Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

"An honest man's the noblest work of God." Alexander Pope

Psalm 23:4
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.~Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 - 1861"

And yet, because I love thee, I obtain
From that same love this vindicating grace,
To live on still in love, and yet in vain

Of writing many books there is no end; And I who have written much in prose and verse For others' uses, will write now for mine,—
Will write my story for my better self,
As when you paint your portrait for a friend,
Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it
Long after he has ceased to love you, just
To hold together what he was and is.

Whatever's lost, it first was won; We will not struggle nor impugn. Perhaps the cup was broken here, That Heaven's new wine might show more clear. I praise Thee while my days go on.

But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

Behold and see
What a great heap of grief lay hid in me,
And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn
Through the ashen greyness.

- Sonnet V

My patience has dreadful chilblains from standing so long on a monument.

"Yes," I answered you last night;
"No," this morning, Sir, I say.
Colours seen by candlelight,
Will not look the same by day.

Instruct me how to thank thee! Oh, to shoot My soul's full meaning into future years, That they should lend it utterance, and salute Love that endures, from life that disappears!

It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book’s profound,
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth — ’Tis then we get the right good from a book.

Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe.

Light tomorrow with today.

Earth's crammed with heaven...
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.

Oh — this life, this life! There is comfort in it, they say, & I almost believe — but the brightest place in the house, is the leaning out of the window! — at least, for me.

You're something between a dream and a miracle.