Robert Frost Quotes

"Art is the last of your childhood and may be followed somewhat irresponsibly."
- Robert Frost's notebook³⁰

Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year.He gives his harness bells a shakeTo ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound's the sweepOf easy wind and downy flake.The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.
- Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"³¹

"You go to school to learn to read. The further you go the more you have the attitude that everything is to study. That is the danger. Once a person has learned to read, once he has gotten the flavor of it, he should just let it rest."
- Robert Frost, on teaching³²

Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
- Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay"³³

"The only trouble with dying is not knowing how it will all turn out."
- Robert Frost, in a conversation with Stewart Udall³⁴

"We regret that The Atlantic has no place for your vigorous verse."
- Robert Frost's rejection letter from Ellery Sedgwick, editor of The Atlantic Monthly³⁵

"The Ellery Sedgwick of the piece is mine ancient enemy, the editor of The Atlantic."
- Robert Frost, in a note to Sidney Cox³⁶

"His poems have helped to guide American thought and humor and wisdom, setting forth to our minds a reliable representation of ourselves and of all men."
- Text of a U.S. Senate resolution passed on the occasion of Frost's 75th birthday³⁷

"He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding."
- President John F. Kennedy, on Robert Frost³⁸