Top 44 Carl Sandburg Quotes

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.

The greatest cunning is to have none at all.

I took to wearing a black tie known as the Ascot, with long drooping ends. I had seen pictures of painters, sculptors, poets, wearing this style of tie.

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.

I fell in love, not deep, but I fell several times and then fell out.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

Nothing happens unless first we dream.

Love your neighbor as yourself; but don’t take down the fence.

Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.

Shame is the feeling you have when you agree with the woman who loves you that you are the man she thinks you are.

In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning.

A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.

We had two grand antique professors who had been teaching at Lombard since before I was born.

I couldn’t see myself filling some definite niche in what is called a career. This was all misty.

Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky – or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.

I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural.

Strange things blow in through my window on the wings of the night wind and I don’t worry about my destiny.

Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.

I have often wondered what it is an old building can do to you when you happen to know a little about things that went on long ago in that building.

A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.

A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.

All politicians should have 3 hats – one to throw into the ring, one to talk through, and one to pull rabbits out of if elected.

The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.

My room for books and study or for sitting and thinking about nothing in particular to see what would happen was at the end of a hall.

I have always felt that a woman has the right to treat the subject of her age with ambiguity until, perhaps, she passes into the realm of over ninety. Then it is better she be candid with herself and with the world.

I can remember only a few of the strange and curious words now dead but living and spoken by the English people a thousand years ago.

There have been as many varieties of socialists as there are wild birds that fly in the woods and sometimes go up and on through the clouds.

Where was I going? I puzzled and wondered about it til I actually enjoyed the puzzlement and wondering.

When I was writing pretty poor poetry, this girl with midnight black hair told me to go on.

Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years.

I won’t take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth.

Every blunder behind us is giving a cheer for us, and only for those who were willing to fail are the dangers and splendors of life.

I have become infected, now that I see how beautifully a book is coming out of all this.

I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.

The scholars and poets of an earlier time can be read only with a dictionary to help.

I am an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way.

The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring.

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.

Valor is a gift. Those having it never know for sure whether they have it till the test comes. And those having it in one test never know for sure if they will have it when the next test comes.

Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.

Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.

Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.