Edgar Lee Masters

“To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern that no shade of quality escapes it.”

“I am the seed of the clod, the worm of the soil.”

“It takes life to love Life.”

“Genius is wisdom and youth.”

“While I am speaking of myself, in a way I am speaking of you.”

“All, all, are sleeping on the hill.”

“To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, but life without meaning is the torture of restlessness and vague desire...”

“I have studied many times the marble which was chiseled for me— A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.”

“I am the reality of your dream, the dream of your reality.”

“The soul is a thing of fire, that darts and flickers.”

“We were married and lived together for seventy years, Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, Eight of whom we lost Ere I had reached the age of sixty.”

“Out of me unworthy and unknown The vibrations of deathless music; 'With malice toward none, with charity for all.'”

“I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds, Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln.”

“In truth, all sensation is pain.”

“The world's a bubble, and the life of man less than a span.”

“What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?”

“It is all very well, but I would rather have my seed corn.”

“I was the first fruits of the battle of Missionary Ridge.”