“A baby is God's opinion that life should go on. A book that does nothing to you is dead. A baby, whether it does anything to you, represents life. If a bad fire should break out in this house and I had my choice of saving the library or the babies, I would save what is alive. Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby. The finest of our precision watches, the most super-colossal of our supercargo plants, don't compare with a newborn baby in the number and ingenuity of coils and springs, in the flow and change of chemical solutions, in timing devices and interrelated parts that are irreplaceable. A baby is very modern. Yet it is also the oldest of the ancients. A baby doesn't know he is a hoary and venerable antique — but he is. Before man learned how to make an alphabet, how to make a wheel, how to make a fire, he knew how to make a baby — with the great help of woman, and his God and Maker.”

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About Carl Sandburg

American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor

Carl Sandburg was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor, active in the 20th century, 1878 to 1967. He is remembered for his poetry and for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely seen as a major figure in modern literature. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for poetry and one for his Lincoln biography, and his reputation rested in part on books such as Chicago Poems, Cornhuskers, and Smoke and Steel. His work was often praised for its broad connection to American life.

More from Carl Sandburg (91 quotes) →

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Books by Carl Sandburg

Abraham Lincoln

2002

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The Chicago Race Riots

2013

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Not everyday an aurora borealis for your birthday

1997

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Abe Lincoln grows up

2003

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