Quotes by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“You're something between a dream and a miracle.”

“How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use?A hope, to sing by gladly? or a fineSad memory, with thy songs to interfuse?A shade, in which to singof palm or pine?A grave, on which to rest from sing...”

“And wilt thou have me fashion into speechThe love I bear thee, finding words enough,And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,Between our faces, to cast light on each? -I dropt it at thy fe...”

“Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love.”

“I tell you hopeless grief is passionless,That only men incredulous of despair,Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight airBeat upward to Gods throne in loud accessOf shrieking and reproach. Ful...”

“The wisest word man reaches is the humblest he can speak.”

“Yes," I answered you last night;"No," this morning, sir, I say.Colours seen by candlelightWill not look the same by day.”

“You have touched me more profoundly than I thought even you could have touched me - my heart was full when you came here today. Henceforward I am yours for everything.”

“His answer was - not the common gallantries which come so easily to the lips of me - but simply that he loved me - he met argument with fact. He told me - that with himself also, the early freshnes...”

“And yet, because I love thee, I obtainFrom that same love this vindicating grace,To live on still in love, and yet in vain”

“The heart doth recognise thee,Alone, alone! The heart doth smell thee sweet,Doth view thee fair, doth judge thee most complete,-Though seeing now those changes that disguise thee.”

“With my lost saints - I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! - and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.”

“I thought once how Theocritus had sungOf the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,Who each one in a gracious hand appearsTo bear a gift for mortals, old or young;And, as I mused it in his ant...”

“Who so loves believes the impossible.”

“If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only.”

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

“For tis not in mere death that men die most.”

“The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, 'Let no one be called happy till his death;' to which I would add, 'Let no one, till his death, be called unhappy.'”

“You were made perfectly to be loved - and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long.”

“What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?”