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Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Valentine's Day

1806–1861 England

← All quotes by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

13 quotes

I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

Whoever lives true life, will love true love.

Aurora Leigh (1856)

But I love you, sir:
And when a woman says she loves a man,
The man must hear her, though he love her not.

Aurora Leigh (1856)

The beautiful seems right
By force of Beauty, and the feeble wrong
Because of weakness.

Aurora Leigh (1857)

Unless you can feel when the song is done
No other is sweet in its rhythm;
Unless you can feel when left by one
That all men else go with him.

For none can express thee, though all should approve thee.
I love thee so, Dear, that I only can love thee.

Behold me! I am worthy
Of thy loving, for I love thee!

The essence of all beauty, I call love,
The attribute, the evidence, and end,
The consummation to the inward sense
Of beauty apprehended from without,
I still call love.

Who can fear
Too many stars, though each in heaven shall roll—
Too many flowers, though each shall crown the year?
Say thou dost love me, love me, love me—toll
The silver iterance!—only minding, Dear,
To love me also in silence, with thy soul.

I would not be a rose upon the wall
A queen might stop at, near the palace-door,
To say to a courtier, "Pluck that rose for me,
It's prettier than the rest." O Romney Leigh!
I'd rather far be trodden by his foot,
Than lie in a great queen's bosom.

Aurora Leigh (1856)

Whoso loves
Believes the impossible.

Aurora Leigh (1857)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.