Frasi di Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Data di nascita: 6. Gennaio 1878
Data di morte: 22. Luglio 1967
Altri nomi: Carl August Sandburg
Carl Sandburg è stato un poeta statunitense.
Fu insignito di due Premi Pulitzer: uno per la poesia nel 1951 ed uno per la storia nel 1959.
Frasi Carl Sandburg
„A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.“
— Carl Sandburg, libro Remembrance Rock
Remembrance Rock (1948), Ch. 2, p. 7
Contesto: 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.
„I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.“
Incidentals (1904)
Variante: I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.
Origine: Breathing Tokens
„Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.“
Declaration at his 85th birthday party (6 January 1963), as quoted in The Best of Ralph McGill : Selected Columns (1980) by Ralph McGill, edited by Michael Strickland, Harry Davis, and Jeff Strickland, p. 82
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
As quoted without source in The School Musician Director and Teacher Vol. 43 (1971) by the American School Band Directors' Association
„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.“
— Carl Sandburg, libro Remembrance Rock
Remembrance Rock (1948), Ch. 2, p. 7
Contesto: 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.
„I believe in everything — I am only looking for proofs.“
Incidentals (1904); this is sometimes paraphrased: "I am an idealist. I believe in everything — I am only looking for proofs."
Contesto: Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen. Every blunder behind us is giving a cheer for us, and only for those who were willing to fail are the dangers and splendors of life. To be a good loser is to learn how to win. I was sure there are ten men in me and I do not know or understand one of them. I could safely declare, I am an idealist. A Parisian cynic says "I believe in nothing. I am looking for clues." My statement would be : I believe in everything — I am only looking for proofs.
„Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.“
"Under the Harvest Moon" (1916)
Contesto: Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.
„Man is a long time coming.
Man will yet win.“
"The People Will Live On" (1936)
Contesto: Man is a long time coming.
Man will yet win.
Brother may yet line up with brother:
This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
There are men who can't be bought.
„The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.“
"The People, Yes" (1936)
Contesto: The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold.
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds.
„Look out how you use proud words.“
"Primer Lessons" (1922)
Contesto: Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots.
„Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen.“
Incidentals (1904); this is sometimes paraphrased: "I am an idealist. I believe in everything — I am only looking for proofs."
Contesto: Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen. Every blunder behind us is giving a cheer for us, and only for those who were willing to fail are the dangers and splendors of life. To be a good loser is to learn how to win. I was sure there are ten men in me and I do not know or understand one of them. I could safely declare, I am an idealist. A Parisian cynic says "I believe in nothing. I am looking for clues." My statement would be : I believe in everything — I am only looking for proofs.
„Yesterday is done. Tomorrow never comes. Today is here. If you don't know what to do, sit still and listen.“
Incidentals (1904)
Contesto: Yesterday is done. Tomorrow never comes. Today is here. If you don't know what to do, sit still and listen. You may hear something. Nobody knows.
We may pull apart the petals of a rose or make chemical analysis of its perfume, but the mystic beauty of its form and odor is still a secret, locked in to where we have no keys.
„The United States is, not are. The Civil War was fought over a verb.“
Comments at the centennial celebration of the Lincoln-Douglas debates; Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, Oct. 7, 1958. Quoted in Herbert Mitgang, "Again—Lincoln v. Douglas", The New York Times Magazine, Oct. 19, 1958, pp. 26-27.
Contesto: The United States is, not are. The Civil War was fought over a verb. Orval Faubus don't know that. But he gonna know, he gonna know.
„I am the people — the mob — the crowd — the mass.“
"I Am the People, the Mob" (1916)
Contesto: I am the people — the mob — the crowd — the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
