Edgar A. Guest Quotes

“All the world loves a lover, but how it does laugh at his love letters.”

“Away from the tumult of motor and mill I want to be care-free;
I want to be still! I'm weary of doing things;
weary of words I want to be one with the blossoms and birds.”

“But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at myself and know
That I'm bluster and buff and empty show.”

“Determination is the thing on which you can depend. It plods along without a swing, but gets there in the end.”

“Every thought and every act were to keep this home in tact.”

“For Age is not alone of time, or we should never see men old and bent at forty and men young at seventy-three.”

“I take simple everyday things that happen to me and I figure it happens to a lot of other people and I make simple rhymes out of them.”

“I take the family shopping round. The markets of the world.”

“I'll obey them in the winter when the doctors say to me
I must give up ham and spinach, and obedient I'll be.

To relieve my indigestion in December they can try,
But there's none of them can stop me when it's time for cherry pie.”

“If you never take a chance, you will never be defeated – but you will never accomplish anything either.”

“Let me be a little kinder, Let me be a little blinder to the faults of those around me.”

“Life is like a cocktail, made up for the most part of sweet things, and tinged with a dash of bitters.
We must drain it to the dregs to get at the cherry, just as we must live a full and rounded life to know all its pleasures.”

“Love has the patience to endure the fault it sees but cannot cure.”

“So long as men shall be on earth, there will be tasks for them to do. Some way for them to show their worth. Each day shall bring its problems new. And men shall dream of mightier deeds than ever have been done before. There always shall be human needs for men to work and struggle for.”

“The happy man is he who turns his soul Unto the light of joys that he can find; And pays each day its just demand of toll, But shuts the future troubles from his mind.”

“The Making of Friends Life is sweet because of the friends we have made And the things which in common we share; We want to live on, not because of ourselves, But because of the ones who would care. It's living and doing for somebody else On that all of life's splendor depends, And the joy of it all, when we count it all up, Is found in the making of friends.”

“The man who wants a garden fair, or small or very big, With flowers growing here and there, Must bend his back and dig. The things are mighty few on earth That wishes can attain. Whate'er we want of any worth We've got to work to gain. It matters not what goal you seek, It's secret here reposes: You've got to dig from week to week To get Results or Roses.”

“The timid and fearful first failures dismay, but the stout heart stays trying by night and by day. He values his failures as lessons that teach The one way to get to the goal he would reach.”

“The world is no longer closed to us in the way it was in the past – present generations have unparalleled access to pretty much all corners of the globe.”

“There is an education of the mind
Which all require and parents only start.

But there is training of a nobler kind
And that's the education of the heart.

Lessons that are most difficult to give
Are Faith and Courage and the way to live.”

“There's no diet list I'll follow that would rule out cherry pie.”

“There's nothing that builds up a toil-weary soul
Like a day on a stream,
Back on the banks of the old fishing hole
Where a fellow can dream.

There's nothing so good for a man as to flee
From the city and lie
Full length in the shade of a whispering tree
And gaze at the sky.

It is good for the world that men hunger to go
To the banks of a stream,
And weary of sham and of pomp and of show
They have somewhere to dream.

For this life would be dreary and sordid and base
Did they not now and then
Seek refreshment and calm in God's wide, open space
And come back to be men.”

“Tomorrow – there's no day so fair, It knows no sorrow;
A day that banishes despair, Joy rules tomorrow.”

“You are the person who has to decide. Whether you'll do it or toss it aside.”

“You are the person who has to decide. Whether you'll do it or toss it aside; You are the person who makes up your mind.

Whether you'll lead or will linger behind. Whether you'll try for the goal that's afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are.”

“You can do as much as you think you can,
But you’ll never accomplish more;
If you’re afraid of yourself, young man,
There’s little for you in store.
For failure comes from the inside first,
It’s there if we only knew it,
And you can win, though you face the worst,
If you feel that you’re going to do it.”

“If your purse no longer bulges
and you've lost your golden treasure,
If times you think you're lonely
and have hungry grown for pleasure,

Don't sit by your hearth and grumble,
don't let mind and spirit harden.
If it's thrills of joy you wish for
get to work and plant a garden!

If it's drama that you sigh for,
plant a garden and you'll get it
You will know the thrill of battle
fighting foes that will beset it

If you long for entertainment and
for pageantry most glowing,
Plant a garden and this summer spend
your time with green things growing.”

“And you can win, though you face the worst, if you feel that you're going to do it.”

“Be a friend. You don't need glory. Friendship is a simple story.”

“Columbus dreamed of an unknown shore at the rim of a far flung sky.”