Skip to content

Sam Walter Foss Quotes

1858–1911 United States

Sam Walter Foss (June 19, 1858 – February 26, 1911) was a librarian and poet whose works included The House by the Side of the Road and The Coming American.

United States
Librarians
Poets

Also known as: Foss, Sam Walter

Random Sam Walter Foss quote

10 quotes

Bring me men to match my mountains,
Bring me men to match my plains,
Men with empires in their purpose,
And new eras in their brains.

The sweet mellifluous milking of the cow.

Strew gladness on the paths of men—
You will not pass this way again.

I say the very things that make the greatest Stir
An' the most interestin' things, are things that did n't occur.

There are purple grapes in the Land of Git-Thare.

We felt the universe wuz safe, an' God wuz on his throne.

A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead;
They followed still his crooked way
And lost a hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

He had a startling genius, but somehow it did n't emerge;
Always on the evolution of things that would n't evolve;
Always verging toward some climax, but he never reached the verge;
Always nearing the solution of some theme he could not solve.

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran,—
But let me live by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by;
They are good, they are bad; they are weak, they are strong.
Wise, foolish.—so am I;
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban?
Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Sam Walter Foss (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.