Edgar Lee Masters Quotes

Work for your own soul's sake.

To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, But life without meaning is the torture Of restlessness and vague desire-It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

In time you shall see Fate approach you In the shape of your own image in the mirror.

Immortality is not a gift, Immortality is an achievement; And only those who strive mightily Shall possess it.

There is the silence of age, too full of wisdom for the tongue to utter it in words intelligible to those who have not lived the great range of life.

To love is to find your own soul Through the soul of the beloved one.

To this generation I would say: Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.

The tongue may be an unruly member-- But silence poisons the soul.

Those who first oppose a good work, seize it and make it their own, when the cornerstone is laid and memorial tablets are erected.

I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea. And the silence of the city when it pauses, And the silence of a man and a maid, And the silence for which music alone finds the word.

The snows and the roses of yesterday are vanished; And what is love but a rose that fades?

It takes life to love life.

Did I follow Truth wherever she led, And stand against the whole world for a cause, And uphold the weak against the strong? If I did I would be remembered among men.

O maternal earth which rocks the fallen leaf to sleep!

. . . the weal of the race, and the cause of humanity, here and now, are enough To give life meaning and death as well.

the much-sought prize of eternal youth Is just arrested growth.

What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? Degenerate sons and daughters, Life is too strong for you— It takes life to love Life.

The mind sees the world as a thing apart, And the soul makes the world at one with itself. A mirror scratched reflects no image— And this is the silence of wisdom.

The earth keeps some vibration going There in your heart, and that is you. And if the people find you can fiddle, why fiddle you must, for all your life.

Many books have been written to show that Christianity has emasculated the world, that it shoved aside the enlightenment and wisdom of Hellas for a doctrine of superstition and ignorance.

Such phantom blossoms palely shining Over the lifeless boughs of Time.

There is no marriage in Heaven, but there is love.

The Typical American? He is sent to school Little or much, where he imbibes the rule Of safety first and comfort; in his youth He joins the church and ends the quest of truth.

Why, a moral truth is a hollow tooth Which must be propped with gold.

He stripped off the armor of institutional friendships To dedictate his soul To the terrible deities of Truth and Beauty.

The dust's for crawling, heaven's for flying, Wherefore, O Soul, whose wings are grown, Soar upward to the sun!

Beware of the man who rises to power from one suspender.

How shall the soul of a man be larger than the life he has lived?

Act well your part, there all the honor lies.

Reckless of my mortality, Strengthen me to behold a face, To know the spirit of a beloved oneYet to endure, yet to dare!

the much-sought prize of eternal youthIs just arrested growth.

In time you shall see Fate approach youIn the shape of your own image in the mirror.

O world, that's you!You are but a widened place in the riverWhere Life looks down and we rejoice for herMirrored in us, and so we dreamAnd turn away

Rather a thousand times the county jail than to lie under this marble figure with wings and this granite pedestal bearing the words "pro patria." What do they mean anyway?

To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, But life without meaning is the tortureOf restlessness and vague desire--It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.