Quotes by Carl Sandburg

"Ordering a man to write a poem is like commanding a pregnant woman to give birth to a red-headed child."

"Strange things blow in through my window on the wings of the night wind and I don't worry about my destiny."

"When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along."

"Love your neighbor as yourself; but don't take down the fence."

"You remember some bedrooms you have slept in. There are bedrooms you like to remember and others you would like to forget."

"Nothing happens unless first we dream."

"I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, no just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future."

"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud."

"I am an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way."

"The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to."

"I doubt if you can have a truly wild party without liquor."

"Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work."

"I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural."

"To work hard, to live hard, to die hard, and then go to hell after all would be too damn hard."

"Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen."

"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come."

"I learned you can't trust the judgment of good friends."

"Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep."

"When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along."

"The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect."