35 William Wordsworth Quotes on Life, Love and Writing

Who was William Wordsworth ?

On – April 7, 1770, William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland, England, died on – April 23, 1850, in Westmoreland, England. William Wordsworth was a great and renowned personality in the world of literature. He was the one who, with the help of ” Samuel Taylor Coleridge,” launched the “Romantic Age” of English literature. They had a joint publication, and with that, they released their first creation named “Lyrical Ballads,” which is a collection of poems published in the year 1798.

Early Life :

William Wordsworth was born on – April 7, 1770, in Cumberland, England. He was the second of the five children that his parents had. His father’s name was John Wordsworth, and he was the legal representative of James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale. His mother’s name was Ann Cookson. Of all the family members, William was the closest to his sister named Dorothy Wordsworth, who is also a poet and a diarist. Because of his father’s right connections, William and the other members of the family managed to live in a big enough mansion.

All of his life, William’s father has always been distant since he was out for business. But, even though he was away, he was the one who encouraged William to read and verse memory. Spencer, Milton, and Shakespeare were the ones he read mostly. There was a phase in William’s life when he used to go back and forth to his mother’s parent’s house, but situations were getting worse there, leading him almost to reach a point of contemplating suicide.

William learned how to read from his mother. He studied in a school in Penrith where he met Mary, whom later William married. After his mother’s death, William was sent to “Hawkshead Grammar School” in Lancashire, and his sister was sent to Yorkshire to live with the relatives. Both of them didn’t meet each other for nine years.

The First Publication :

It was the year 1793 when it was was the first time that William Wordsworth had published his poems. It was published in the collection of “An Evening Walk” and “Descriptive Sketches.” He got £900 from Raisley Calvert in the form of a gift and was able to pursue a career as a poet.

William Wordsworth also met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1795, and the poets just caught up quickly. It was like they have known each other for so long.

In 1798, Samuel and William produced their first publication (With the insights of Dorothy). Their production was “Lyrical Ballads,” which introduced the age of Romance in the English literature. With the publication, they produced a total of four volumes. The last and final volume of “Lyrical Ballads” was published in the year 1805.

Compilation of William Wordsworth Quotes

William Wordsworth quotes on Life :

“The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.”
― William Wordsworth

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.”
― William Wordsworth

“Rest and be thankful.”
― William Wordsworth

“Oft in my way have I stood still, though but a casual passenger, so much I felt the awfulness of life.”
― William Wordsworth

“Faith is a passionate intuition.”
― William Wordsworth

“Come grow old with me. The best is yet to be.”
― Wordsworth

“Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.”
― William Wordsworth

“Plain living and high thinking are no more.”
― William Wordsworth

“Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.”
― William Wordsworth

“We live by admiration, hope and love.”
― William Wordsworth

“As in the eye of Nature he has lived, So in the eye of Nature let him die!”
― William Wordsworth

“Far from the world I walk, and from all care.”
― William Wordsworth

“How is it that you live, and what is it you do?”
― William Wordsworth

“O dearer far than light and life are dear.”
― William Wordsworth

“A simple child. That lightly draws its breath. And feels its life in every limb. What should it know of death?”
― William Wordsworth

“The good die first.”
― William Wordsworth

“My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man.”
― William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth quotes on Love :

“There is a comfort in the strength of love; ‘Twill make a thing endurable, which else would overset the brain, or break the heart.”
― William Wordsworth

“Love betters what is best”
― William Wordsworth

“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”
― William Wordsworth

“While all the future, for thy purer soul,
With “sober certainties” of love is blest.”
― William Wordsworth

“And you must love him, ere to you He will seem worthy of your love.”
― William Wordsworth

“Oh, be wise, Thou!
Instructed that true knowledge leads to love.”
― William Wordsworth

“How many undervalue the power of simplicity! But it is the real key to the heart.”
― William Wordsworth

“What we have loved
Others will love
And we will teach them how.”
― William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth quotes on Poetry :

“Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of knowledge.”
― William Wordsworth

“Pictures deface walls more often than they decorate them.”
― William Wordsworth

“Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge – it is as immortal as the heart of man.”
― William Wordsworth

“Take the sweet poetry of life away, and what remains behind?”
― William Wordsworth

“Poetry is the image of man and nature.”
― William Wordsworth

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
― William Wordsworth

“Knowledge and increase of enduring joy
From the great Nature that exists in works
Of mighty Poets.”
― William Wordsworth

“She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;And humble cares, and delicate fears;A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;And love and thought and joy.”
― William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth quotes on Writing :

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
― William Wordsworth

“Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished.”
― William Wordsworth

“Write to me frequently & the longest letters possible; never mind whether you have facts or no to communicate; fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
― William Wordsworth

“The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.”
― William Wordsworth

“From the body of one guilty deed a thousand ghostly fears and haunting thoughts proceed.”
― William Wordsworth

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