Quotes from Famous Poets

Poetry has been around for centuries producing many great poets. As quote lovers know, some of our best quotes come from some of the most famous poets, as well as memorable lines which are sometimes found in our favorite songs.

Searching for a great quote can sometimes mean reading through some lines that make no sense or seem like statements from an interview.

Why not let someone else help pick out all the best quotes about life, love, laughter, and many more random topics. Sit back and enjoy only the best hand picked quotes from some of the world's most famous poets.

~ Dwell in possibility. ~

~ Forever is composed of nows. ~

~The brain is wider than the sky. ~

~ A wounded deer leaps the highest. ~

~ Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it. ~

~ Saying nothing...sometimes says the most. ~

~ Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate. ~

~ It is better to be the hammer than the anvil. ~

~ To multiply the harbors does not reduce the sea. ~

~ We turn not older with years, but newer every day. ~

~ To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. ~

~ Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. ~

~ That it shall never come again is what makes life so sweet. ~

~ Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought. ~

~ The truth dazzles gradually, or else the world would be blind. ~

~ Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it. ~

~ Never let anyone let make you feel inferior without your consent. ~

~ How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude. ~

~ Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes. ~

~ Faith is the pierless bridge supporting what we see unto the scene that we do not. ~

~ Freedom lies in being bold.~

~ The best way out is always through. ~

~ I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed. ~

~ College is a refuge from hasty judgment. ~

~ There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people. ~

~ A successful lawsuit is the one worn by a policeman. ~

~ Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. ~

~ There is nothing as mysterious as something clearly seen. ~

~ Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up. ~

~ In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. ~

~ I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way. ~

~ Time and tide wait for no man, but always stand still for a woman of thirty. ~

~ How many things have to happen to you, before something occurs to you? ~

~ A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. ~

~ Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard. ~

~ A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity. ~

~ Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on. ~

~ The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them. ~

~ A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. ~

~ The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.~

~ The middle of the road is where the white line is, and that's the worst place to drive.~

~ The difference between a job and a career is the difference between forty and sixty hours a week. ~

~ A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. ~

~ By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. ~

~ It's a funny thing that when a man hasn't anything on earth to worry about, he goes off and gets married. ~

~ The chief reason for going to school is to get the impression fixed for life that there is a book side for everything. ~

~ The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. ~

~ Home is where one starts from. ~

~ You are the music while the music lasts. ~

~ Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. ~

~ Humankind cannot bear very much reality. ~

~ Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison. ~

~ Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it. ~

~ Humor is also a way of saying something serious. ~

~ Whatever you do, don't whimper, but take the consequences. ~

~ This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. ~

~ It's not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them. ~

~ If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? ~

~ The young feel tired at the end of an action, the old at the beginning. ~

~ It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves. ~

~ It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labor. ~

~ Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important. ~

~ In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. ~

~ Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. ~

~ Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. ~

~ The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason. ~

~ The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth. ~

~ People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events. ~

~ What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. ~

~ There is not a more repulsive spectacle than on old man who will not forsake the world, which has already forsaken him. ~

~ I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates. ~

~ It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind. ~

~ Our difficulties of the moment must always be dealt with somehow, but our permanent difficulties are difficulties of every moment. ~

~ We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. ~

~ Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome. ~

~ Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? ~

~ The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always asked to do things, and you are not yet decrepit enough to turn them down.~

