12 William Wordsworth Quotes on Growth

William Wordsworth quotes on growth

1. Oh, be wiser thou! Instructed that true knowledge leads to love.

17. Every gift of noble origin Is breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath.

28. Dear Child of Nature, let them rail!

41. Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good: Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow.

68. We feel that we are greater than we know.

80. How does the Meadow-flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free Down to its root, and, in that freedom, bold.

102. Three years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower On earth was never sown; This Child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make A Lady of my own.'

117. And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought, With many recognitions dim and faint, And somewhat of a sad perplexity, The picture of the mind revives again: While here I stand, not only with the sense Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts That in this moment there is life and food For future years. And so I dare to hope, Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first I came among these hills;

124. Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.

158. More skillful in self-knowledge, even more pure, As tempted more; more able to endure, As more exposed to suffering and distress.

166. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy.

176. Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar.