Edwin Markham Quotes & Sayings

For all your years prepare,
And meet them ever alike;
When you are the anvil, bear
When you are the hammer, strike.
— Edwin Markham

Three were the fates. Poverty that chains; gray drudgery that grinds the hope away, and gaping ignorance that starves the soul. — Edwin Markham

To throw oneself to the side of the oppressed is the only dignified thing to do in life. — Edwin Markham

He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In !
From the poem Outwitted — Edwin Markham

We are all blind until we see That in the human plan Nothing is worth the making If it does not make the man. Why build these cities glorious If man unbuilded goes? We build the world in vain Unless the builders also grow. — Edwin Markham

The sequoias belong to the silences of the milleniums. Many of them have seen a hundred human generations rise, give off their little clamors and perish. They seem indeed to be forms of immortality standing here amoing the transitory shapes of time. — Edwin Markham

I fear the vermin that shall undermineSenate and citadel and school and shrine. — Edwin Markham

Only the soul that knows the mighty grief can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come to stretch out spaces in the heart for joy. — Edwin Markham

Lincoln, the Man of the People — Edwin Markham

No soul can be forever banned, Eternally bereft, Whoever falls from God's right hand Is caught into his left. — Edwin Markham

The crest and crowning of all good, Life's final star, is brotherhood. — Edwin Markham

Mr. Rihani is a man of ardent poetic temperament, a clever poet, and a man of unworldly ideals. — Edwin Markham

It is better to rust out than wear out. — Edwin Markham

There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own. — Edwin Markham

Oft when the white, still dawn lifted the skies and pushed the hills apart, I have felt it like a glory in my heart. — Edwin Markham

By a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocities of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us. — Edwin Markham

He fed his spirit with the bread of books — Edwin Markham

That in the human plan nothing is worth the making if it does not make the man. — Edwin Markham

The thing that is incredible is life itself. Why should we be here in this sun-illuminated universe? Why should there be green earth under our feet? — Edwin Markham

I (God) will leave man to make the fateful guess, Will leave him torn between the no and yes, Leave him unresting till he rests in me, Drawn upward by the choice that makes him free, Leave him in tragic loneliness to choose, With all in life to win or all to lose. — Edwin Markham

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, the emptiness of ages in his face, and on his back the burden of the world. — Edwin Markham

Fight ever on: this earthly stuff If used God's way will be enough. Face to the firing line o friend Fight out life's battle to the end. One soldier, when the fight was red, Threw down his broken sword and fled. Another snatched it, won the day, With what his comrade flung away. — Edwin Markham

We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life. — Edwin Markham

Here is the Truth in a little creed, Enough for all the roads we go: In Love is all the law we need, In Christ is all the God we know. — Edwin Markham

In vain we build the city if we do not first build the man. — Edwin Markham

There is no true liberty for the individual except as he finds it in the liberty of all. There is no true security for the individual except as he finds it in the security for all. — Edwin Markham

Sorrows come to stretch out places in the heart for joy. — Edwin Markham

At the heart of the cyclone
tearing the sky
And flinging the clouds
and the towers by
Is a place of central calm;
So here in the roar of mortal things,
I have a place where my spirit sings,
In the hollow of God's palm. — Edwin Markham

The future life is where we will go on helping to bring the universe to perfection, which is God's grand ultimate aim. [The purpose of life] is to help God run the universe. Everyone in that better land will be busy all the time, and the environment will be perfect all the time for doing the work which God assigns to all. — Edwin Markham

Earth Is Enough. We men of Earth have here the stuff Of Paradise - we have enough! We need no other stones to build The Temple of the Unfulfilled - No other ivory for the doors - No other marble for the floors - No other cedar for the beam And dome of man's immortal dream. Here on the paths of every-day - Here on the common human way Is all the stuff the gods would take To build a Heaven, to mold and make New Edens. Ours is the stuff sublime To build Eternity in time! — Edwin Markham

Ah, great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream; but a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, the dream is true! — Edwin Markham

They drew a line that shut me out,
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout!
But love and I had the wit to win
We drew a circle and brought them in. — Edwin Markham

Yes, take a little time to play And look at life the other way. God rested when the world was made: Rest now, old friend; be not afraid. But think not that your work is over, That you are now a foot-free rover, A rambler upon idle ways, Whittling away the golden days. For in the road climb to the goal There's no long furlough for a soul. There's no long pause: on every height Another summit swims in sight. The long road rises, scene by scene, With little restings in between. — Edwin Markham

Choices are the hinges of destiny — Edwin Markham