the sternness of the brain Thoughts motherly, and meek as womanhood.

William Wordsworth
That to this mountain-daisy's self were known The beauty of its star-shaped shadow, thrown On the smooth surface of this naked stone!

William Wordsworth
But who shall parcel out His intellect by geometric rules, Split like a province into round and square?

William Wordsworth
Oh, blank confusion! true epitome Of what the mighty City is herself, To thousands upon thousands of her sons, Living amid the same perpetual whirl Of trivial objects, melted and reduced To one identity.

William Wordsworth
Prompt to move but firm to wait - knowing things rashly sought are rarely found.

William Wordsworth
Stay, little cheerful Robin! stay, And at my casement sing, Though it should prove a farewell lay And this our parting spring. * * * * * Then, little Bird, this boon confer, Come, and my requiem sing, Nor fail to be the harbinger Of everlasting spring.

William Wordsworth
Long as there's a sun that sets, Primroses will have their glory; Long as there are violets, They will have a place in story: There's a flower that shall be mine, 'Tis the little Celandine.

William Wordsworth
Eyes of some men travel far For the finding of a star; Up and down the heavens they go. Like a sage astronomer.

William Wordsworth
When men change swords for ledgers, and desert
The student's bower for gold, some fears unnamed
I had, my Country--am I to be blamed?

William Wordsworth
Knowledge and increase of enduring joy
From the great Nature that exists in works
Of mighty Poets.

William Wordsworth
Look for the stars, you'll say that there are none; / Look up a second time, and, one by one, / You mark them twinkling out with silvery light, / And wonder how they could elude the sight!

William Wordsworth
The Primrose for a veil had spread The largest of her upright leaves; And thus for purposes benign, A simple flower deceives.

William Wordsworth
If the time should ever come when what is now called Science, thus famliarised to men, shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form of flesh and blood, the Poet will lend his divine spirit to the aid the transfiguration, and will welcome the Being thus produced, as a dear and genuine inmate of the household of man.

William Wordsworth
A lawyer art thou? Draw not nigh! Go, carry to some fitter place The keenness of that practised eye, The hardness of that sallow face.

William Wordsworth
The Man of science seeks truth as a remote and unknown benefactor; he cherishes and loves it in his solitude.

William Wordsworth
Here must thou be, O man, Strength to thyself - no helper hast thou here - Here keepest thou thy individual state: No other can divide with thee this work, No secondary hand can intervene To fashion this ability. 'Tis thine, The prime and vital principle is thine In the recesses of thy nature, far From any reach of outward fellowship, Else 'tis not thine at all.

William Wordsworth