Edgar Lee Masters Quotes

The Dust's For Crawling, Heaven's For Flying, Wherefore, O Soul, Whose Wings Are Grown, Soar Upward To The Sun!

This Is Darrow, Inadequately Scrawled, With His Young, Old Heart, And His Drawl, And His Infinite Paradox And His Sadness, And Kindness, And His Artist Sense That Drives Him To Shape His Life To Something Harmonious, Even Against The Schemes Of God.

He Stripped Off The Armor Of Institutional Friendships To Dedictate His Soul To The Terrible Deities Of Truth And Beauty.

The Soul Of The River Had Entered My Soul, And The Gathered Power Of My Soul Was Moving So Swiftly, It Seemed To Be At Rest Under Cities Of Cloud And Under Spheres Of Silver And Changing Worlds Until I Saw A Flash Of Trumpets Above The Battlements Over Time!

Such Phantom Blossoms Palely Shining Over The Lifeless Boughs Of Time.

This Is A Man With An Old Face, Always Old... There Was Pathos, In His Face, And In His Eyes. The Early Weariness; And Sometimes Tears In His Eyes, Which He Let Slip Unconsciously On His Cheek, Or Brushed Away With An Unconcerned Hand. There Were Tears For Human Suffering, Or For A Glance Into The Vast Futility Of Life, Which He Had Seen From The First, Being Old When He Was Born.

Why, A Moral Truth Is A Hollow Tooth Which Must Be Propped With Gold.

The Typical American? He Is Sent To School Little Or Much, Where He Imbibes The Rule Of Safety First And Comfort; In His Youth He Joins The Church And Ends The Quest Of Truth.

The Spiritual Kinship Between Lincoln And Whitman Was Founded Upon Their Americanism, Their Essential Westernism. Whitman Had Grown Up Without Much Formal Education; Lincoln Had Scarcely Any Education. One Had Become The Notable Poet Of The Day; One The Orator Of The Gettsyburg Address. It Was Inevitable That Whitman As A Poet Should Turn With A Feeling Of Kinship To Lincoln, And Even Without Any Association Or Contact Feel That Lincoln Was His.

. . . The Weal Of The Race, And The Cause Of Humanity, Here And Now, Are Enough To Give Life Meaning And Death As Well.

Many Books Have Been Written To Show That Christianity Has Emasculated The World, That It Shoved Aside The Enlightenment And Wisdom Of Hellas For A Doctrine Of Superstition And Ignorance.

The Earth Keeps Some Vibration Going There In Your Heart, And That Is You. And If The People Find You Can Fiddle, Why Fiddle You Must, For All Your Life.