Some days are a bit tough, when it seems like all the elements are against you .. or maybe it is that all the little disappointments or niggles seem to kick off at one time.
Anyway, for me, today was one of those days. I found myself inspired by the honest, hopeful, romantic and beautiful words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Maybe best known for her ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ here are some of her best quotes to amuse, brighten or encourage you in whatever this day has brought for you.
‘God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.’
‘Who so loves believes the impossible.’
‘Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes.’
‘You were made perfectly to be loved – and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long.’
‘At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.’
‘Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive, half wishing they were dead to save the shame. The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow; They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats, and flare up bodily, wings and all. What then? Who’s sorry for a gnat or girl?’
“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.’ “
‘The beautiful seems right by force of beauty and the feeble wrong because of weakness.’
‘God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, A gauntlet with a gift in it.’
‘For tis not in mere death that men die most.’
‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.’
‘Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished.’
‘A woman is always younger than a man at equal years.’
‘What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?’
‘But the child’s sob curses deeper in the silence than the strong man in his wrath!’
‘World’s use is cold, world’s love is vain, world’s cruelty is bitter bane; but is not the fruit of pain.’
‘First time he kissed me, he but only kissed The fingers of this hand wherewith I write; And, ever since, it grew more clean and white.’
- Celeste.
