“And men, whose reason long was blind, From cells of madness unconfined, Oft lose whole years of darker mind.”

And the days darken round me, and the years, Among new men, strange faces, other minds.

There is sweet music here that softer falls Than petals from blown roses on the grass.

I can’t be anonymous by reason of your confounded photographs. (To Julia Margaret Cameron)

A beam in darkness: let it grow.

So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.

Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.

A still small voice spake unto me, ‘Thou art so full of misery, Were it not better not to be?

Ours is not to wonder why. Ours is just to do or die.

The voice of the dead was a living voice to me.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more.

And our spirits rushed together at the touching of the lips.

Things seen are mightier than things heard.

O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.

Love will conquer at the last.

The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself.

Oh that it were possible, After long grief and pain, To find the arms of my true love, Around me once again.

Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.

Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety, after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly.

Darkness is an absence of light. Ego is an absence of awareness.

An empty day, though clear and bright, Is just as dark as any night.

The pupil dilates in darkness and in the end finds light, just as the soul dilates in misfortune and in the end finds God.

I rejoice in a belief that intellectual light will spring up in the dark corners of the earth.