Carl Sandburg Quotes

American writer and editor (1878–1967)

Carl August Sandburg (6 January 1878 –22 July 1967) was an American poet, historian, novelist, balladeer and folklorist.

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Alternative Names: Carl August Sandburg

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Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years.

There are men and women so lonely they believe God, too, is lonely.

And even now she beats her head against the bars in the same old way and wonders if there is a bigger place the railroads run to from Chicago where maybe there is
romance
and big things
and real dreams
that never go smash.

I am an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.

I take you and pile high the memories. Death will break her claws on some I keep.

Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today.
Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction.
See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.

The little girl saw her first troop parade and asked, "What are those?" "Soldiers." "What are soldiers?" "They are for war. They fight and each tries to kill as many of the other side as he can." The girl held still and studied. "Do you know … I know something?" "Yes, what is it you know?" "Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come."

"…Намерението е едно такова нещо, което те гризе отвътре и ти нашепва тихо "...ела и ме намери, ела и ме намери...

There are some people who can receive a truth by no other way than to have their understanding shocked and insulted.

Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
Tell him to be different from other people
if it comes natural and easy being different.
Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.
Let him seek deep for where he is a born natural.
Then he may understand Shakespeare
and the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov,
Michael Faraday and free imaginations
Bringing changes into a world resenting change.
He will be lonely enough
to have time for the work
he knows as his own.

I am the people — the mob — the crowd — the mass. Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?

One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.

My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive
in the universe.

A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one.

Revolt and terror pay a price.
Order and law have a cost.