Quotes by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

About Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both Britain and the United States during her lifetime.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my father’s name; Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs Of a mas...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My patience has dreadful chilblains from standing so long on a monument.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Why, what is to live? Not to eat and drink and breathe,—but to feel the life in you down all the fibres of being, passionately and joyfully.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I am one who could have forgotten the plague, listening to Boccaccio's stories; and I am not ashamed of it.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The picture of helpless indolence she calls herself sublimely helpless and impotent I had done living I thought Was ever life so like death before? My face was so close against the tombstones, that there seemed no room for tears.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white! And yet they seem alive and quivering Against my tremulous hands which loose the string And let them drop down on my knee to-night. This said, -- he wished to have me in his sight Once, as a friend: this fi...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech The 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 feet. I cannot teach My hand to hold my spirits so ...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love. Yet love me--wilt thou? Open thine heart wide, And fold within, the wet wings of thy dove.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I thought once how Theocritus had sung Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years, Who each one in a gracious hand appears To bear a gift for mortals, old or young; And, as I mused it in his antique tongue, I saw, in gradual vision through my ...

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 can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe.

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 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 ...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Why, conquering May prove as lordly and complete a thing In lifting upward, as in crushing low! And as a vanquished soldier yields his sword To one who lifts him from the bloody earth, Even so, Belovëd, I at last record, Here ends my strife. If thou...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My sun sets to rise again.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Author Bio

  • NameElizabeth Barrett Browning
  • DescriptionEnglish poet, author
  • BornMarch 6, 1806
  • DiedJune 29, 1861
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPoet; Writer