Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe.

If thou must love me, let it be for naught
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
'I love her for her smile — her look — her way
Of speaking gently, — for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day' — For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee — and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

If Thou Must Love Me

Light tomorrow with today.

God's gifts put men's best dreams to shame.

Witch, scholar, poet, dreamer, and the rest...

With stammering lips and insufficient sound I strive and struggle to deliver right the music of my nature.

All actual heroes are essential men,
And all men possible heroes.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.

Parting is all we know of heaven
And all we need of hell

Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up bodily, wings and all. What then?
Who's sorry for a gnat... or a girl?

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

What we call Life is a condition of the soul. And the soul must improve in happiness and wisdom, except by its own fault. These tears in our eyes, these faintings of the flesh, will not hinder such improvement.

I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me.

Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.

And if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death.