9 Quotes & Sayings By William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant (November 30, 1794 – January 19, 1878) was an American poet and newspaper editor, best known for the long poems that he wrote for the New York Evening Post, including "Thanatopsis" (1817), "The Light of the World" (1823), and "Atlantis" (1828). He was also a leading figure in New York's civic life. A friend to presidents, poets and statesmen alike, he was an ardent supporter of the abolitionist cause, and his poetry was often set to music. He is one of America's two national bard poets (the other being Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

All that tread, The globe are but a handful to...
1
All that tread, The globe are but a handful to the tribes, That slumber in its bosom. William Cullen Bryant
2
So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustain'd and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." Thanatopsis . William Cullen Bryant
3
Can anything be imagined more abhorrent to every sentiment of generosity and justice, than the law which arms the rich with the legal right to fix, by assize, the wages of the poor? If this is not slavery, we have forgotten its definition. Strike the right of associating for the sale of labor from the privileges of a freeman, and you may as well bind him to a master, or ascribe him to the soil. William Cullen Bryant
4
The melancholy days have come the saddest of the year Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sear. William Cullen Bryant
5
Weep not that the world changes- did it keep a stable changeless state it were a cause indeed to weep. William Cullen Bryant
6
Eloquence is the poetry of prose. William Cullen Bryant
7
To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms she speaks A various language. William Cullen Bryant
8
Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. William Cullen Bryant