“Poetry is a shuffling of boxes of illusions buckled with a strap of facts.”
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
Filter quotes by topic
Famous Carl Sandburg Quotes
Source: Smoke and steel: Slabs of the sunburnt West. Good morning, America
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
“Poetry is the capture of a picture, a song, or a flair, in a deliberate prism of words.”
Source: Harvest Poems: 1910-1960
“A tree is best measured when it is down - and so it is with people.”
“Come on, you Do you want to live forever?”
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
Source: Rootabaga Stories
“Be careful with your words, once they are said, they can only be forgiven, not forgotten.”
Source: Harvest Poems: 1910-1960
“The sea is always the same: and yet the sea always changes.”
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
“Rest is not a word of free people. Rest is a monarchical word.”
Source: Home front memo
Source: The Family of Man
“I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.”
“Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.”
“Nothing happens unless first we dream.”
Source: The Movies are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920-1928
“In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning.”
“The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.”
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
“I doubt if you can have a truly wild party without liquor.”
Source: Ever the Winds of Chance
“Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”
“Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by.”
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
“Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself but don't take down your fence.”
“One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.”
Source: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
“I learned you can't trust the judgment of good friends.”
Source: Ever the Winds of Chance
“Calling it off comes easy enough if you haven't told the girl you are smitten with her.”
Source: Ever the Winds of Chance
“I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.”
“Let the gentle bush dig its root deep and spread upward to split the boulder.”
Source: The People, Yes
Source: Ever the Winds of Chance
“The scholars and poets of an earlier time can be read only with a dictionary to help.”
Source: Ever the Winds of Chance