William Wordsworth Quotes on Man (31 Quotes)



    One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.

    More like a man; Flying from something that he dreads than one; Who sought the thing he loved.

    I travelled among unknown men, In lands beyond the sea; Nor England did I know till then; What love I bore to thee.

    Until a man might travel twelve stout miles, Or reap an acre of his neighbor's corn.


    A sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air And the blue sky, and in the mind of man, A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things.

    I am already kindly disposed towards you. My friendship it is not in my power to give this is a gift which no man can make, it is not in our own power a sound and healthy friendship is the growth of time and circumstance, it will spring up and thrive.

    Why do not words and kiss, and solemn pledge, And nature that is kind in woman's breast, And reason that in man is wise and good, And fear of Him who is a righteous Judge - Why do not these prevail for human life, To keep two hearts together, that be

    I 've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds With coldness still returning Alas the gratitude of men Hath oftener left me mourning.

    Not Chaos, not The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out By help of dreams -- can breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man.

    But Thy most dreaded instrument In working out a pure intent, Is man, - arrayed for mutual slaughter, - Yes Carnage is Thy daughter.



    Yet tears to human suffering are due And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown Are mourned by man, and not by man alone.



    My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky So was it when my life began So is it now I am a man So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die.

    Neither evil tongues, rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all the dreary intercourse of daily life, shall ever prevail against us.

    The primal duties shine aloft, like stars The charities that soothe and heal and bless Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers.

    Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man, Could field or grove, could any spot of earth, Show to his eye an image of the pangs Which it hath witnessed,render back an echo Of the sad steps by which it hath been trod.

    Mark the babe not long accustomed to this breathing world One that hath barely learned to shape a smile, though yet irrational of soul, to grasp with tiny finger -- to let fall a tear And, as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves, To stretch his limbs, becoming, as might seem. The outward functions of intelligent man.

    We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud And magnify thy name Almighty God But man is thy most awful instrument In working out a pure intent.

    If this belief from heaven be sent, If such be Nature's holy plan, Have I not reason to lament; What man has made of man.

    Written in Early Spring I heard a thousand blended notes While in a grove I sate reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind. To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran And much it grieved my heart to think What Man has made of Man.


    At length the man perceives it die away, And fade into the light of common day.

    The feather, whence the pen Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, Dropped from an angel's wing.

    As if the man had fixed his face, In many a solitary place, Against the wind and open sky.

    Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade Of that which once was great is passed away.

    The Child is father of the Man And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.

    Huge and mighty forms that do not live like living men, moved slowly through the mind by day and were trouble to my dreams.


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