Ernest Hemingway Quotes

Ernest Hemingway Quotes Some people see him as a literary legend, as well as a person that lived legendary life.

Others consider him to have had a sad life, but fruitful career.

In any case, one thing is true: Ernest Hemingway is a name that will keep on living.

Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 in today’s Oak Park, Illinois.

Although he was raised in a suburb, he spent most of his time in his family’s cabin in northern Michigan, where he learned to fish and hunt.

There, he also developed his love for nature.

He showed interest in literature from early on, and during his high-school years, he started writing for the sports section of the school newspaper.

After he graduated, he continued the same line of work, which can explain his simplistic, journalistic style of writing which one can encounter in all of his novels.

The year before the World War I has ended, he went to serve in it. He was an ambulance driver for the Italian side, and during his posting, he met a nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, whom he proposed to.

However, the acceptance of the proposal was short lived since she soon left him for another man.

This event broke the writer’s heart, but at the same time inspired him and was the basis for his very famous work “A Farewell to Arms.”

At the age of 20, he was already heavily injured by the sufferings he saw during the war and was carrying deep emotional wounds.

After the war, he went to the US and took a job at a newspaper in Chicago. It was there where he met the woman that would become his first spouse.

But, just as up until then, his romance did not last forever.

By the end of his life, he was married four times.

Back to his writing career, shortly after he married for the first marriage, he moved to Paris, continuing to work for the newspaper as its foreign correspondent.

In Paris, he was made Gertrude Stein’s pupil, and he was part of what she would call as “The Lost Generation.”

During this time he met many famous artists of the 20s – and became one of them.

In 1951 after several critically and commercially acclaimed novels, he finally won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Old Man and the Sea.”

Just three years later, he won the Nobel Prize for literature as well.

As you could already notice from this short introduction to Hemingway’s personal life has influenced his literature – many of the things he saw and experienced he used as the basis for his stories.

Now, let’s take a peek at some of the most famous lines from his work and his letters.

Ernest Hemingway Quotes – Top 10

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it… Click To Tweet There is no lonelier man in death, except the suicide, than that man who has lived many years with a good wife and then outlived her. If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it. Click To Tweet Every day above earth is a good day. Click To Tweet Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know. Click To Tweet I want you so much I want to be you too. Click To Tweet You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There’s nothing to that. Click To Tweet The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them. Click To Tweet We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. Click To Tweet As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary. Click To Tweet The shortest answer is doing the thing. Click To Tweet

When he was not spending his time writing, which was his first passion, he was filling his life with excitement: bullfighting in Spain, deep-sea fishing in Florida, or hunting in Africa.

He was in several accidents, including plane crashes, but he still continued his adventures.

That is exactly why many people believed he knew how to live.

However, deep down Hemingway was actually a melancholic.

When he retired, his health was already deteriorated. His body was battling with liver disease and high blood pressure because of his drinking habits.

His mental health was not good as well. He was battling depression that ended tragically – with his suicide at the age of 62.

Quotes by Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises

A bottle of wine was good company.

Fake European standards have ruined you.

Don’t you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you’re not taking advantage of it? Do you realize you’ve lived nearly half the time you have to live already?

He’ll never be frightened. He knows too damn much.

Perhaps as you went along you did learn something. I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about.

He was fairly happy, except that, like many people living in Europe, he would rather have been in America, and he had discovered writing.

It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.

Quotes by Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms

Life isn’t hard to manage when you’ve nothing to lose.

I’m not brave anymore darling. I’m all broken. They’ve broken me.

Keep right on lying to me. That’s what I want you to do.

I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.

I was a little crazy. But I wasn’t crazy in any complicated manner.

When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me. She looked toward the door, saw there was no one, then she sat on the side of the bed and leaned over and kissed me.

Quotes by Ernest Hemingway – Death in the Afternoon

Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.

A writer who omits things only because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.

There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring.

Quotes by Ernest Hemingway – For Whom the Bell Tolls

There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it. But I tell you it is true and that you have it and that you are lucky even if you die tomorrow.

You go along your whole life and they seem as though they mean something and they always end up not meaning anything.

The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.

There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes.

And what did last? I last, she thought. Yes, i have lasted. But for what?

Quotes by Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so.

Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes, you are ready.

Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.

It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily at sea, and the old man had always considered it so and respected it.

Final Notes

Ernest Hemingway was a man with a turbulent life that left behind an impressive opus.

It is known among authors that many of them fail at becoming successful just because they try to write like Hemingway. Writing like him – so simply but at the same time so deeply is not something just anyone can do.

His talent still influences readers and writers of contemporary generations.

George Orwell Quotes

George Orwell Quotes George Orwell was a British writer, most widely known to the public for his most famous novels “1984” and “Animal Farm.”

The “Big Brother is watching you” quote is used continuously all over the world to comment on the political situation in countries (it is especially frequent to see such a poster in protests).

His books and essays are not just stories – they are a critique of the world we live in, that you cannot help but agree with, and you hate him because he was completely right.

You do not want to live in a world like in Orwell’s stories, and yet, in some situations, it seems that our realities are excerpts from his novels.

Orwell was an ordinary man, a son of a colonial civil servant in eastern India, where he was born in 1903. He got English education and then became a worker in the Imperial Police in the, then British – Burma.

