Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967)
American poet, historian, novelist, balladeer and folklorist.
I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.
Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during a moment.
Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work —
I am the grass; I cover all.
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders.
Yesterday is done. Tomorrow never comes. Today is here. If you don't know what to do, sit still and listen. You may hear something. Nobody knows.
We may pull apart the petals of a rose or make chemical analysis of its perfume, but the mystic beauty of its form and odor is still a secret, locked in to where we have no keys.
The name of an iron man goes round the world.
It takes a long time to forget an iron man.
The little girl saw her first troop parade and asked,
"What are those?"
"Soldiers."
"What are soldiers?"
"They are for war. They fight and each tries to kill as many of the other side as he can."
The girl held still and studied.
"Do you know ... I know something?"
"Yes, what is it you know?"
"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come."
There are some people who can receive a truth by no other way than to have their understanding shocked and insulted.
Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots.
Tell me if the lovers are losers... tell me if any get more than the lovers.
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.
One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.
The Republic is a dream.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision …
Man is a long time coming.
Man will yet win.
Brother may yet line up with brother:
This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
There are men who can't be bought.
When Abraham Lincoln was shoveled into
the tombs, he forgot the copperheads and
the assassin... in the dust, in the cool tombs.
The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.
I am the people — the mob — the crowd — the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?