75 Best Elizabeth Barrett Quotes From The Victorian-era English Poet

Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Dec 12, 2023 By Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Originally Published on Feb 24, 2021
Edited by Luca Demetriou
 The grave of English poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Age: 0-99
Read time: 9.7 Min

Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a popular Victorian-Era poet.

She contributed an excellent part to the 'Romanticism' literary movement. This movement was initiated by William Wordsworth, William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and more.

Elizabeth Barrett kept her writings hidden from all. Once she showed then to her husband Robert Browning and he was so impressed with her writing it was soon to be published around 1850.  Elizabeth Barrett wrote poetry that was focused around ballad, lyric, and narrative as it usually engaged with religious belief, historical events, and made contemporary political opinions. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is famous and best known for her 44 'Sonnets From The Portuguese' out of which 'How Do I Love Thee' grabs every reader's attention and 'Aurora Leigh'. One of her famous quotes goes like "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes".

Check the lists below for more Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes on love, life, poetry. For more classic quotes and inspirations check Emily Dickinson quotes and Keats quotes.

Popular Literary Quotes By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Blank open notebook and old fashioned typewriter on wooden table.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes about literature and other works can be gifts, put man's best ideas ahead. Check the following quotes to know more.

1. "Art is much, but love is more."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

2. "It was not the apple on the tree but the pair on the ground that caused the trouble in the garden of Eden."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

3. "What is art but the life upon the larger scale, the higher. When graduating up in a spiral line of still expanding and ascending gyres, it pushes toward the intense significance of all things, hungry for the infinite?"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

4. "I heard an angel speak last night And he said, 'Write!'"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

5. "O Death, O Beyond, Thou art sweet, thou art strange!"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

6. "A great man leaves clean work behind him, and requires no sweeper up of the chips."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

7. "Let us be content to work To do the things we can, and not presume To fret because it's little."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

8. "Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

9. "The world's male chivalry has perished out, But women are knights-errant to the last; and, if Cervantes had been greater still, he had made his Don a Donna."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

10. "God Himself is the best Poet, And the Real is His song."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

11. "All actual heroes are essential men And all men possible heroes."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

12. "What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

13. "O brave poets, keep back nothing; Nor mix falsehood with the whole! Look up Godward! speak the truth in Worthy song from the earnest soul! Hold, in high poetic duty, Truest Truth the fairest Beauty."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Poetry Quotes To Share

Poetry is what Elizabeth was famous for. This list of Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes will make you fall in love with poetry all over again.

14. "Who so loves believes the impossible."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Aurora Leigh', 1857.

15. "I should not dare to call my soul my own."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Aurora Leigh', 1857.

16. "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 43', 1850.

17. "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit round and pluck blackberries."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Aurora Leigh', 1857.

18. "The music soars within the little lark, And the lark soars."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Aurora Leigh', 1857.

19. "What I do and what I dream include thee, as the wine must taste of its own grapes."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 6', 1850.

20. "Grief for thy dead in silence like to death."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Grief', 1844.

21. "Thou mayst love on, through love s eternity."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 14', 1850.

22. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways I love thee."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 43', 1850.

23. "The devil's most devilish when respectable."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Aurora Leigh', 1857.

24. "I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Grief', 1844.

25. "And if God, choose I shall but love thee better after death."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 43', 1850.

26. "How many desolate creatures on the earth have learned the simple dues of fellowship and social comfort, in a hospital."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Aurora Leigh', 1857.

27. "If thou must love me, let it be for naught, Except for love s sake only."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 14', 1850.

28. "A sweeter music than they played to me. Because God's gifts put man s best dreams to shame."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 26', 1850.

29. "But love me for love's sake, that evermore. Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity. This poem is in the public domain."

- Elizabeth Browning, 'Sonnet 14', 1850.

Famous Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes On Life

'But only he who sees takes off his shoes', is a relatable quote about the metaphors of life. Check the list below for more such Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes on life and more.

