O suffering, sad humanity! O ye afflicted ones, who lie Steeped to the lips in misery, Longing, yet afraid to die, Patient, though sorely tried!
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote speaks about the overwhelming nature of human emotions and how a single word can lead to an irreversible expression of feelings.
Longfellow illustrates how deeply our emotions can run, suggesting that there are pivotal moments when our hearts are filled to the brim with feelings. In such instances, even a small trigger can cause those feelings to pour out uncontrollably, and once shared, they cannot be retracted or hidden away, much like spilled water that cannot be gathered back up.
Themes
EmotionHeartFeelingsWordsExpression
In practice
Example use cases
During a heartfelt moment in a speech about personal experiences.
More from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
All quotes →Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
To be seventy years old is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-crowned summit, and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits higher and whiter, which you may have strength to climb, or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
God is not dead; nor doth He sleep; ... _x000D_ The wrong shall fail,_x000D_ The right prevail,_x000D_ With peace on earth, good will to men.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
In the long run men hit only what they aim at.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
Similar quotes
Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself.
Moshe FeldenkraisRead
She is a loner, too bright for the slutty girls and too savage for the bright girls, haunting the edges and corners of the school like a sullen disillusioned ghost
Eleanor CattonRead
There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. It means leaving what's over without denying its value.
Ellen GoodmanRead
How we come into this world, how we are ushered in, met, and hopefully embraced upon arrival, impacts the whole of our time on earth.
Alice WalkerRead
Get the most out of everything in your life; the happiness and the sadness, the success and the failure...get a good perspective of what life is all about. Let the orchestra of your life play all the notes, the high notes, the low rumblings of the difficulties and perplexities that all we all face.
Jim RohnRead
Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. Others have called this deepest quality confidence, and I have referred to trust as the earliest positive psychosocial attitude, but if life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.
Erik EriksonRead