Quotes by Carl Sandburg

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

— Carl Sandburg

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.

— Carl Sandburg

A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.

— Carl Sandburg

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.

— Carl Sandburg

The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring.

— Carl Sandburg

Happiness

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

— Carl Sandburg

Friendship

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

— Carl Sandburg

To be a good loser is to learn how to win.

— Carl Sandburg

Education

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

— Carl Sandburg

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

— Carl Sandburg

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.

— Carl Sandburg

Hope

Nothing happens unless first we dream.

— Carl Sandburg

Hope

Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.

— Carl Sandburg

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

— Carl Sandburg

Friendship

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

— Carl Sandburg

Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.

— Carl Sandburg

Let the gentle bush dig its root deep and spread upward to split the boulder.

— Carl Sandburg

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

— Carl Sandburg

Success

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

— Carl Sandburg

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

— Carl Sandburg

Love

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.

— Carl Sandburg

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

— Carl Sandburg

Success

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

— Carl Sandburg