However, the job did not seem to satisfy him. He had an itch for something else – for words.

In 1927 he decided to scratch the itch, resigned his job and moved to Paris.

Becoming a writer was everything except easy, so Orwell was forced to do some manual jobs to make a living, while he was penning his first book.

His real name was Eric Arthur Blair but felt that George Orwell had a better sound to it, so he decided to take it as his pen name.

The first book he published was “Down and Out in Paris and London” in 1934, and shortly after that he also published his first novel “Burmese Days.”

Up till that point, he considered himself an anarchist, but as he saw more of the world, he became a socialist. Then soon he became an anti-Stalinist, as he had an experience in which he had to flee to survive, afraid of communists that were supported by the Soviets and were chasing after revolutionary socialists.

Nearing the age of forty, he worked for the BBC and later became an editor of the Tribune.

By then he was already successful, publishing books and writing articles and reviews for newspapers, but he became a real star with the publication first of his novel “Animal Farm” and then, four years later of “1984”.

He died of tuberculosis just one year after the publication of “1984”.

These books made quite an impact on the literary world and are frequently quoted even today.

Which brings us to the next point: Orwell’s most famous quotes.

George Orwell Quotes – Top 10

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH Click To Tweet Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood. Click To Tweet In the face of pain there are no heroes. Click To Tweet Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Click To Tweet In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. Click To Tweet Big Brother is watching you. Click To Tweet Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future. Click To Tweet It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage. Click To Tweet Four legs good, two legs bad. Click To Tweet Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time. Click To Tweet

Apart from being a novelist that knew how to pack what everyone was thinking in a compelling story, Orwell was also a journalist and essayist.

His importance as an essayist is often in the shadow of his two novels, but we must not forget to mention it.

Most of the opinions he has been packing up in fictitious stories in his novels – he had stated loud and clear in his essays.

He also talked about writing, as well as the worth of literature quite often.

That is why in the following list of quotes, you will also find many taken from his essays. Although many of them lose some of their power when taken out of context, they still ring true even read individually.

Quotes by George Orwell – Animal Farm

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.

There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word—Man.

All the habits of Man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind.

Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility.

In the old days, there had often been scenes of bloodshed equally terrible, but it seemed to all of them that it was far worse now that it was happening among themselves. Since Jones had left the farm, until today, no animal had killed another animal.

There was no thought of rebellion or disobedience in her mind. She knew that, even as things were, they were far better off than they had been in the days of Jones, and that before all else it was needful to prevent the return of the human beings.

They knew that life nowadays was harsh and bare, that they were often hungry and often cold, and that they were usually working when they were not asleep. But doubtless, it had been worse in the old days. They were glad to believe so. Besides, in those days they had been slaves, and now they were free, and that made all the difference.

No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.

Quotes by George Orwell – 1984

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.

I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end.

It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn’t only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself.

For after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable–what then?

In the old days, he thought, a man looked at a girl’s body and saw that it was desirable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred.

Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon.

At present nothing is possible except to extend the area of sanity little by little. We cannot act collectively. We can only spread our knowledge outwards from individual to individual, generation after generation. In the face of the Thought Police there is no other way.

Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.

Both of them knew — in a way, it was never out of their minds — that what was now happening could not last long.

Quotes by George Orwell – The Road to Wigan Pier

No sooner have you washed one child’s face than another is dirty; before you have washed the crocks from one meal the next is due to be cooked.

Our age has not been altogether a bad one to live in.

To the ordinary working man, the sort you would meet in any pub on Saturday night, Socialism does not mean much more than better wages and shorter hours and nobody bossing you about.

You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but not to cooks or bacon-curers or market-gardeners.

Poverty is poverty, whether the tool you work with is a pick-ax or a fountain pen.

All his opinions change into their opposites at the first brush of reality.

Quotes by George Orwell – A Collection of Essays

I was crying partly because I felt that this was expected of me, partly from genuine repentance, but partly also because of a deeper grief which is peculiar to childhood and not easy to convey: a sense of desolate loneliness and helplessness, of being locked up not only in a hostile world but in a world of good and evil where the rules were such that it was actually not possible for me to keep them.

Myths which are believed in tend to become true.

The intellectual is different from the ordinary man, but only in certain sections of his personality, and even then not all the time.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others.

The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies “something not desirable.”

Whoever writes about his childhood must beware of exaggeration and self-pity.

Clarity is the remedy.

Final Notes

George Orwell was an author who had a strong political opinion and made sure to include it in all of its writings.

If we listen to the writing advice stating that good writers have something to say, then Orwell is an exceptional one.

His books are clever, interesting, and full of relatable lines. The collection of quotes above was just a little chunk of the wealth that Orwell’s manuscripts offer.

So, if you are reading this now, you know that you have a big task ahead of you: read Orwell’s thoughts in their full form.

William Shakespeare Love Quotes

Shakespeare Love Quotes William Shakespeare.

Is there a person in this world that has not heard that name?

Four centuries after his death, people still celebrate him as one of the best writers of all times.

He was born in 1564, and lived for 52 fruitful years, during which he left an inerasable mark on literary history.