30. "If we tried To sink the past beneath our feet, be sure The future would not stand."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

31. "The exchange of sympathy for gratitude is the most princely thing!"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

32. "Grief may be joy misunderstood; Only the Good discerns the good. I trust Thee while my days go on."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

33. "Truth outlives pain, as the soul does life."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

34. "And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness; Round our restlessness, His rest."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

35. "No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

36. "Souls are gregarious in a sense, but no soul touches another, as a general rule."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

37. "What monster have we here? A great Deed at this hour of the day? A great just deed - and not for pay? Absurd - or insincere?"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

38. "Will that light, come again, As now these tears come...falling hot and real!"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

39. "He who breathes deepest lives most."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

40. "Knowledge by suffering entereth And life is perfected by death."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

41. "What frightens me is that men are content with what is not life at all."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

42. "And each man stands with his face in the light. Of his own drawn sword, ready to do what a hero can."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

43. "Wall must get the weather stain Before they grow the ivy."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Love Quotes For All Lovers

'How Do I Love Thee' is a whole sonnet that talks about love. This list of Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes expresses more on the idea of the universal feeling of love.

44. "The essence of all beauty, I call love."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

45. "A man may love a woman perfectly, and yet by no means ignorantly maintain a thousand women have not larger eyes. Enough that she alone has looked at him with eyes that, large or small, have won his soul."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

46. "Love that endures, from a life that disappears!"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

47. "I love you for the part of me that you bring out."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

48. "Love me sweet With all thou art Feeling, thinking, seeing; Love me in the Lightest part, Love me in full Being."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

49. "Two human loves make one divine."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

50. "You were made perfectly to be loved - and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

51. "You're something between a dream and a miracle."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

52. "What we call Life is a condition of the soul. And the soul must improve in happiness and wisdom, except by its own fault."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

53. "Whoever lives true life, will love true love."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Most Relatable Quotes From Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes that are popular and relatable for most of the audience are always like the best dreams, to shame them by not reading isn't fair at all. Check the list below for beautiful quotations.

54. "Silence is the best response to a fool."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

55. "World's use is cold, world's love is vain, world's cruelty is a bitter bane, but is not the fruit of pain."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

56. "If you desire faith, then you have faith enough."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

57. "The charm, one might say the genius, of memory, is that it is choosy, chancy, and temperamental."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

58. "Women know the way to rear up children. They know a simple, merry, tender knack of tying sashes, fitting baby shoes and stringing pretty words that make no sense. And kissing full sense into empty words."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

59. "Drams of doing good For good-for-nothing people."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

60. "God only, who made us rich, can make us poor."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

61. "Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest!"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

62. "Light tomorrow with today!"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

63. "An ignorance of means may minister to greatness, but an ignorance of aims make it impossible to be great at all."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

64. "Never say no when the world says, Aye."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes About Experiences

This quote-list below is all about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her personal opinions through her writing or living her life.

65. "With stammering lips and insufficient sound, I strive and struggle to deliver right the music of my nature."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

66. "Experience, like a pale musician, holds a dulcimer of patience in his hand."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

67. "Why, what is to live? Not to eat and drink and breathe,—but to feel the life in you down all the fibers of being, passionately and joyfully."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

68. "Too much beauty, I reckon, is nothing but too much sun."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

69. "Much of the possibility of being cheerful comes from the faculty of throwing oneself beyond oneself."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

70. "Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

71."I begin to think that none are so bold as the timid when they are fairly roused."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

72. "A woman's always younger than a man at equal years."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

73. "Gaze up at the stars knowing that I see the same sky and wish the same sweet dreams."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

74. "True knowledge comes only through suffering."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

75. "Folded eyes see brighter colors than the open ever do."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotesfor everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes then why not take a look at E.E Cummings quotes or William Blake quotes.

‍Main image credit: Alex_Mastro / Shutterstock.com

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Written by Rajnandini Roychoudhury

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

Rajnandini Roychoudhury picture

Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature. 

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