William Ernest Henley Quotes

Quotes about:

• Out of the night that covers me,
  Black is the pit from pole to pole,
  I thank whatever gods may be
  For my unconquerable soul.
  In the fell clutch of circumstance
  I have not winced nor cried aloud.
  Under the bludgeonings of chance
  My head is bloody, but unbowed.
  Beyond this place of wrath and tears
  Looms but the Horror of the shade,
  And yet the menace of the years
  Finds and shall find me unafraid.
  It matters not how strait the gate,
  How charged with punishments the scroll,
  I am the master of my fate:
  I am the captain of my soul.

  William Ernest Henley

  Strength, Giving Up, Don't Give Up

  "Invictus" l. 13 (1888)

  43 Copy quote

• Life is worth Living
  Through every grain of it,
  From the foundations
  To the last edge
  Of the cornerstone, death.

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Lasts, Foundation

  William Ernest Henley (1921). “Poems”

  28 Copy quote

• It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll; I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Fate, Punishment

  "Invictus" l. 13 (1888)

  41 Copy quote

• beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade

  William Ernest Henley

  Wrath, Tears, Unconquerable Will

  William Ernest Henley, Robert Louis Stevenson (1908). “The Works of W. E. Henley: Poems”

  48 Copy quote

• So many are the deaths we die
  Before we can be dead indeed.

  William Ernest Henley

  Death, Dies

  William Ernest Henley (1921). “Poems”

  26 Copy quote

• Men may scoff, and men may pray, But they pay Every pleasure with a pain.

  William Ernest Henley

  Pain, Men, May

  William Ernest Henley, Robert Louis Stevenson (1908). “The Works of W. E. Henley: Poems”

  29 Copy quote

• Love, which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb.
  Love, which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom.
  Love, which is lust, is the Main of Desire.
  Love, which is lust, is the Centric Fire.
  So man and woman will keep their trust,
  Till the very Springs of the Sea run dust.
  Yea, each with the other will lose and win,
  Till the very Sides of the Grave fall in.
  For the strife of Love's the abysmal strife,
  And the word of Love is the Word of Life.
  And they that go with the Word unsaid,
  Though they seem of the living, are damned and dead.

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Running, Spring

  William Ernest Henley, Robert Louis Stevenson (1970). “The Works of W. E. Henley: Poems”

  28 Copy quote

• Life - give me life until the end,
  That at the very top of being,
  The battle-spirit shouting in my blood,
  Out of the reddest hell of the fight
  I may be snatched and flung
  Into the everlasting lull,
  The immortal, incommunicable dream.

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Dream, Fighting

  William Ernest Henley (1893). “London Voluntaries ; The Song of the Sword, and Other Verses”, London : D. Nutt

  20 Copy quote

• Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

  William Ernest Henley

  Unconquerable Will, Statistics, Chance

  "Invictus" l. 5 (1888)

  18 Copy quote

• A late lark twitters from the quiet skies.

  William Ernest Henley

  Sky, Larks, Quiet

  William Ernest Henley (1921). “Poems”

  4 Copy quote

• Life is, I think, a blunder and a shame.

  William Ernest Henley

  Thinking, Life Is, Shame

  William Ernest Henley, Robert Louis Stevenson (1908). “The Works of W. E. Henley: Poems”

  14 Copy quote

• Open your heart and take us in, Love-love and me.

  William Ernest Henley

  Love, Life, Heart

  William Ernest Henley, Robert Louis Stevenson (1908). “The Works of W. E. Henley: Poems”

  20 Copy quote

• Were I so tall as to reach the pole or grasp the ocean at a span, I must be measured by my soul. The mind is the standard of the man.

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Ocean, Men

  18 Copy quote

• This is the merit and distinction of art: to be more real than reality, to be not nature but nature's essence.

  William Ernest Henley

  Art, Real, Essence

  William Ernest Henley, Robert Louis Stevenson (1908). “Views and reviews; essays in appreciation: I. Literature. II. Art”

  8 Copy quote

• Night with her train of stars And her great gift of sleep.

  William Ernest Henley

  Stars, Sleep, Night

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, William Ernest Henley, Sir Graham Balfour (1903). “The amateur emigrant. Across the plains. The silverado squatters”

  17 Copy quote

• Here is the ghost
  Of a summer that lived for us,
  Ere is a promise
  Of summer to be.

  William Ernest Henley

  Summer, July, Promise

  19 Copy quote

• Pointed criticism, if accurate, often gives the artist an inner sense of relief. The criticism that damages is that which disparages, dismisses, ridicules, or condemns.

  William Ernest Henley

  Artist, Giving, Criticism

  8 Copy quote

• I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

  William Ernest Henley

  Fear, Soul, Atheism

  'Invictus. In Memoriam R.T.H.B.' (1888)

  8 Copy quote

• Life - life - life! 'Tis the sole great thing
  This side of death,
  Heart on heart in the wonder of Spring!

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Spring, Heart

  William Ernest Henley (1901). “Hawthorn and Lavender with Other Verses”

  4 Copy quote

• Life - life - let there be life!
  Better a thousand times the roaring hours
  When wave and wind,
  Like the Arch-Murderer in flight
  From the Avenger at his heel,
  Storm through the desolate fastnesses
  And wild waste places of the world!

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Wind, Storm

  William Ernest Henley (1921). “Poems”

  5 Copy quote

• Who but knows
  How it goes!
  Life's a last year's Nightingale,
  Love's a last year's rose.

  William Ernest Henley

  Life, Years, Rose

  William Ernest Henley (1921). “Poems”

  11 Copy quote

• Life - life - let there be life!

  William Ernest Henley

  Life

  William Ernest Henley, Robert Louis Stevenson (1908). “The Works of W. E. Henley: Poems”

  4 Copy quote

• O, it's die we must, but it's live we can, And the marvel of earth and sun Is all for the joy of woman and man And the longing that makes them one." (Between the Dusk of a Summer Night, 13-16)

  William Ernest Henley

  Summer, Night, Men

  William Ernest Henley, “Between The Dusk Of A Summer Night”

  17 Copy quote

• Behold me waiting—waiting for the knife.... The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform, The drunken dark, the little death-in-life.... [F]ace to face with chance, I shrink a little: My hopes are strong, my will is something weak. ...I am ready But, gentlemen my porters, life is brittle: You carry Cæsar and his fortunes—steady!

  William Ernest Henley

  Sweet, Strong, Dark

  William Ernest Henley, “Before”

  14 Copy quote

• For it's home, dearie, home--it's home I want to be.
  Our topsails are hoisted, and we'll away to sea.
  O, the oak and the ash and the bonnie birken tree
  They're all growing green in the old countrie.

  William Ernest Henley

  Home, Sea, Tree

  William Ernest Henley (2015). “A Selection of Poems”, p.141, Read Books Ltd

  12 Copy quote

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