The exact day when he was born is unknown, but at least we know that he was baptized on the 26th of April, so he must have been born at the beginning of the year.

When he was only 18, he got married and had three children.

However, no one knows much about his private life since not many records about it are available.

This has provoked people to question his identity and everything connected to it: his beliefs, his appearance, as well as something more intimate like his sexuality.

The quest for Shakespeare’s identity is at times called the greatest literary mystery of all time and it has provoked many debates throughout the years.

Maybe the most critical question when it comes to a literary context that has ever been asked is the Shakespeare authorship question.

Many people believe that the true Shakespeare was, in fact, a commoner, and the man that we attribute these literary works to was only a mask for the author who for some reason did not want to accept credit for what he wrote.

The reason that has fueled such beliefs is what we mentioned as scarce personal biography, which does not make any sense if you just think about his legendary status as a writer.

This question seems to provoke the public more than it provokes scholars, and Shakespeareologists dismiss these claims and do not put too much thought into it.

Although his identity is an exciting mystery (that even was the source of one Hollywood movie), we are more interested in all the contributions he made to the world of literature.

What is interesting about Shakespeare is that he is both a literary genius and highly commercial.

Shakespeare’s thoughts are widely quoted, sometimes even without people knowing where they are deriving from.

Speaking of which, in today’s post we will make a selection of some of the most powerful and memorable Shakespeare love quotes.

Sadly we do not know much about his life, so we cannot be certain about whether the thoughts we will quote are the author’s or they belong to his plays’ characters.

But, no matter who spoke them, they are revealing deep and perennial truths about the world, as well as about the nature of love.

Let’s start with a selection of the most famous quotes that this genius ever penned.

William Shakespeare Love Quotes – Top 10

Could ever hear by tale or history, the course of true love never did run smooth. Click To Tweet Love is a smoke and is made with the fume of sighs. Click To Tweet Love is blind, and lovers cannot see, the pretty follies that themselves commit. Click To Tweet Her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. Click To Tweet She loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them. Click To Tweet I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say - I love you. Click To Tweet You have witchcraft in your lips. Click To Tweet I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. Click To Tweet To be wise and love, exceeds man’s might; that dwells with gods above. Click To Tweet I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine. Click To Tweet

That was a pretty fine collection, wasn’t it?

To be honest, it was a tough pick.

Thankfully, we are nowhere near done!

Shakespeare has penned so many plays during his career, that we have enough material to keep going.

He was such a big figure that a whole subject was created around his writings, called Shakespearology, that many modern universities offer in their syllabus. One would expect that since he has made up various words that we know use in our everyday language like addiction, or fashionable, as well as many more.

If you just read his plays, you will understand that this man was wise and he had something to say. He always examines unchanging and everlasting subjects such as love, hate and revenge.

But until you take a sip of the fine Shakespeare juices, he has spilled in his plays, enjoy yourself with some more quotes about love and all the truths surrounding it.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet

My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand, O that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!

Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.

Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable. Don’t swear by the moon.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – All’s Well When It Ends Well

But love that comes too late, like a remorseful pardon slowly carried, to the great sender turns a sour offence.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – A Midsummer’s Night Dream

My heart is true as steel.

And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.

Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make poor females mad.

This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.

I am amazed and know not what to say.

Good night, sweet friend: thy love ne’er alter, till thy sweet life end.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – Much Ado About Nothing

Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

Speak low, if you speak love.

That I neither feel how she should be loved nor know how she should be worthy is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me. I will die in it at the stake.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – Hamlet

Doubt thou the stars are fire. Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar. But never doubt I love.

I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – Twelfth Night

If music be the food of love, play on.

Love sought is good, but giv’n unsought is better.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – As You Like It

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

We that are true lovers run into strange capers. But as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.

No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – Antony and Cleopatra

Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me.

Music, moody food of us that trade in love.

The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch which hurts and is desired.

There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – The Two Gentlemen of Verona

For he was more than over shoes in love.

They do not love that do not show their love.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – The Merchant of Venice

And swearing till my very roof was dry with oaths of love.

Quotes by William Shakespeare – Sonnets

Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove.

In black ink my love may still shine bright.

The worst was this: my love was my decay.

Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep.

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.

Final Notes

We are finishing this article with a feeling of unease – there are so many more quotes that are worth mentioning.

But, some of them are better understood when read in context.

Shakespeare’s plays have survived so long because they carry truths about the world that never change.

So, how about we give you a dare of some kind: read some of his plays and try to find quotable lines yourself?

I believe you will enjoy the task since it is impossible not to enjoy Shakespeare.

Edgar Allan Poe Love Quotes

All that Edgar Allan Poe ever loved – as he informs us in one of his most haunting poems – he loved alone.

Unfortunately, it couldn’t have been any other way.

He was a tormented soul, haunted by nightmares and ghosts even during daylight, and he was unusual in almost everything he ever did.

Love wasn’t an exception.

Thankfully, Edgar Allan Poe was capable of transforming his anguished self into exquisite words, thus enriching our quotebooks with some of the most beautiful insights into the nature and majesty of love.

Let’s have a look at few of them and link the most famous among them to the biography of this great American writer.

Edgar Allan Poe – Love Quotes from His Early Life

Scholars think that Edgar’s solitude started before he was even able to comprehend it.

