Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted; If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters, returning Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full of refreshment; That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowThree silences there are: the first of speech, the second of desire, the third of thought.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowLove is a bodily shape; and Christian works are no more than animate faith and love, as flowers are the animate springtide.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowThe Helicon of too many poets is not a hill crowned with sunshine and visited by the Muses and the Graces, but an old, mouldering house, full of gloom and haunted by ghosts.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowWhat discord we should bring into the universe if our prayers were all answered. Then we should govern the world and not God. And do you think we should govern it better? It gives me only pain when I hear the long, wearisome petitions of people asking for they know not what. . . . Thanks-giving with a full heart-and the rest silence and submission to the divine will!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow