Elizabeth Barrett Browning quote: "It is not merely the likeness which is precious... but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing... the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think -- and it is not at all monstrous in me to say that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist's work ever produced."

Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low, Lest I sho...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

World's use is cold, world's love is vain, World's cruelty is bitter bane; But pain is not the...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

A worthless woman! mere cold clay As all false things are! but so fair, She takes the breath...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

He lives most life whoever breathes most air.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

You're something between a dream and a miracle.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

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

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers and thrust the thing we have prayed for in our face, li...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, Let no one be called happy till his death; to which ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Who so loves believes the impossible.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who d...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The world's male chivalry has perished out, but women are knights-errant to the last; and, if Cervan...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

But the child's sob curses deeper in the silence than the strong man in his wrath!
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

A woman's always younger than a man of equal years.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

What is art but life upon the larger scale, the higher. When, graduating up in a spiral line of stil...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

For 'Tis not in mere death that men die most.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

If you desire faith, then you have faith enough.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The devil's most devilish when respectable.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, half wishing they were dead to save the shame. The s...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Let no one till his death be called unhappy. Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

O rose, who dares to name thee?
No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet,
But pale, and hard...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The place is all awave with trees,
Limes, myrtles, purple-beaded,
Acacias having drunk the lee...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

He, in his developed manhood, stood, a little sunburn by the glare of life.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionarie...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The man, most man,
Works best for men, and, if most men indeed,
He gets his manhood plainest f...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Men get opinions as boys learn to spell by reiteration chiefly.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Hurt a fly! He would not for the world: he's pitiful to flies even. Sing, says he, and tease me stil...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

A good neighbor sometimes cuts your morning up to mince-meat of the very smallest talk, then helps t...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Women know the way to rear up children (to be just). They know a simple, merry, tender knack of tyin...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Women known
The way to rear up children (to be just)
They know a simple, merry, tender knack<...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

This race is never grateful: from the first, One fills their cup at supper with pure wine, Which bac...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

What monster have we here? A great Deed at this hour of day? A great just deed -- and not for pay? A...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

We all have known good critics, who have stamped out poet's hopes; Good statesmen, who pulled ruin o...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Since when was genius found respectable?
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

I think it frets the saints in heaven to see
How many desolate creatures on the earth
Have lea...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Experience, like a pale musician, holds a dulcimer of patience in his hand.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Books, books, books had found the secret of a garret-room piled high with cases in my father's name;...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Books succeed, and lives fail.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And a breastplate made of daisies, Closely fitting, leaf on leaf, Periwinkles interlaced ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are lean...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Women know The way to rear up children (to be just); They know a simple, merry, tender knack ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And lips say God be pitiful, who never said, God be praised.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, Half wishing they were dead to save the shame. ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The beauty seems right By force of beauty, and the feeble wrong Because of weakness.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Very whitely still The lilies of our lives may reassure Their blossoms from their roots, acces...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And lilies white, prepared to touch The whitest thought, nor soil it much, Of dreamer turned t...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Deep violets, you liken to The kindest eyes that look on you, Without a thought disloyal.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The place is all awave with trees, Limes, myrtles, purple-beaded, Acacias having drunk the lee...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And there my little doves did sit With feathers softly brown And glittering eyes that showed t...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Many a crown Covers bald foreheads.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my fathe...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

He likes the poor things of the world the best, I would not, therefore, if I could be rich. It...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

'Twas a yellow rose, By that south window of the little house, My cousin Romney gathered with ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say, I love her for...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Wall must get the weather stain Before they grow the ivy.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And friends, dear friends,--when it shall be That this low breath is gone from me, And gone my...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; And only he who sees takes ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Of all the thoughts of God that are Borne inward unto souls afar, Along the Psalmist's music d...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Hope, he called, belief In God,--work, worship . . . therefore let us pray!
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

We get no good By being ungenerous, even to a book, And calculating profits--so much help ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

"Yes," I answered you last night; "No," this morning, sir, I say: Colors seen by candle-light ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

He, in his developed manhood, stood, a little sunburn by the glare of life.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The world goes whispering to its own, "This anguish pierces to the bone;" And tender friends g...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by Death.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

You forget too much That every creature, female as the male, Stands single in responsible act ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Let no one till his death be called unhappy. Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Beautiful. (in reply to her husband who had asked how she felt moments before her death.).
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The man, most man, works best for men: and, if most man indeed, he gets his manhood plainest from hi...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

You were made perfectly to be loved - and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole li...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

First time he kiss'd me, he but only kiss'd The fingers of this hand wherewith I write; And ev...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

I was betrothed that day; I wore a troth kiss on my lips I could not give away.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Thy lips which spake wrong counsel, I kiss close.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Capacity for joy Admits temptation.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God keeps a niche In Heaven, to hold our idols; and albeit He brake them to our faces, and den...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The essence of all beauty, I call love, The attribute, the evidence, and end, The consummation...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

World's use is cold, world's love is vain, world's cruelty is bitter bane; but is not th...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

For tis not in mere death that men die most.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty and the feeble wrong because of weakness.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

He said true things, but called them by wrong names.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

First time he kissed me, he but only kissed The fingers of this hand wherewith I write; And, ever si...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How many desolate creatures on the earth have learnt the simple dues of fellowship and social comfor...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

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

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

An ignorance of means may minister to greatness, but an ignorance of aims make it impossible to be g...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes of...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

A woman is always younger than a man at equal years.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, half wishing they were dead to save the shame. The s...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And each man stands with his face in the light. Of his own drawn sword, ready to do what a hero can.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

What I do and what I dream include thee, as the wine must taste of its own grapes.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

But the child's sob curses deeper in the silence than the strong man in his wrath!
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Light tomorrow with today!
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

You were made perfectly to be loved - and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How joyously the young sea-mew Lay dreaming on the waters blue, Whereon our little bark had th...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Men could not part us with their worldly jars,
Nor the seas change us, nor the tempests bend; ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Men get opinions as boys learn to spell, By reiteration chiefly.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

A white rosebud for a guerdon.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

"For if I wait," said she, "Till time for roses be,-- For the moss-rose and the musk-rose, ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And thus, what can we do, Poor rose and poet too, Who both antedate our mission In an un...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Red as a rose of Harpocrate.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

O rose, who dares to name thee? No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet, But pale, and hard...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

This guelder rose, at far too slight a beck Of the wind, will toss about her flower-apples.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

You smell a rose through a fence: If two should smell it, what matter?
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And that dismal cry rose slowly And sank slowly through the air, Full of spirit's melancholy ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

What is art But life upon the larger scale, the higher, When, graduating up in a spiral line ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Every wish Is like a prayer--with God.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God's prophets of the Beautiful, These Poets were.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

O brave poets, keep back nothing; Nor mix falsehood with the whole! Look up Godward! speak th...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

"There's nothing great Nor small," has said a poet of our day, Whose voice will ring beyond th...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

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

Pansies for ladies all--(I wis That none who wear such brooches miss A jewel in the mirror).
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The large white owl that with eye is blind, That hath sate for years in the old tree hollow, I...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

I wish I were the lily's leaf To fade upon that bosom warm, Content to wither, pale and brief,...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

. . . Purple lilies Dante blew To a larger bubble with his prophet breath.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The music soars within the little lark, And the lark soars.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

That headlong ivy! not a leaf will grow But thinking of a wreath, . . . I like such ivy; bold...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionari...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Ah, ah, Cytherea! Adonis is dead. She wept tear after tear, with the blood which was shed,-- ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Brazen helm of daffodillies, With a glitter toward the light. Purple violets for the mouth, ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And lilies are still lilies, pulled By smutty hands, though spotted from their white.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

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

Eve is a twofold mystery.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

A woman cannot do the thing she ought, which means whatever perfect thing she can, in life, in art, ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The works of women are symbolical.
We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight,
Producing ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

There, Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb The crowns o' the world. Oh, eyes sublime With te...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Sleep on, Baby, on the floor, Tired of all the playing, Sleep with smile the sweeter for ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Thank God for grace, Ye who weep only! If, as some have done, Ye grope tear-blinded in a dese...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Think, in mounting higher, The angels would press on us, and aspire To drop some golden orb of perfe...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, 'Let no one be called happy till his death;'...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Whoso loves believes the impossible
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul c...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Earth's crammed with Heaven. And every common bush afire with God. But only he who sees, takes off h...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy, chancy and temperamental; it re...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Men get opinions as boys learn to spell, by reiteration chiefly
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Into our deep, dear silence.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And lips say ''God be pitiful,'' who never said, ''God be praised.''
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

My sun sets to raise again.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways./ I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My sou...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

O earth, so full of dreary noises! / O men, with wailing in your voices! / O delvèd gold, the waile...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

All actual heroes are essential men, / And all men possible heroes...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

I worked with patience which means almost power.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

And I must bear What is ordained with patience, being aware Necessity doth front the universe ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Life treads on life, and heart on heart; We press too close in church and mart To keep a dream...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

In this bad, twisted, topsy-turvy world, Where all the heaviest wrongs get uppermost.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise, I barter for curl upon that mart.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul c...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

"There is no God," the foolish saith, But none, "There is no sorrow." And nature oft the cry of ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Light tomorrow with today.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Thank God, bless God, all ye who suffer not More grief than ye can weep for. That is well-- T...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

O, brothers! let us leave the shame and sin Of taking vainly in a plaintive mood, The holy na...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Yet half the beast is the great god Pan, To laugh, as he sits by the river, Making a poet out ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How he sleepeth! having drunken Weary childhood's mandragore, From his pretty eyes have sunke...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Free men freely work: Whoever fears God, fears to sit at ease.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Let no one till his death Be called unhappy. Measure not the work Until the day's out and the...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

By the way, The works of women are symbolical. We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull out sight,...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

For poets (bear the word) Half-poets even, are still whole democrats.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

There's not a crime But takes its proper change out still in crime If once rung on the counter...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Yet here's eglantine, Here's ivy!--take them as I used to do Thy flowers, and keep them where ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The flower-girl's prayer to buy roses and pinks, Held out in the smoke, like stars by day.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Get leave to work In this world,--'tis the best you get at all.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Eyes of gentianellas azure, Staring, winking at the skies.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

What's the Greek name for Swine's Snout?
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Did you think of that? Who burns his viol will not dance, I know. To cymbals, Romney.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Italy/Is one thing, England one.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Good aims not always make good books.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

We get no good by being ungenerous, even to a book, and calculating profits...so much help by so muc...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

A cheerful genius suits the times, / And all true poets laugh unquenchably / Like Shakespeare and th...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

I take her as God made her, and as men Must fail to unmake her, for my honoured wife.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The world of books is still the world.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

She lived, we'll say,
A harmless life, she called a
virtuous life,
A quiet life, whi...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

OF writing many books there is no end;
And I who have written much in prose and verse
For ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Witch, scholar, poet, dreamer, and the rest...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my f...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

World's use is cold, world's love is vain, world's cruelty is bitter bane; but is not the fruit of p...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

The devil's most devilish when respectable
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Life treads on life, and heart on heart: We press too close in church and mart, To keep a dream or g...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

God's gifts put men's best dreams to shame.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

You were made perfectly to be loved and surely I have loved you in the idea of you my whole life lon...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

O Life,
How oft we throw it off and think, — 'Enough,
Enough of life in so much! — her...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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