Born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, he was the second child of Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and David Poe Jr. – both actors.

Unsurprisingly, Edgar probably got his name from Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” a play both of his parents performed in during 1809!

Just a year later, Edgar’s father, an ill-tempered alcoholic, abandoned his family. His mother gave birth to a third child and died from tuberculosis when Poe was still in his cradle, on December 8, 1811. Interestingly enough, his father may have died on the very same day – or two-three days later.

So, Edgar was orphaned basically from birth, bereaved of the love of his mother.

Until the end of his life, he would look passionately for it – only to find what she inadvertently left him with death and solitude.

When Poe was fourteen, he fell in love for the first time – to Mrs. Jane Stith Craig Stanard, as he later wrote, “the first purely ideal love of [his] soul.” He described her later as “the truest, tenderest of this world’s most womanly souls, and an angel to my forlorn and darkened nature.”

And even though Jane Stanard was almost twice Poe’s age, she did have a startling effect on him:

This lady, on entering the room, took [Poe’s] hand and spoke some gentle and gracious words of welcome, which so penetrated the heart of the orphan boy as to deprive him of the power of speech, and, for a time, almost of consciousness itself.

Now, Poe had about as much luck as Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki: no matter wherever he went, it all turned to dust and pain.

Jane Stanard went mad and died in 1824 when he was barely 15 years of age.

He dedicated to her this beautiful love poem:

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfum’d sea,
The weary way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the beauty of fair Greece,
And the grandeur of old Rome.

Lo! in that little window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand!
The folded scroll within thy hand —
A Psyche from the regions which
Are Holy Land!

Next, Poe fell in love with Sarah Elmira Royster, who was just one year younger than him.

She loved him back, but her father disapproved of their relationship: Poe was both poor and an orphan. Even so, they may have been even secretly engaged, and Poe wrote to her some beautiful love verses.

However, most painful are those which he wrote when he learned that his father had given her to marriage to a businessman named Alexander Shelton.

I saw thee on thy bridal day—
When a burning blush came o’er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay,
The world all love before thee:

And in thine eye a kindling light
(Whatever it might be)
Was all on Earth my aching sight
Of Loveliness could see.

That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame—
As such it well may pass—
Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame
In the breast of him, alas!

Who saw thee on that bridal day,
When that deep blush would come o’er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay;
The world all love before thee.

Edgar Allan Poe – Love Quotes from the Time with His Wife Virginia

Poe’s third and greatest love was his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm!

You’ve read that right!

The 27-year-old Poe, ever tortured and plagued by everything imaginable, fell in love with his twice younger cousin!

And when we say “fell in love,” we really mean it: he felt genuine and deep affection toward her for as long as she lived!

Once, he wrote to a friend:

I see no one among the living as beautiful as my little wife.

And a friend of his wrote of Edgar and Virginia’s relationship thus:

His love for his wife was a sort of rapturous worship of the spirit of beauty.

Edgar loved Virginia so much that he wrote this wonderful little sonnet to his aunt (and now mother-in-law):

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of “Mother,”
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you—
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you
In setting my Virginia’s spirit free.
My mother—my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

And how did Virginia feel about Edgar?

Well – she basically idolized him!

She wrote him a poem as well, and we’ll feel bad if we don’t include it here:

Ever with thee I wish to roam —
Dearest my life is thine.
Give me a cottage for my home
And a rich old cypress vine,
Removed from the world with its sin and care
And the tattling of many tongues.
Love alone shall guide us when we are there —
Love shall heal my weakened lungs;
And Oh, the tranquil hours we’ll spend,
Never wishing that others may see!
Perfect ease we’ll enjoy, without thinking to lend
Ourselves to the world and its glee —
Ever peaceful and blissful we’ll be.

If you read the poem carefully, you may have already notice that it’s an acrostic. If not – read it again and focus on the first letters in each of the lines!

We wrote above that Poe loved Virginia for as long as she lived.

And you know what follows:

Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe died on January 30, 1847, at barely 24 years of age, leaving Edgar Poe distraught and hurt to his very core.

Also – probably sure that he’s cursed by some merciless god who, to add insult to injury, caused Virginia to die from the very same illness his mother did: tuberculosis!

You think your life is unfair?

Virginia’s death made Poe, the saddest man alive, even sadder.

A friend of his wrote soon after:

Many times, after the death of his beloved wife, was he found at the dead hour of a winter night, sitting beside her tomb almost frozen in the snow.

And his poetry testifies to this love.

The poem “Lenore,” for example, contains these heartbreaking verses:

Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll!–a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear?–weep now or never more!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
Come! let the burial rite be read–the funeral song be sung!–
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young–
A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

In “The Raven,” a student mourns the death of his beloved Lenore while trying to find some solace in his books:

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

Then, a raven flies into his room.

The student, after some deliberation, asks the raven whether he’ll ever see his love again, if not on Earth, at least in Heaven. The raven’s answer is unforgettable and utterly painful:

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Finally, the student realizes that there’s no way out for him: the death of his beloved means his death as well:

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

As famous and as unforgettable “The Raven” is, it is not Poe’s best love poem about Virginia. That is, undoubtedly “Annabel Lee,” quite probably, one of the most beautiful love poems ever written in the history of literature.

