William Wordsworth Quotes — 19 Famous Quotes & Sayings | Lex

“The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.””

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.””

“Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;We will grieve not, rather findStrength in what remains behind;In the primal sympathyWhich having been must ever be...””

“Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoopThan when we soar.””

The Excursion 1814

“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. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.””

I Wander'd Lonely as a Cloud

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.””

Lyrical Ballads

“What though the radiance which was once so brightBe now for ever taken from my sight,Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;We will grieve not, rather findStrength in what remains behind;In the primal sympathyWhich having been must ever be;In the soothing thoughts that springOut of human suffering;In the faith that looks through death,In years that bring the philosophic mind.””

“Nature never did betrayThe heart that loved her.””

“Rest and be thankful.””

“The music in my heart I boreLong after it was heard no more.””

Great Narrative Poems of the Romantic Age

“She was a Phantom of delightWhen first she gleam'd upon my sight;A lovely Apparition, sentTo be a moment's ornament:Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair;But all things else about her drawnFrom May-time and the cheerful dawn;A dancing shape, an image gay,To haunt, to startle, and waylay.I saw her upon nearer view,A Spirit, yet a Woman too!Her household motions light and free,And steps of virgin liberty;A countenance in which did meetSweet records, promises as sweet;A creature not too bright or goodFor human nature's daily food,For transient sorrows, simple wiles,Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.And now I see with eye sereneThe very pulse of the machine;A being breathing thoughtful breath,A traveller between life and death:The reason firm, the temperate will,Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;A perfect Woman, nobly plann'dTo warn, to comfort, and command;And yet a Spirit still, and brightWith something of an angel light.””

“Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.””

“Bliss it was in that dawn to be aliveBut to be young was very heaven.””

The Prelude

“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 cometh from afar:Not in entire forgetfulness,And not in utter nakedness,But trailing clouds of glory do we come””

“A mind forever Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.””

“Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,Are a substantial world, both pure and good:Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,Our pastime and our happiness will grow.””

“What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind.””

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.””

“There is a comfort in the strength of love;'Twill make a thing endurable, which else Would overset the brain, or break the heart.-””

William Wordsworth: Poems Selected by Seamus Heaney

Quotes by William Wordsworth