Quotes by Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg

American Poet

Lived from: 1878 - 1967

Category: Poets (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 6 january 1878 Died: 22 july 1967

  • They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
  • Ordering a man to write a poem is like commanding a pregnant woman to give birth to a red-haired child.

Quotes 1 till 20 of 88.

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  • The machine yes the machine
    never wastes anybody's time
    never watches the foreman
    never talks back.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Poetry is the achievement of the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • I am an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • If she [America] forgets where she came from, if the people lose sight of what brought them along, if she listens to the deniers and mockers, then will begin the rot and dissolution.
    On America, in Remembrance Rock (1948)
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • In the average newspaper there is not a complete suppression of stories that the sacred cows don't want printed. But rather what happens is that the stories get printed with stresses, colorations and emphasis that favor the sacred cows.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Lay me on an anvil, O God.
    Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
    Let me pry loose old walls.
    Let me lift and loosen old foundations.
    Prayers of Steel (1920)
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio or looked at TV. They had loneliness and knew what to do with it. They knew that was when the creative mood in them would work.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Shame is the feeling you have when you agree with the woman who loves you that you are the man she thinks you are.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • The scholars and poets of an earlier time can be read only with a dictionary to help.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • A liar goes in fine clothes,
    A liar goes in rags.
    A liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • And how should a beautiful, ignorant stream of water know it heads for an early release - out across the desert, running toward the Gulf, below sea level, to murmur its lullaby, and see the Imperial Valley rise out of burning sand with cotton blossoms, wheat, watermelons, roses, how should it know?
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger. And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
    Chicago l. 10 (1916)
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky - or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Calling it off comes easy enough if you haven't told the girl you are smitten with her.
    Ever the Winds of Chance (1983)
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • CHICAGO: Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.
    ― Carl Sandburg
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  • Drum on your drums, batter on your banjos,
    sob on the long cool winding saxophones.
    Go to it, O jazzmen.
    Jazz Fantasia (1920)
    ― Carl Sandburg
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Carl Sandburg?

The two most famous quotes from Carl Sandburg are:

  • "The machine yes the machine
    never wastes anybody's time
    never watches the foreman
    never talks back."
  • "Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen."

When did Carl Sandburg live?

Carl Sandburg was born in 1878 and died in the year 1967.