Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

The little cares that fretted me, I lost them yesterday Among the fields above the sea, Among the winds at play.

Who so loves believes the impossible.

God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.

With stammering lips and insufficient sound I strive and struggle to deliver right the music of my nature.

And if God choose I shall but love thee better after death.

I f thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say, I love her for her smile ... her look ... her way Of speaking gently ... for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and, certes, brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day- For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee-and love so wrought, May be unwrought so.

What I do and what I dream include thee, as the wine must taste of its own grapes.

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech The love I bear thee, finding words enough, And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough, Between our faces, to cast light on each? - I dropt it at thy feet. I cannot teach My hand to hold my spirits so far off From myself—me—that I should bring thee proof In words, of love hid in me out of reach. Nay, let the silence of my womanhood Commend my woman-love to thy belief, - Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed, And rend the garment of my life, in brief, By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude, Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief.

Two human loves make one divine.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

Yes, I answered you last night; No, this morning, sir, I say: Colors seen by candle-light Will not look the same by day.

OF writing many books there is no end; And I who have written much in prose and verse For others' uses, will write now for mine,- Will write my story for my better self, As when you paint your portrait for a friend, Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it Long after he has ceased to love you, just To hold together what he was and is.

Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.

At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, A gauntlet with a gift in it.

I love thee to the level of everyday's most quiet need, by sun and candle light...I love thee with the breath,smiles,t ears,of all my life.

If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only.

Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death.

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty and the feeble wrong because of weakness.

Since when was genius found respectable?

Every wish Is like a prayer—with God.

The devil's most devilish when respectable.

True knowledge comes only through suffering.

A woman's always younger than a man at equal years.

The man, most man, works best for men: and, if most man indeed, he gets his manhood plainest from his soul.

Men get opinions as boys learn to spell by reiteration chiefly.

There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb The crowns o' the world; oh, eyes sublime With tears and laughter for all time!

Experience, like a pale musician, holds a dulcimer of patience in his hand.