“They might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.”

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.

We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps believing nimble.

Hope never stops at all.

The soul selects her own society, Then shuts the door; On her divine majority Obtrude no more.

You left me boundaries of pain Capacious as the sea, Between eternity and time, Your consciousness and me.

The brain is wider than the sky.

You can stay young as long as you learn.

Forever – is composed of Nows – ‘Tis not a different time. Let Months dissolve in further Months – And Years – exhale in Years.

The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on.

You don’t have to be a house to be haunted.

There’s a certain slant of light, On winter afternoons, That oppresses, like the weight Of cathedral tunes.

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

Wonder is not precisely knowing.

The sailor cannot see the north / but knows the needle can.

The things of which we want the proof are those we know the best.

Resolve to be thyself: and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.

Nor bring, to see me cease to live, Some doctor full of phrase and fame, To shake his sapient head, and give The ill he cannot cure a name.

What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?

Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.

I used to think that having many material things would increase one’s stock of happiness. I found that to be completely untrue. The trappings don’t make the man at all.

Service to a just cause rewards the worker with more real happiness and satisfaction than any other venture of life.

Oh, we are going to be so happy away from all the things that almost got us but couldn’t quite because we were too smart for them!

I love playing. If it was down to just that, it would be utopia.