We see no reason why anyone should mind if we quote it in full:

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes! – that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling – my darling – my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe – Love Quotes from His Later Life

“Annabel Lee” is the last poem Edgar Allan Poe wrote in his life, and a fitting monument to his work, love, and preoccupation.

It’s not that he didn’t try to love in the remaining few years of his life.

He wooed at least three different women during this period: Frances Sargent Osgood, Sarah Helen Whitman, and – surprise! surprise! – his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster.

During this period, in a letter to Sarah Helen Whitman, Poe wrote:

Yes, I now feel that it was then on that evening of sweet dreams—that the very first dawn of human love burst upon the icy night of my spirit. Since that period I have never seen nor heard your name without a shiver half of delight half of anxiety.

And to Frances Osgood he wrote both an acrostic and this lovely stanza:

Thou wouldst be loved? — then let thy heart
From its present pathway part not!
Being everything which now thou art,
Be nothing which thou art not.
So with the world thy gentle ways,
Thy grace, thy more than beauty,
Shall be an endless theme of praise,
And love — a simple duty.

However, Osgood knew that it couldn’t be too honest.

And she said it best when she said “that [Virginia] was the only woman whom [Poe] ever loved.”

“Edgar Allan Poe Love Quotes: An Additional Selection”

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man. Click To Tweet For passionate love is still divine | I lov’d her as an angel might | With ray of the all living light | Which blazes upon Edis’ shrine. Click To Tweet O, human love! thou spirit given, | On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven! Click To Tweet Sound loves to revel in a summer night. Click To Tweet Years of love have been forgot | In the hatred of a minute. Click To Tweet Thou wast that all to me, love, | For which my soul did pine — | A green isle in the sea, love, | A fountain and a shrine, | All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers, | And all the flowers were mine. Click To Tweet And all my days are trances, | And all my nightly dreams | Are where thy grey eye glances, | And where thy footstep gleams — | In what ethereal dances, | By what eternal streams. Click To Tweet

Final Notes

In “The Philosophy of Composition,” Poe’s most famous 1846 essay, one year before Virginia died, Edgar wrote that “the death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.”

And he had the misfortune of experiencing this first hand.

All his life, Edgar wanted to find a woman who will love him the way a mother loves her child – for he never had one.

Nobody filled the void – and both his first and his greatest love (just like his mother) died!

Kenneth Silverman notes correctly that throughout Poe’s work “runs a vein of melancholy, sometimes despair, and . . . women who through death abandon their loved ones.”

Because Poe’s work was a reflection of his life. And because his life was a sad one, bereaved of all love and tenderness.

Strangely enough, he managed to write some of the most beautiful verses about them!

Thank you, Poe!

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes On October 3, 1849. Edgar Allan Poe, then just 40 years of age, was found roaming the streets of Baltimore, delirious and acting too strange to be considered sane.

According to Joseph W. Walker – the man who had found him – Poe was “in great distress, and… in need of immediate assistance.”

At least that’s what he wrote to Poe’s acquaintance, Joseph E. Snodgrass, who was a doctor and who has provided us with a very vivid description of how Poe had looked like few days before he died:

His face was haggard, not to say bloated, and unwashed, his hair unkempt, and his whole physique repulsive. His expansive forehead, with its wonderful breadth between the points where the phrenologists locate the organ of ideality — the widest I ever measured — and that full-orbed and mellow, yet soulful eye, for which he was so noticeable when himself, now lusterless and vacant, as shortly I could see, were shaded from view by a rusty, almost brimless, tattered and ribbon-less palm leaf hat.

His clothing consisted of a sack-coat of thin and sleezy black alpaca, ripped more or less at several of its seams, and faded and soiled, and pants of a steel-mixed pattern of cassinette, half-worn and badly-fitting, if they could be said to fit at all. He wore neither vest nor neck-cloth, while the bosom of his shirt was both crumpled and badly soiled. On his feet were boots of coarse material, and giving no sign of having been blacked for a long time, if at all.

So, basically, Poe was barely human, looking repulsive, and wearing clothes and shoes that couldn’t have been his.

To make matters even stranger, the only thing he was capable of uttering was the name of a certain “Reynolds.”

To this day, we have no idea who was Poe calling out for.

And we have no idea how he got to be in the state that he was in on October 3, 1849.

All we know is that four days later he died.

The list of possible reasons is rather long: alcohol or drugs, brain congestion or heart disease, rabies or cholera, tuberculosis, a suicide gone wrong (initially…)

Feels like a plot snatched right out of a detective novel, doesn’t it?

Speaking of which –

Edgar Allan Poe was the guy who invented that genre, having created the precursor to all those Sherlock Holmeses and Hercule Poirots you’ve grown to love throughout the years.

Poe’s detective is called C. Auguste Dupin and was born in his mind before the word “detective” even existed!

In addition, Edgar was one of the first guys who put the word science in “science fiction” back at a time when it was still “scientific” to think that living things are powered on abstract concepts such as “élan vitals” and “souls.”

(Yeah – how would that work?)

However, even though he invented two such beloved and popular genres, Poe is much more famous today for his horror and gothic fiction.

