Robert Frost

“GATHERING LEAVESSpades take up leavesNo better than spoons,And bags full of leavesAre light as balloons.I make a great noiseOf rustling all dayLike rabbit and deerRunning away.But the mountains I raiseElude my embrace,Flowing over my armsAnd into my face.I may load and unloadAgain and againTill I fill the whole shed,And what have I then?Next to nothing for weight,And since they grew dullerFrom contact with earth,Next to nothing for color.Next to nothing for use.But a crop is a crop,And who's to say whereThe harvest shall stop?”

“I always entertain great hopes.”

“I'd like to get away from earth awhileAnd then come back to it and begin over.May no fate wilfully misunderstand meAnd half grant what I wish and snatch me awayNot to return. Earth's the right place for love:I don't know where it's likely to go better.”

“I have been one acquainted with the night.I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.I have outwalked the furthest city light.I have looked down the saddest city lane.I have passed by the watchman on his beatAnd dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.”

“Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.”

“I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover's quarrel with the world.”

“I have wished a bird would fly away,And not sing by my house all day;Have clapped my hands at him from the doorWhen it seemed as if I could bear no more.The fault must partly have been in me.The bird was not to blame for his keys.And of course there must be something wrongIn waiting to silence any song.”

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

“The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.”

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

“The father is always a Republican toward his son, and his mother's always a Democrat.”

“I would not come in.I meant not even if asked,And I hadn't been.”

“The way a crowShook down on meThe dust of snowFrom a hemlock treeHas given my heartA change of moodAnd saved some partOf a day I had rued.”

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”

“Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.”

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

“A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”

“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”

“There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.”