Emma Lazarus Quotes & Sayings

Let our first care today be the re-establishment of our physical strength, the reconstruction of our national organism, so that in future, where the respect due to us cannot be won by entreaty, it may be commanded, and where it cannot be commanded, it may be enforced. — Emma Lazarus

The little and the great are joined in one By God's great force. The wondrous golden sun Is linked unto the glow-worm's tiny spark; The eagle soars to heaven in his flight; And in those realms of space, all bathed in light, Soar none except the eagle and the lark. — Emma Lazarus

No man had ever heard a nightingale, When once a keen-eyed naturalist was stirred To study and define
what is a bird. — Emma Lazarus

The particular article ought in my opinion to be treated with absolute contempt. It is too vile to touch. — Emma Lazarus

I am never going to write for the sake of writing. — Emma Lazarus

I seem to have always one little window looking but into life. — Emma Lazarus

Life's sharpest rapture is surcease of pain. — Emma Lazarus

There is no comfort looking forth nor back, The present gives the lie to all her past. — Emma Lazarus

Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate ... — Emma Lazarus

My own curiosity and interest are insatiable. — Emma Lazarus

The soul, at peace, reflects the peace without, Forgetting grief as sunset skies forget The morning's transient shower. — Emma Lazarus

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. — Emma Lazarus

I am perfectly conscious that this contempt and hatred underlies the general tone of the community towards us, and yet when I even remotely hint at the fact that we are not a favorite people I am accused of stirring up strife and setting barriers between the two sects. — Emma Lazarus

The Jewish problem is as old as history, and assumes in each age a new form. The life or death of millions of human beings hangs upon its solution; its agitation revives the fiercest passions for good and for evil that inflame the human breast. — Emma Lazarus

Until we are all free, we are none of us free. — Emma Lazarus

Poetry must be simple, sensuous, or impassioned. — Emma Lazarus

Naught is too small and soft to turn and sting. — Emma Lazarus

When angels visit earth, the messengers Of God's decree, they come as lightning, wind: Before the throne, they all are living fire. — Emma Lazarus

Thick February mists cling heavily To the dead earth and to each leafless tree, And closer down upon the hilltops draw, Dull forecasts there of bright, sure-coming spring; Yet the heart gathers hope and strange delight From this dear, unlovely, wished-for sight Of leaden-misted twilights lengthening. — Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles. — Emma Lazarus

Jews are the intensive form of any nationality whose language and customs they adopt. — Emma Lazarus

and woman must wait and weep. — Emma Lazarus

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door! — Emma Lazarus

Kindle the taper like the steadfast star
Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth,
And add each night a lustre till afar
An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth. — Emma Lazarus

Still ours the dance, the feast, the glorious Psalm, The mystic lights of emblem, and the Word. — Emma Lazarus