“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Listen my children, and you shall hear/Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere” – what an invitation to a story! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote lyric poems still admired for their intense musicality (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow). The most popular poet of his day, he also coined many phrases we still use: “Ships passing in the night,” for example – and has wisdom to spare:

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

“Into each life some rain must fall.”

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

“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.”

“The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.”

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”

“The nearer the dawn the darker the night.”

“Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait.”

“In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.”

“For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.”

“Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.”

“Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom.”

“Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night’s repose.”

“Resolve and thou art free.”

May a handful of these words give you heart and brighten your day. Write on!