George Sterling Quotes & Sayings

Be sure that head and heart were laid
In wisdom down, content to die.
Be sure he faced the Starless Sky
Unduped, unmurmuring, unafraid.
("The Passing of Bierce") — George Sterling

The candle glimmers but an hour. The night
Looms in its ancient hunger. Would you know
The tragedy of human love and need?
Gaze on the stars, then on a brother's face! — George Sterling

O Space and Time and stars at strife, How dreadful your infinity! Shrined by your termless trinity, How strange, how terrible, is life! ("The Testimony of the Suns") — George Sterling

A prison becomes a home when you have the key. — George Sterling

Thy Banners gleam a little, and are furled; Against thy turrets surge His phantom tow'rs; Drugged with his Opiates the nations nod, Refusing still the beauty of thine hours; And fragile is thy tenure of this world Still haunted by the monstrous ghost of God. — George Sterling

Till her appointed course be run;
Till on the darkness faint her breath
Flown to the silent void, and Death
Sit crowned upon the ashen sun.
("The Testimony of the Suns") — George Sterling

What silence rules the ghostly hours
That guard the close of human sleep!
("The Testimony of the Suns") — George Sterling

And fragile is thy tenure of this world
Still haunted by the monstrous ghost of God.
("To Science") — George Sterling

A little while, their hunger unfulfilled,
The mothlike worlds flit 'round the guttering sun.
("Ephemera") — George Sterling

And starward drifts the stricken world,
Lone in unalterable gloom
Dead, with a universe for tomb,
Dark, and to vaster darkness whirled.
("The Testimony of the Suns") — George Sterling

The cool, grey city of love. — George Sterling

Let him who is worthy by reason of his clear eye and unjaded heart wander across these borders of beauty and mystery and be glad. — George Sterling

Within its gates I heard the sound
Of winds in cypress caverns caught
Of huddling tress that moaned, and sought
To whisper what their roots had found.
("A Dream of Fear") — George Sterling

When sunset, like a crimson throat to hell, is cavernous ...
("A Wine of Wizardry") — George Sterling

Where got she her sullen mouth
And where her swaying form?
Would she live on eggs and apples
When the blood of men is warm?
("The Young Witch") — George Sterling

As a breath on glass, -
As witch-fires that burn,
The gods and monsters pass,
Are dust, and return.
("The Face of the Skies") — George Sterling

The pathway traced with blood and tears,
and dust of all our father's dead,
Whose backward footsteps, wandering, red,
Fade to the mist of nameless years.
("The Testimony of the Suns") — George Sterling