William Wordsworth Quotes

411 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils.
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

William Wordsworth
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.

William Wordsworth
As if his whole vocation Were endless imitation.

William Wordsworth
There is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore.

William Wordsworth
And I was taught to feel, perhaps too much,
The self-sufficing power of Solitude.

William Wordsworth
But Thy most dreaded instrument,
In working out a pure intent,
Is man—arrayed for mutual slaughter,
—Yea, Carnage is thy daughter!

William Wordsworth
As if the man had fixed his face,
In many a solitary place,
Against the wind and open sky!

William Wordsworth
Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,
And shares the nature of infinity.

William Wordsworth
There is
One great society alone on earth:
The noble Living and the noble Dead.

William Wordsworth
O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth
Age might but take the things Youth needed not!

William Wordsworth
Is it some party in a parlour,
Crammed just as they on earth were crammed—
Some sipping punch, some sipping tea,
But as you by their faces see
All silent, and all damned?

William Wordsworth
From the sweet thoughts of home
And from all hope I was forever hurled.
For me—farthest from earthly port to roam
Was best, could I but shun the spot where man might come.

William Wordsworth
Hence, in a season of calm weather,
Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the children sport upon the shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

William Wordsworth
Yet sometimes, when the secret cup
Of still and serious thought went round,
It seemed as if he drank it up,
He felt with spirit so profound.

William Wordsworth
More skillful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress.

William Wordsworth
The clouds that gather round the setting sun Do take a sober coloring from an eye That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; Another race hath been, and other palms are won. Thanks to the human heart by which we live, Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

William Wordsworth
The primal duties shine aloft, like stars;
The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless,
Are scattered at the feet of Man, like flowers.

William Wordsworth
Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;
His daily teachers had been woods and rills,
The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills.

William Wordsworth
To thee
Science appears but what in truth she is,
Not as our glory and our absolute boast,
But as a succedaneum, and a prop
To our infirmity.

William Wordsworth
He murmurs near the running brooks
A music sweeter than their own.

William Wordsworth
Society became my glittering bride, And airy hopes my children.

William Wordsworth
And sings a solitary song
That whistles in the wind.

William Wordsworth
Where music dwells
Lingering and wandering on as loth to die,
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.

William Wordsworth
To the solid ground
Of Nature trusts the mind that builds for aye.

William Wordsworth