Selected Quotes by Robert Frost
Robert Frost- Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States.
He is known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. He frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century. He used them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.
He was frequently honored during his lifetime. He is the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He was considered one of America's rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution". He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. He was named poet laureate of Vermont on July 22, 1961.
Quotes by Robert Frost:
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”
Robert Frost, Art
“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.”
Robert Frost, Art
“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”
Robert Frost, Art
“Poetry is what gets lost in translation.”
Robert Frost, Art
“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”
Robert Frost, Art
“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
Robert Frost, Art
“I am a writer of books in retrospect. I talk in order to understand; I teach in order to learn.”
Robert Frost, Art, Goals
“The middle of the road is where the white line is—and that’s the worst place to drive.”
Robert Frost, Life
“Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found it was ourselves.”
Robert Frost, Life
“We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”
Robert Frost, Life
“How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you?”
Robert Frost, Life
“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”
Robert Frost, Life
“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.”
Robert Frost, Life
“I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed.”
Robert Frost, Life
“Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.”
Robert Frost, Life
“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
Robert Frost, Life
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost, Life
“The best way out is always through.”
Robert Frost, Life
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
Robert Frost, Life
“Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.”
Robert Frost, Goals
“Before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out.”
Robert Frost, Goals
“And were an epitaph to be my story I'd have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover's quarrel with the world.”
Robert Frost, Goals
“I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.”
Robert Frost, Goals
“How many things would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?”
Robert Frost, Goals
“We ran as if to meet the moon.”
Robert Frost, Goals
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”
Robert Frost, Goals, Life
“I believe in teaching, but I don’t believe in going to school.”
Robert Frost, Intelligence/Wisdom
“Unless you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world.”
Robert Frost, Intelligence/Wisdom
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Robert Frost, Intelligence/Wisdom
“There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.”
Robert Frost, Intelligence/Wisdom
“Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That's voting.”
Robert Frost, Intelligence/Wisdom
“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.”
Robert Frost, Intelligence/Wisdom, Work
“By faithfully working eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.”
Robert Frost, Work
“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”
Robert Frost, Work
“The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.”
Robert Frost, Work
“Oh, come forth into the storm and rout And be my love in the rain.”
Robert Frost, Love
“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
Robert Frost, Love
“We love the things we love for what they are.”
Robert Frost, Love
“Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.”
Robert Frost, Happiness
“If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.”
Robert Frost, Happiness
“Freedom lies in being bold.”
Robert Frost, Freedom
“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”
Robert Frost, Freedom, Society
“A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.”
Robert Frost, Government
“A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.”
Robert Frost, Justice
“A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.”
Robert Frost, Sex
“There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won't, and that's a wife who can't cook and will.”
Robert Frost, Sex
“Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.”