91 quotes
Men disappoint me so, I disappoint myself so, yet courage, patience, shuffle the cards ...
There are to whom each symbol is a mask;
The life of love is a mysterious task;
They want no answer, for they would not ask.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
There are who separate the eternal light
In forms of man and woman, day and night;
They cannot bear that God be essence quite.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
Let us be wise, and not impede the soul … Let us have one creative energy, one incessant revelation. Let it take what form it will, and let us not bind it by the past to man or woman, black or white.
The day wears heavily, — why, then, ignore it;
Peace is the soul's desire, — such thoughts restore it;
The truth thou art, — it needs not implore it.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
I prize thy gentle heart,
Free from ambition, falsehood, or art,
And thy good mind,
Daily refined,
By pure desire
To fan the heaven-seeking fire.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
Life-flow of my natal hour, I will not weary of thy power,
Till in the changes of thy sound
A chord's three parts distinct are found.
I will faithful move with thee,
God-ordered, self-fed energy,
Nature in eternity.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
Existence is as deep a verity:
Without the dual, where is unity?
And the "I am"" cannot forbear to be; But from its primal nature forced to frame
Mysteries, destinies of various name,
Is forced to give that it has taught to claim.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
Let no one dare to call another mad who is not himself willing to rank in the same class for every perversion and fault of judgment. Let no one dare aid in punishing another as criminal who is not willing to suffer the penalty due to his own offenses.
You ask a faith, — they are content with faith;
You ask to have, — but they reply "IT hath."
There is no end, there need be no path.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
Thoughts which come at a call
Are no better than if they came not at all
Neither flower nor fruit,
Yielding no root
For plant, shrub, or tree.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
You are intellect, I am life!
Women are the best helpers of one another. Let them think; let them act; till they know what they need. But if you ask me what offices they may fill, I reply-any. Let them be sea-captains if you will.
Every relation, every gradation of nature is incalculably precious, but only to the soul which is poised upon itself, and to whom no loss, no change, can bring dull discord, for it is in harmony with the central soul.
It does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an American literature. Books which imitate or represent the thoughts and life of Europe do not constitute an American literature. Before such can exist, an original idea must animate this nation and fresh currents of life must call into life fresh thoughts along its shores.
To me, our destinies seem flower and fruit
Born of an ever-generating root...
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
Chance cannot touch me! Time cannot hush me!
Fear, Hope, and Longing, at strife,
Sink as I rise, on, on, upward forever,
Gathering strength, gaining breath, — naught can sever
Me from the Spirit of Life!
Dryad Song (1900)
The pass-word now is lost
To that initiation full and free;
Daily we pay the cost
Of our slow schooling for divine degree.
We know no means to feed an undying lamp;
Our lights go out in every wind or damp.
Life Without and Life Within (1859)
Woman, self-centred, would never be absorbed by any relation it would be only an experience to her as to man. It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to Woman is her whole existence; she also is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy.
Thou art greatly wise, my friend, and ever respected by me, yet I find not in your theory or your scope, room enough for the lyric inspirations, or the mysterious whispers of life. To me it seems that it is madder never to abandon oneself, than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive, and a slave, than always to walk in armor.
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (1844)