Edgar Lee Masters Quotes

United States, Poet
August 23, 1868 – March, 5, 1950.

Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950) was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of Spoon River Anthology, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs and Satires, The Great Valley, The Serpent in the Wilderness, An Obscure Tale, The Spleen, Mark Twain: A Portrait, Lincoln: The Man, and Illinois Poems. In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman.

Also known as Playwright, Writer, Lawyer, Biographer

Beware of the man who rises to power from one suspender.

Edgar Lee Masters
- Power
- Man
- Beware
Those who first oppose a good work, seize it and make it their own, when the cornerstone is laid and memorial tablets are erected.

Edgar Lee Masters
- Good
- Work
- Memorial

In my Spanish cloak,And old slouch hat,And overshoes of felt,And Tyke, my faithful dog,And my knotted hickory cane,I slipped about with a bull's-eye lanternFrom door to door on the square

Edgar Lee Masters
- Dog
- Door
- Spanish
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, But life without meaning is the torture Of restlessness and vague desire-It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

Edgar Lee Masters
- Life
- May
- Desire
I never started to plow in my life That some one did not stop in the road And take me away to a dance or picnic. I ended up with forty acres; I ended up with a broken fiddle -And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories, And not a single regret.

Edgar Lee Masters
- Life
- Up
- Stop
How shall the soul of a man be larger than the life he has lived?

Edgar Lee Masters
- Life
- Soul
- Man
Immortality is not a gift, Immortality is an achievement; And only those who strive mightily Shall possess it.

Edgar Lee Masters
- Achievement
- Gift
- Strive
The earth keeps some vibration going There in your heart, and that is you. And if the people find you can fiddle, Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.

Edgar Lee Masters
- People
- Life
- Heart

You may think, passer-by, that FateIs a pit-fall outside of yourself,Around which you may walk by the use of foresightAnd wisdom.

Edgar Lee Masters
- May
- Fall
- Wisdom
Blind as I was, I tried to get outAs the carriage fell in the ditch,And was caught in the wheels and killed.

Edgar Lee Masters
In time you shall see Fate approach you In the shape of your own image in the mirror; Or you shall sit alone by your own hearth, And suddenly the chair by you shall hold a guest, And you shall know that guest, And read the authentic message of his eyes.

Edgar Lee Masters
- Time
- Alone
- Eyes
And when you are poor and have to carryThe Christian creed and wife and childrenAll on your back, it is too much!That's why I made the Elixir of Youth,Which landed me in the jail at PeoriaBranded a swindler and a crookBy the upright Federal Judge!

Edgar Lee Masters
- Why
- Wife
- Christian
Go by reverently, and read with sober careHow a great people, riding with defiant shoutsThe centaur of Revolution,Spurred and whipped to frenzy,Shook with terror, seeing the mist of the seaOver the precipice they were nearing,And fell from his back in precipitate aweTo celebrate the Feast of the Supreme Being.

Edgar Lee Masters
- People
- Great
- Revolution