A tormented soul in the body of a great writer, he wrote some of the most frightening short stories ever written, one of which we’ve summarized for you right here.

He also wrote some of the most mournful, lovely and heartbreaking poems in the history of the United States, which is why we’ve listed his most beautiful love quotes in another article.

But, for now – let’s take a broader view!

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes – Top 10

All that we see or seem | is but a dream within a dream. Click To Tweet Evil is a consequence of Good, so, in fact, out of Joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are, have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been. Click To Tweet They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. Click To Tweet And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor | Shall be lifted — nevermore! Click To Tweet If you wish to forget anything upon the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered Click To Tweet It was many and many a year ago, | In a kingdom by the sea, | That a maiden lived whom you may know | By the name of Annabel Lee. Click To Tweet How many good books suffer neglect through the inefficiency of their beginnings! Click To Tweet I have great faith in fools — self-confidence my friends will call it. Click To Tweet That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward. Click To Tweet I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. Click To Tweet

We had a difficult time choosing those, since, let’s face it, Edgar Allan Poe is basically the utmost authority in the history of world’s fiction on topics such as madness, dreams, death, and all things strange and bizarre.

“He was an adventurer into the vaults and cellars and horrible underground passages of the human soul,” wrote D. H. Lawrence in 1924. “He sounded the horror and the warning of his own doom.”

Let’s see in what manner!

Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe – Short Stories

From “The Tell-Tale Heart”

TRUE! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?

And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?

I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.

From “The Black Cat”

For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not — and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul.

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

From “The Premature Burial”

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

From “Eleonora”

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe – Poetry

From “Alone”

From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring —
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone —
And all I lov’d — I lov’d alone

From “The Raven”

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing,
doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

From “Eldorado”

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe – Marginalia

After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize at one effort the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment, the opportunity is his own — the road to immortal renown lies straight, open, and unencumbered before him. All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple — a few plain words — “My Heart Laid Bare.” But — this little book must be true to its title.

In reading some books we occupy ourselves chiefly with the thoughts of the author; in perusing others, exclusively with our own.

Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe – Essays

From “The Philosophy of Composition”

The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.

From “The Poetic Principle”

A poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement. But all excitements are, through a psychal necessity, transient.

I hold that a long poem does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, “a long poem,” is simply a flat contradiction in terms.

Final Notes

We’re not done!

We purposefully left out some of the most famous quotes by Poe because we wanted to include them in our selection of his most beautiful love quotes.

Stay tuned for those!

We promise: you will not be disappointed!

Paulo Coelho Quotes & Biography

Paulo Coelho Quotes If the name Paulo Coelho doesn’t ring any bells, perhaps you need to do some reading.

How to describe his style of expression? – All of his books fly in the faces of the conventional methods and embrace a path that is filled with uncertainty and adventure.

Paulo Coelho Biography

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian-born writer, novelist, and dreamer. Same as everyone else, his parents had high hopes for him, and they sent him to a Jesuit school to follow in his father’s footsteps.

From a young age, Paulo expressed his love for the sanctity of the written word, but his family was not supportive.

They tried to undermine his talent and passion for writing by imposing other traditional standards.

The culmination of his rebelliousness ultimately cracked wide open at the 17, when Coelho’s self-examination and isolation contributed to him being locked in a mental institution.

He escaped on numerous occasions and was released by the time he was 20 years old. From today’s perspective, Paulo doesn’t blame his parents for their methods. He merely indicates that they were not aware of his potential and orientation.

In 1980, he got married to Christina Oiticica – a Brazilian artist. Both of them together embarked on a journey to change their little world without necessarily neglecting their souls. Now, they reside in Genève.

In 1982, Paulo wrote his book first book – Hell Archives. These early years were not that great for Coelho, but his passion blossomed.

Afterward, or precisely in 1986, he hit the road with an intention to make the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. A year later he published The Pilgrimage.

His best work arrived in 1988 when Paulo wrote The Alchemist or O Alquimista in Portuguese.

This may come as a shock to you, but the Alchemist doesn’t fall into the category of split-second bestselling books. Published by a small publishing-house, it didn’t have the effect Paulo was hoping for.

The real deal happened in France when in the 90s, the book became a bestseller overnight. Since then, it has been translated into more than 50 languages, capturing the attention of many readers worldwide.

He later wrote, Frases, Eleven Minutes, Brida, Veronica Decides to Die, The Fifth Mountain, The Zahir, Manual of the Warrior of Light, etc.

He is the receiver of many international rewards, for his immense contribution to society through bright ideas and pure wisdom. He continues to be an inspiration for many people all around the globe and has a huge base of loyal followers and readers.

Paulo Coelho Quotes – Top 10

No one can lie, no one can hide anything when he looks directly into someone's eyes. Click To Tweet Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience. Click To Tweet Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act. Click To Tweet When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It's very simple. Click To Tweet When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. Click To Tweet The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes. Click To Tweet You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it. Click To Tweet Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows. Click To Tweet Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions. Click To Tweet We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life. Click To Tweet

All the masterpieces written by Paulo Coelho are etched into the hearts of many generations and continue in the same fashion. The key takeaways are elaborated in the text in a way that most people cannot absorb the criticism, deriving from each sentence.

