William Cullen Bryant Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

54 Famous Quotes by William Cullen Bryant
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“Reach for the moon, because if you don't make it you'll land among the stars.”
Moon Quotes
“Remorse is virtue's root; its fair increase are fruits of innocence and blessedness”
Remorse Quotes
“Thine eyes are springs in whose serene And silent waters heaven is seen. Their lashes are the herbs that look On their young figures in the brook.”
Eyes Quotes
Source: Oh, Fairest of the Rural Maids
“Woo the fair one when around Early birds are singing; When o'er all the fragrant ground Early herbs are springing: When the brookside, bank, and grove All with blossom laden, Shine with beauty, breathe of love, Woo the timid maiden.”
Wooing Quotes
Source: Love's Lessons
“Alas! to seize the moment When the heart inclines to heart, And press a suit with passion, Is not a woman's part. If man come not to gather The roses where they stand, They fade among their foliage, They cannot seek his hand.”
Wooing Quotes
Source: Song, translated from the Spanish of Iglesias
“Loveliest of lovely things are they On earth that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.”
Roses Quotes
Source: A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson
“I gazed upon the glorious sky And the green mountains round, And thought that when I came to lie At rest within the ground, 'Twere pleasant, that in flowery June When brooks send up a cheerful tune, And groves a joyous sound, The sexton's hand, my grave to make, The rich, green mountain-turf should break.”
Grave Quotes
Source: June
“Thou unrelenting past.”
Past Quotes
Source: To the Past
“Where fall the tears of love the rose appears, And where the ground is bright with friendship's tears, Forget-me-not, and violets, heavenly blue, Spring glittering with the cheerful drops like dew.”
Flowers Quotes
Source: trans. of N. Muller's "Paradise of Tears"
“The windflower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow; But on the hills the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood, Till fell the first from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland glade and glen.”
Flowers Quotes
Source: Death of the Flowers
“The sad and solemn night Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires; The glorious host of light Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires; All through her silent watches, gliding slow, Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, and go.”
Stars Quotes
Source: Hymn to the North Star
“Here the free spirit of mankind, at length, Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place A limit to the giant's unchained strength, Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?”
Freedom Quotes
Source: The Ages (XXXIII)
“The fiercest agonies have shortest reign; And after dreams of horror, comes again The welcome morning with its rays of peace.”
Peace Quotes
Source: Mutation (l. 4)
“Fair insect! that, with threadlike legs spread out, And blood-extracting bill and filmy wing, Dost murmur, as thou slowly sail'st about, In pitiless ears full many a plaintive thing, And tell how little our large veins would bleed, Would we but yield them to thy bitter need.”
Mosquitoes Quotes
Source: To a Mosquito
“Weep not that the world changes--did it keep A stable, changeless state, it were cause indeed to weep.”
Change Quotes
Source: Mutation
“Go forth under the open sky, and list To Nature's teachings.”
Nature Quotes
Source: Thanatopsis
“To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language.”
Nature Quotes
Source: Thanatopsis
“What plant we in this apple tree? Sweets for a hundred flowery springs To load the May-wind's restless wings, When, from the orchard-row, he pours Its fragrance through our open doors; A world of blossoms for the bee, Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, For the glad infant sprigs of bloom, We plant with the apple tree.”
Apples Quotes
Source: The Planting of the Apple Tree
“The melancholy days have come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear.”
Autumn Quotes
Source: The Death of the Flowers (l. 221)
“Glorious are the woods in their latest gold and crimson, Yet our full-leaved willows are in the freshest green. Such a kindly autumn, so mercifully dealing With the growths of summer, I never yet have seen.”
Autumn Quotes
Source: Third of November
“Ah, why Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore Only among the crowd and under roofs That our frail hands have raised?”
Worship Quotes
Source: A Forest Hymn (l. 16)
“I worship the quicksand he walks in.”
Worship Quotes
Source: A Forest Hymn (l. 16)
“When April winds Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush Of scarlet flowers. The tulip tree, high up, Opened in airs of June her multiple OF golden chalices to humming birds And silken-wing'd insects of the sky.”
April Quotes
Source: The Fountain
“That make the meadows green; and, poured round all, Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste,-- Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man.”
Ocean Quotes
Source: Thanatopsis (l. 43)
“Modest and shy as a nun is she; One weak chirp is her only note; Braggarts and prince of braggarts is he, Pouring boasts from his little throat.”
Bobolinks Quotes
Source: Robert of Lincoln