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Alas! it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Hyperion (1839)

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More quotes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

Kavanagh: A Tale (1849)

They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.

Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

Music is the universal language of mankind — poetry their universal pastime and delight.

Outre-Mer (1835)

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

Kavanagh: A Tale (1849)

All Henry Wadsworth Longfellow quotes →

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

Sanu Sharma

You can never plan the future by the past.

Edmund Burke A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley Poems (1656)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.