~ Wisdom is found only in truth.~

~ Precaution is better than cure. ~

~ Man errs as long as he strives. ~

~ Doubt grows with knowledge.~

~ The world remains ever the same. ~

~ Sowing is not as difficult as reaping. ~

~ Live dangerously and you live right. ~

~ By seeking and blundering we learn. ~

~ Love does not dominate; it cultivates. ~

~ Doubt can only be removed by action. ~

~ Nothing is true, but that which is simple. ~

~ Common sense is the genius of humanity. ~

~ A clever man commits no minor blunders. ~

~ A distracted existence leads us to no goal. ~

~ A person hears only what they understand. ~

~ The coward only threatens when he is safe. ~

~ Few people have the imagination for reality. ~

~ Enjoy what you can, endure what you must. ~

~ Character develops itself in the stream of life. ~

~ He who moves not forward, goes backward. ~

~ What is not fully understood is not possessed. ~

~ The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection. ~

~ Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen. ~

~ Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. ~

~ Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill. ~

~ All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own. ~

~ If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses. ~

~ Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age. ~

~ You don't have to travel around the world to understand that the sky is blue everywhere. ~

~ There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables. ~

~ If you start to think about your physical or moral condition, you usually find that you are sick. ~

~ Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens. ~

~ It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed. ~

~ An unused life is an early death.~

~ Every second is of infinite value.~

~ Plunge boldly into the thick of life.~

~ In all things it is better to hope than to despair. ~

~ Trust yourself, then you will know how to live. ~

~ We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves. ~

~ What is my life if I am no longer useful to others. ~

~ Every step of life shows much caution is required. ~

~ Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live. ~

~ The solution of every problem is another problem. ~

~ No one has ever learned fully to know themselves. ~

~ A really great talent finds its happiness in execution. ~

~ Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing. ~

~ Difficulties increase the nearer we approach the goal.~

~ He is dead in this world who has no belief in another. ~

~ What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. ~

~ Nothing is to be rated higher than the value of the day. ~

~ The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes. ~

~ Correction does much, but encouragement does more. ~

~ Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action. ~

~ As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. ~

~ Everybody wants to get old, but nobody wants to be old. ~

~ To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability. ~

~ Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths. ~

~ If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words. ~

~ Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. ~

~ A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait. ~

~ When a wife has a good husband it is easily seen in her face. ~

~ He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy. ~

~ Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality. ~

~ One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. ~

~ Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves. ~

~ He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. ~

~ Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be. ~

~ A person can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days. ~

~ Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes. ~

~ We can really respect a man only if he doesn't always look out for himself. ~

~ Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. ~

~ Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one. ~

~ Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. ~

~ Once you have missed the first buttonhole you'll never manage to button up. ~

~ Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago. ~

~ Our friends show us what we can do; our enemies teach us what we must do. ~

~ Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean. ~

~ We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects. ~

~ Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops. ~

~ I find the great thing in this world is, not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. ~

~ When two people are really happy about one another, one can generally assume that they are mistaken. ~

~ Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth. ~

~ You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man. ~

~ If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different. ~

~ Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world. ~

~ I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it. ~

~ Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid. ~

~ You had better live your best, think your best and do your best today, for today will soon be tomorrow and tomorrow will soon be forever. ~

~ Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words. ~

~ Nothing will work unless you do.~

~ All great achievements require time. ~

~ Everything has rhythm. Everything dances. ~

~ Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time. ~

~ We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. ~

~ If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love. ~

~ The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear. ~

~ Just as hope rings through laughter, it can also shine through tears. ~

~ There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it. ~

~ When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.~

~ Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. ~

~ I’ve learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life." ~

~ If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. ~

~ I can be changed by what happens to me. but I refuse to be reduced by it. ~

~ The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change. ~

~ Living a life is like constructing a building: if you start wrong, you'll end wrong.~

~ The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry. ~

~ All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened. ~

~ If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. ~

~ Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. ~

~ Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. ~

~ When it looked like the sun wasn't going to shine any more, there's a rainbow in the clouds. ~

~ Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. ~

~ The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. ~

~ History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. ~

~ There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. ~

~ Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope. ~

~ I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. ~

~ Stupidity is a talent for misconception. ~

~ There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm. ~

~ Never to suffer would never to have been blessed. ~

~ I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. ~

~ All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. ~

~ Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence. ~

~ Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality. ~

~ If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered. ~

~ They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. ~