We leave you to contemplate on this one, while we move on with more quotes extracted from the rich collection of Paulo Coelho.

Quotes by Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist

It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.

No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.

Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.

Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.

Quotes by Paulo Coelho – Eleven Minutes

Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.

I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It’s all a question of how I view my life.

No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.

The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility.

Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.

Don’t listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people’s failures.

Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone.

I’m not a body with a soul, I’m a soul that has a visible part called the body.

In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel.

The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.

Quotes by Paulo Coelho – The Fifth Mountain

If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied, then forget it, now. Imagine a new story for your life and believe in it.

Focus only on the moments when you achieved what you desired, and that strength will help you to get what you want.

Sadness does not last forever when we walk in the direction of that which we always desired.

Stop thinking about life and choose to live it.

Make whatever decision you wish but never forget one thing: all of you are much better than you believed. Take advantage of the chance that tragedy has given you; not everyone is capable of doing so.

Although I have the colors, only the Lord can mix them with such harmony.

All life battles teach us something, even those we lose.

Life is made of our attitudes. And there are certain things that the gods oblige us to live through. Their reason for this does not matter, and there is no action we can take to make them pass us by.

But no one can lose sight of what he desires. Even if there are moments when he believes the world and the others are stronger. The secret is this: do not surrender.

The Lord heareth the prayers of those who ask to put aside hatred. But he is deaf to those who would flee from love.

Quotes by Paulo Coelho – Brida

None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still, we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.

Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.

Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it.

Don’t bother trying to explain your emotions. Live everything as intensely as you can and keep whatever you felt as a gift from God. The best way to destroy the bridge between the visible and invisible is by trying to explain your emotions.

When you were in love, you were capable of learning everything and of knowing things you had never dared even to think, because love was the key to understanding all of the mysteries.

Finding one important thing in your life doesn’t mean you have to give up all the other important things.

Being human means having doubts and yet continuing on your path.

Even if it is only for a matter of moments because those moments bring with them a Love so intense that it justifies the rest of our days.

The night is just a part of the day.

Final Notes

It’s up to you to select the best ones and hopefully live your life according to them.

Paulo is aware of the importance of giving back to the global community. In return, he only expects to see a few happy faces – it’s not lost to ask!!

The Alchemist Quotes

The Alchemist Quotes A young shepherd boy Santiago is really enjoying the freedom of going from one place to another with his sheep.

He believes that independence is an essential asset in keeping one’s spirit on a high level. One day, he decides to take a rest under a tree nearby a ruined church – there Santiago has a repeating dream.

In this moment of unconsciousness, he is “pulled” by various forces to find a fortune buried to an unknown location.

A child points to the Egyptian pyramids, and Santiago visits a gypsy woman to solve this puzzle.

Afterward, Santiago bumps into a man, who portrays himself as king – King of Salem.

Santiago realizes that this mystical man has the power to enter his mind and read his thoughts. Melchizedek encourages Santiago to follow his heart, and he’ll ultimately find this place.

Santiago sells his flock to finance his adventure to Tangier and embarks on a long journey.

After the arrival there, Santiago is robbed, and the thief takes all of his money. The shepherd boy now has to decide how to return home.

He faces a crossroad, whether to follow his dreams and cross the Sahara Desert with a caravan or to return back to Andalusia and buy sheep. He makes up his mind and joins a caravan that is traveling to Egypt.

On the way to Egypt, Santiago comes up against a man, who is interested in discovering the secrets of alchemy.

Turning any metal into gold is not a straightforward process, but he is eager to meet a renowned alchemist who lives in an oasis.

Santiago is worried about a sight he laid eyes on earlier. Two hawks fighting is a bad omen, because he had a vision of an army attacking the caravan.

Although this seems like an obvious violation of certain Desert principles, Santiago remains confident in his vision and presents it before the local chieftain.

Santiago reaches the Egyptian pyramids and starts digging, trying to locate the treasure. After a while, he realizes that there’s nothing valuable buried in the ground.

Heartbroken and sad, this young adventurist decides to hit the road and return home to Andalusia.

Upon his arrival, he goes to the church where he had that dream and starts contemplating. He begins digging beneath the tree and finds a substantial amount of treasure buried in there.

The treasure was there all along; he didn’t realize it.

The Alchemist Quotes – Top 10

And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it Click To Tweet When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too. Click To Tweet It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. Click To Tweet The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. Click To Tweet One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving. Click To Tweet The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them. Click To Tweet Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. Click To Tweet Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart. Click To Tweet No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it. Click To Tweet There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. Click To Tweet

The prowess to go for big scores is sometimes the only that separates success from failure. The people who have the courage of following the voice of the heart can never drift off course.

Choose your agenda wisely, because even if your victory is not etched into the minds and hearts of many, you will always know that you never gave up on your dreams.

If you have business to attend to – do it, but never stop dreaming and hoping that every action carries a dose of magic. Perhaps, this may be construed as a figment of your imagination, but it’s the actual reality most people fail to see.

It’s not over; we have a lot more to give:

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.

This is what we call love. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you.

We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.

You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.

Life will be a party for you, a grand festival because life is the moment we’re living right now.

