Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet who is widely regarded as one of the most prominent and influential writers of the 20th century. His work is known for its depictions of rural life in New England and its themes of isolation, nature, and the human experience. Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry, and his best-known works include “The Road Not Taken,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and “Mending Wall.” Frost’s unique use of traditional forms and language, coupled with his innovative and insightful approach to contemporary issues, continue to make him a beloved and studied figure in American literature.
1#
I am a writer of books in retrospect. I talk in order to understand; I teach in order to learn.
2#
I believe in teaching, but I don’t believe in going to school.
3#
Unless you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world.
4#
The middle of the road is where the white line is—and that’s the worst place to drive.
5#
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.
6#
Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That’s voting.
7#
The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.
8#
A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
9#
Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found it was ourselves.
10#
The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.
11#
How many things would you attempt
If you knew you could not fail.
12#
A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.
13#
We ran as if to meet the moon.
14#
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.
15#
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
16#
The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.
17#
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.
18#
To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.
19#
I’m not confused. I’m just well mixed.
20#
Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.
21#
Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
22#
Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.
23#
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
24#
I am not a teacher, but an awakener.
25#
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
26#
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.
27#
Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
28#
The best way out is always through.
29#
Freedom lies in being bold.
30#
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.
31#
Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.
32#
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
33#
Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
34#
A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.
35#
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.
36#
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.
37#
These woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
38#
We love the things we love for what they are.
39#
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
40#
Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.
41#
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
42#
A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
43#
What we live by we die by.
44#
Every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world.
45#
Good fences make good neighbors.
46#
A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
47#
Anything more than the truth would be too much.
48#
A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.
49#
Come over the hills and far with me
And be my love in the rain.
50#
A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body— the wishbone.
