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Quotes & Poems

Quotes about life, patience and kindness - with sources

Updated

These are short lines from classic poems and plays about the things that matter in an ordinary life: waiting, being kind, getting through bad weeks, growing older. Each one shows the author, the work and the year, and each was copied from a public-domain copy of the original - not from a quote website. Where a line is famous in a slightly different form, we tell you.

Quotes about patience and waiting

"Learn to labor and to wait."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "A Psalm of Life" (1838)

The last line of a poem that urges us to keep "up and doing". It pairs effort with patience: do your part, then let things take their time.

"They also serve who only stand and waite."
- John Milton, sonnet "When I consider how my light is spent", Poems (1673)

Milton's spelling is "waite"; it is usually quoted as "wait". The sonnet ends by saying that people who cannot do much, and can only wait, are still of value - a comforting line for anyone stuck on the sidelines.

Quotes about kindness and compassion

"His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love."
- William Wordsworth, "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey", Lyrical Ballads (1798)

Wordsworth says the best part of a good person's life is the small kindnesses nobody records. A good line for a thank-you card or a eulogy.

"If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain"
- Emily Dickinson, Poems (1890)

The opening of a seven-line poem: helping even one person, or one "fainting robin", is enough to make a life worthwhile.

"How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world."
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act V, Scene I (written about 1596-98)

Portia sees a candle burning in her house from a distance. "Naughty" here means wicked or worthless: one kind act shows up a long way in a dark world.

Quotes about hope in hard times

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast"
- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Epistle I (1733-34)

The origin of the everyday phrase "hope springs eternal": people keep hoping, whatever happens.

"Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining"
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Rainy Day", Ballads and Other Poems (1841)

The same stanza contains the famous line "Into each life some rain must fall". Gentle, not preachy - good for a friend having a bad month.

Quotes about courage and strength

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
- Alfred Tennyson, "Ulysses" (1842)

The last line of the poem. The old hero, past his prime, decides to set out on one more voyage anyway - a favourite line for anyone starting again later in life.

"We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise"
- Emily Dickinson, "Aspiration", Poems, Third Series (1896)

We find out what we can do only when life asks it of us.

Quotes about time passing

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying"
- Robert Herrick, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", Hesperides (1648)

Enjoy the good things while you can, because time keeps moving.

"Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be"
- Robert Browning, "Rabbi Ben Ezra", Dramatis Personae (1864)

A hopeful answer to the fear of getting older - popular for anniversaries and milestone birthdays.

Quotes about change and growth

"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" (1820)

The poem's last line. Bad seasons pass; good ones follow.

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
- Robert Browning, "Andrea del Sarto", Men and Women (1855)

Aim a little higher than you think you can manage - that is how people grow.

Life lessons from classic writers

"This above all: to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene III (written about 1599-1601)

Polonius's advice to his son as he leaves home: be honest with yourself, and honesty with others follows.

"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time"
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "A Psalm of Life" (1838)

Other people's lives show us what is possible - and we leave our own marks for those who come after.

And two short lines of our own, for cards and notes:

"Kindness is a small coin
that buys a large day."
- Original - Quotes and Poems

"Slow is still moving."
- Original - Quotes and Poems

Why every quote has a source

Many "famous quotes" shared online were never written by the people they are credited to, and others are still in copyright. So we follow three rules: we only quote authors whose work is in the public domain; we copy each line from a scanned or transcribed copy of the original book; and we show the author, the work and the year so you can check it yourself. For more famous lines, see our main quotes page, and for whole poems you can read in a minute, our short poems. Emily Dickinson has her own page too: Emily Dickinson poems and quotes.

FAQ

What is a good quote about patience?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Learn to labor and to wait" ("A Psalm of Life", 1838) and John Milton's "They also serve who only stand and wait" (sonnet "When I consider how my light is spent", published 1673 - Milton spelled it "waite").

Who said "Hope springs eternal"?

Alexander Pope, in An Essay on Man, Epistle I (1733-34): "Hope springs eternal in the human breast".

Why are there no quotes by Einstein or other famous modern names?

Many popular quotes are misattributed, and many modern writers are still in copyright. We only use public-domain authors, and only lines we can find in the original text.

Sources

Not the former quotesandpoems.com - an independent collection of public-domain poems and original writing.