Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

People are responsible for their opinions, but Providence is responsible for their morals.

Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground covered we have covered before, only higher up; as we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places where we were but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive; we go both round and upward.

Before me floats an image, man or shade, / Shade more than man, more image than a shade.

We poets would die of loneliness but for women, and we choose our men friends that we may have somebody to talk about women with. Letter to Olivia Shakespeare, 1936

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

I have no question: It is enough, I know what fixed the station Of star and cloud. And knowing all, I cry. . . .