Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Love, Sake, Wedding Poetry

  1850 Poems,'Sonnets from the Portuguese', sonnet 14.

  17 Copy quote

• All actual heroes are essential men, And all men possible heroes.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Military, Hero, Men

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”, p.400

  12 Copy quote

• The sweetest lives are those to duty wed, Whose deeds, both great and small Are close-knot strands of an unbroken thread There love ennobles all. The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells The book of life the shining record tells. Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes After its own life-workings. A child's kiss Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; Thou shalt serve thyself by every sense, Of service which thou renderest.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Love, Life, Strong

  4 Copy quote

• God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Inspirational, Motivational, Christmas

  Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2012). “Browning: Poems”, p.189, Everyman's Library

  15 Copy quote

• Earth's crammed with Heaven.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Faith, Heaven, Earth

  'Aurora Leigh' (1857) bk. 7, l. 821

  10 Copy quote

• His ears were often the first thing to catch my tears.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Animal, Tears, Firsts

  54 Copy quote

• And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness; Round our restlessness, His rest.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Greatness, Thinking, Incompleteness

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”, p.254

  8 Copy quote

• And wilt thou have me fashion into speech The love I bear thee, finding words enough, And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough, Between our faces, to cast light on each? - I dropt it at thy feet. I cannot teach My hand to hold my spirits so far off From myself--me--that I should bring thee proof In words, of love hid in me out of reach. Nay, let the silence of my womanhood Commend my woman-love to thy belief, - Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed, And rend the garment of my life, in brief, By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude, Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Fashion, Grief, Heart

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2009). “Sonnets from the Portuguese”, p.18, The Floating Press

  56 Copy quote

• She lived, we'll say, A harmless life, she called a virtuous life, A quiet life, which was not life at all (But that she had not lived enough to know)

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Quiet, Enough, Virtuous

  Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2012). “Browning: Poems”, p.164, Everyman's Library

  4 Copy quote

• We can't separate our humanity from our poetry.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Poetry, Humanity

  4 Copy quote

• Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my father’s name; Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there At this or that box, pulling through the gap, In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy, The first book first. And how I felt it beat Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark, An hour before the sun would let me read! My books!

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Morning, Father, Book

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1998). “Aurora Leigh”, p.103, OUP Oxford

  10 Copy quote

• How many desolate creatures on the earth have learnt the simple dues of fellowship and social comfort, in a hospital.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Simple, Comfort, Earth

  'Aurora Leigh' (1857) bk. 3, l. 1121

  25 Copy quote

• O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted
  And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road
  Singing beside the hedge.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Heart, Singing, Cheerful

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”, p.84

  4 Copy quote

• The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, 'Let no one be called happy till his death;' to which I would add, 'Let no one, till his death, be called unhappy.'

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Happiness, Death, Greek

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Illustrated)”, p.1033, Delphi Classics

  6 Copy quote

• Guess now who holds thee?'--'Death,' I said. But,
  there,
  The silver answer rang, . . . 'Not Death, but Love.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Love, Death, Answers

  'Sonnets from the Portuguese' (1850) no. 1

  10 Copy quote

• A woman's always younger than a man at equal years.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Time, Men, Years

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”, p.343

  7 Copy quote

• Enough! we're tired, my heart and I. We sit beside the headstone thus, And wish that name were carved for us. The moss reprints more tenderly The hard types of the mason's knife, As Heaven's sweet life renews earth's life With which we're tired, my heart and I .... In this abundant earth no doubt Is little room for things worn out: Disdain them, break them, throw them by! And if before the days grew rough We once were loved, used, - well enough, I think, we've fared, my heart and I.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Sweet, Tired, Heart

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Illustrated)”, p.1259, Delphi Classics

  27 Copy quote

• A woman cannot do the thing she ought, which means whatever perfect thing she can, in life, in art, in science, but she fears to let the perfect action take her part and rest there: she must prove what she can do before she does it, -- prate of woman's rights, of woman's mission, woman's function, till the men (who are prating, too, on their side) cry, A woman's function plainly is... to talk. Poor souls, they are very reasonably vexed!

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Art, Women, Mean

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1864). “Poems”, p.353

  13 Copy quote

• I begin to think that none are so bold as the timid, when they are fairly roused.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Thinking, Weakness

  Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Daniel Karlin (1989). “Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett: the courtship correspondence, 1845-1846 : a selection”

  5 Copy quote

• Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest!

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Strong, Blessed, Dare

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning (1872). “A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, p.303

  4 Copy quote

• Nosegays! leave them for the waking,
  Throw them earthward where they grew
  Dim are such, beside the breaking
  Amaranths he looks unto.
  Folded eyes see brighter colors than the open ever do.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Eye, Color, Looks

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”, p.256

  33 Copy quote

• Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, half wishing they were dead to save the shame. The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow; They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats, and flare up bodily, wings and all. What then? Who's sorry for a gnat or girl?

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Girl, Sorry, Fire

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Illustrated)”, p.957, Delphi Classics

  27 Copy quote

• Too much beauty, I reckon, is nothing but too much sun.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Beauty, Sun, Too Much

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”

  5 Copy quote

• In your patience ye are strong.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Patience, Strong

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”, p.254

  8 Copy quote

• Eyes of gentianellas azure,
  Staring, winking at the skies.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Eye, Sky, Azure

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning (1872). “A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, p.11

  60 Copy quote

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