Quotes from Robert Frost

The realist always falls in love with a girl he has grown up with, the romanticist with a girl from 'off somewhere.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. The Road Not Taken

I have a mind myself and recognize Mind when I meet with it in any guise.

Something was withheld . . . We found it was ourselves.

I won't have it, in poetry, that bulk counts. People say to me, 'Now settle down and do a long work, since you have shown the public that you can produce beautiful short poetry.' And their implication tells me that making two verses or a short poem does not satisfy their concept of what an accomplished poet should be able to do. Bulk they want, as evidence of a man's power.

There are two kinds of teachers—the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies." (I hope I am remembered as a prodder.)

A saturated meadow, Sun-shaped and jewel-small

If I can with confidence say That still for another day, Or even another year, I will be there for you, my dear, It will be because, though small As measured against the All, I have been so instinctively thorough About my crevice and burrow.

Thou didst not know, who tottered, wandering on high That fate had made thee for the pleasure of the wind, With those great careless wings, Nor yet did I.

But no, I was out for stars; I would not come in. I meant not even if asked; And I hadn't been.

THE PASTURE I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I sha'n't be gone long. — You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf That's standing by the mother. It's so young, It totters when she licks it with her tongue. I sha'n't be gone long. — You come too.

For this is love and nothing else is love, The which it is reserved for God above To sanctify to what far ends He will, But which it only needs that we fulfil.