In fact, the life is generous with who lives his personal legend.

The closer one gets to realizing his destiny, the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being.

Life doesn´t come with any guarantees. You have to risk it to get the biscuit.

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.

Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.

I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure.

Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.

When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.

The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better.

I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can always concentrate on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival because life is the moment we’re living now.

People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.

Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.

If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

Final Notes

Paulo Coelho as a novelist and award-winning lyricist surely has the know-how to help you to thrive on myriad challenges.

We felt a profound sense of urgency while exploring this book, and we can say with some confidence that “The Alchemist” is not going to be a waste of time.

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

Leo Tolstoy Quotes Leo Tolstoy’s aura and presence continue to inspire new generations years after his death. His words echo through time, forging new relationships and building fortresses made of famous quotes and insights.

The enigma of his existence added to the everlasting fire of wisdom continues to support the uprising of rebels, who question the system of power and influence.

Tolstoy is hailed as one of greatest novelists of all time; his legacy rises above the concept of “time” and other philosophies which failed to prove beneficial.

Born in a Tsardom of Russia, he quickly faced hardship, poverty, and trouble. He was the son of a veteran who participated in one of Russia’s bloodiest patriotic clashes in 1812.

The transformation from an army man, to a pacifist who despised the aftermath of war, is an unexplainable mix of events that shaped the course of his life.

Before enlisting in the army, he tried his luck at the Kazan University, where he studied law.

The teachers there labeled him as stubborn, and ignorant to absorb the teachings. He quickly became inspired to dive deep into the essence of human existence and exploit its real mysteries.

In 1861, Leo met Victor Hugo, who helped to climb up the ladder, and inquire into the political and social agenda of 19th century Europe. His views were sharpened and his mind superior, ready to embark on an unparalleled journey.

Ignited by passion and determination take the measure of the society and social order, he began his writing career.

In this article, we unveil only the most life-altering, thought-provoking, and captivating quotes.

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Leo Tolstoy Quotes – Top 10

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking. Click To Tweet There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth. Click To Tweet Art is not a handicraft; it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced. Click To Tweet Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six. Click To Tweet I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. Click To Tweet All happy families resemble one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Click To Tweet All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do. Click To Tweet Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness. Click To Tweet A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. Click To Tweet He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style. Click To Tweet

We are not through yet! Leo Tolstoy as a figure of the 19th century brought to life many ideas that were not known to the ordinary peasant.

Instead of adhering to violence, and war – he satirically speaks against those who assume that they have the right and power to choose on behalf of those who are weak.

Remember, your life is in your keeping alone, you mustn’t point your fingers at someone else and accuse them for your misfortune.

Let’s crack a bottle open and celebrate with more quotes:

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.

Spring is the time of plans and projects.

Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?

Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.

Be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver!

Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand.

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

Anything is better than lies and deceit!

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy – War and Peace

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.

Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.

It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.

You can love a person dear to you with human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.

Everything I know, I know because of love.

Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself.

Human science fragments everything in order to understand it, kills everything in order to examine it.

Everything depends on upbringing.

Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy – The Death of Ivan Ilych

The example of a syllogism that he had studied in Kiesewetter’s logic: Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal, had throughout his whole life seemed to him right only in relation to Caius, but not to him at all.

The very fact of the death of someone close to them aroused in all who heard about it, as always, a feeling of delight that he had died and they hadn’t.

It can’t be that life is so senseless and horrible. But if it really has been so horrible and senseless, why must I die and die in agony? There is something wrong!

It is impossible that all men have been doomed to suffer this awful horror!

Always the same. Now a spark of hope flashes up, then a sea of despair rages, and always a pain; always pain, always despair, and always the same.

What tormented Ivan Ilych most was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill, and that he only need keep quiet and undergo a treatment and then something very good would result.

There was no deceiving himself: something terrible, new, and more important than anything before in his life, was taking place within him of which he alone was aware.

It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false.

Death is finished, he said to himself. It is no more!

Quotes by Leo Tolstoy – Resurrection

Every man and every living creature has a sacred right to the gladness of springtime.

It was clear that everything considered important and good was insignificant and repulsive, and that all this glamour and luxury hid the old well-known crimes, which not only remained unpunished but were adorned with all the splendor men can devise.

The whole trouble lies in that people think that there are conditions excluding the necessity of love in their intercourse with a man, but such conditions do not exist. Things may be treated without love; one may chop wood, make bricks, forge iron without love, but one can no more deal with people without love than one can handle bees without care.

There are many faiths, but the spirit is one — in me, and in you, and in him. So that if everyone believes himself, all will be united; everyone be himself, and all will be as one.

Military life in general depraves men. It places them in conditions of complete idleness, that is, absence of all rational and useful work; frees them from their everyday human duties, which it replaces by merely conventional duties to the honor of the regiment, the uniform, the flag; and while giving them on the one hand absolute power over other men, also puts them into conditions of servile obedience to those of higher ranks than themselves.

Final Notes

We want to finish this in high-fashion and leave you to pick your favorite one! Leo Tolstoy sure did leave a mark on humanity, and through the written word he gave us a piece of wisdom that will last for ages.

Use your time wisely, contemplate and discover your mission in this world.