Vachel Lindsay Quotes

• Never be a cynic, even a gentle one. Never help out a sneer, even at the devil.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Devil, Helping, Cynicism

  54 Copy quote

• Change the fabric of your own soul and your own visions, and you change all.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Change, Soul, Vision

  Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp (1984). “The poetry of Vachel Lindsay: complete & with Lindsay's drawings”, Spoon River Poetry Pr

  22 Copy quote

• How can we help students to understand that the tragedy of life is not death; the tragedy is to die with commitments undefined and convictions undeclared and service unfulfilled?

  Vachel Lindsay

  Learning, Commitment, Tragedy

  8 Copy quote

• Life is a loom, weaving illusion.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Vachel Lindsay (1963). “Selected poems”

  104 Copy quote

• You can't crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Crush, Ideas, Suppressing

  13 Copy quote

• Authors and uncaptured criminals are the only people free from routine.

  Vachel Lindsay

  People, Criminals, Routine

  9 Copy quote

• The only thing that a man may do that is new, is to write himself on human hearts.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Writing, Heart, Men

  7 Copy quote

• I think on death as the apparent end of the illusions that encompass us. They all have a sudden and unexpected end, that challenges any faith we have pinned to their worth.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Death, Thinking, Challenges

  7 Copy quote

• They tried to get me - I got them first! [Suicide.]

  Vachel Lindsay

  Suicide, Suicidal, Firsts

  8 Copy quote

• The sun is a huntress young,
  The sun is a red, red joy,
  The sun is an Indian girl,
  Of the tribe of the Illinois.
  The sun is a smouldering fire,
  That creeps through the high gray plain,
  And leaves not a bush of cloud
  To blossom with flowers of rain.
  The sun is a wounded deer,
  That treads pale grass in the skies,
  Shaking his golden horns,
  Flashing his baleful eyes.
  The sun is an eagle old,
  There in the windless west.
  Atop of the spirit-cliffs
  He builds him a crimson nest.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Girl, Rain, Flower

  Vachel Lindsay (1992). “The Congo and Other Poems”, p.39, Courier Corporation

  10 Copy quote

• My life is unjust, but I can strive for justice. My life is unkind, but I can vote for kindness.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Kindness, Compassion, Justice

  Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp (1984). “The poetry of Vachel Lindsay: complete & with Lindsay's drawings”, Spoon River Poetry Pr

  7 Copy quote

• To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Names, Identity, Mankind

  Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp (1984). “The poetry of Vachel Lindsay: complete & with Lindsay's drawings”, Spoon River Poetry Pr

  7 Copy quote

• Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you, Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you. Mumbo . . . Jumbo . . . will . . . hoo-doo . . . you.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp (1984). “The poetry of Vachel Lindsay: complete & with Lindsay's drawings”, Spoon River Poetry Pr

  4 Copy quote

• They tried to get me-I got them first! (suicide note)

  Vachel Lindsay

  Suicide, Suicidal, Firsts

  62 Copy quote

• Except the Christ be born again tonight
  In dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame,
  The world will never see his kingdom bright.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Christmas, Dream, Son

  Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp (1984). “The poetry of Vachel Lindsay: complete & with Lindsay's drawings”, Spoon River Poetry Pr

  8 Copy quote

• Let not young souls be smothered out
  Before they do quaint deeds
  And fully flaunt their pride.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Pride, Soul, Deeds

  Vachel Lindsay (1992). “The Congo and Other Poems”, p.38, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

• This is the sin against the Holy Ghost: - To speak of bloody power as right divine, And call on God to guard each vile chief's house, And for such chiefs, turn men to wolves and swine.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Men, House, Ghost

  Vachel Lindsay (1963). “Selected poems”

  7 Copy quote

• God lead us past the setting of the sun
  To wizard islands, of august surprise;
  God make our blunders wise.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Wise, Wisdom, Past

  Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp (1984). “The poetry of Vachel Lindsay: complete & with Lindsay's drawings”, Spoon River Poetry Pr

  5 Copy quote

• The crooning turns to a sunrise singing.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Singing, Sunrise, Turns

  Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp (1984). “The poetry of Vachel Lindsay: complete & with Lindsay's drawings”, Spoon River Poetry Pr

  7 Copy quote

• Oh, I have walked in Kansas Through many a harvest field, And piled the sheaves of glory there And down the wild rows reeled: Each sheaf a little yellow sun, A heap of hot-rayed gold; Each binder like Creation's hand To mold suns, as of old.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Hands, Yellow, Kansas

  4 Copy quote

• Factory windows are always brokenOther windows are let alone.No one throws through the chapel-windowThe bitter, snarling, derisive stone.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Stones, Bitter, Window

  Vachel Lindsay, “Factory Windows Are Always Broken”

  4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Sara Teasdale

Edgar Lee Masters

Charles Ives

Harriet Monroe

Carl Sandburg

Langston Hughes

Amy Lowell

Ned Rorem