The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect. – Carl Sandburg
I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural. – Carl Sandburg
Valor is a gift. Those having it never know for sure whether they have it till the test comes. And those having it in one test never know for sure if they will have it when the next test comes. – Carl Sandburg
A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake. – Carl Sandburg
Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years. – Carl Sandburg
There have been as many varieties of socialists as there are wild birds that fly in the woods and sometimes go up and on through the clouds. – Carl Sandburg
I had taken a course in Ethics. I read a thick textbook, heard the class discussions and came out of it saying I hadn’t learned a thing I didn’t know before about morals and what is right or wrong in human conduct. – Carl Sandburg
I wrote poems in my corner of the Brooks Street station. I sent them to two editors who rejected them right off. I read those letters of rejection years later and I agreed with those editors. – Carl Sandburg
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. – Carl Sandburg
I have often wondered what it is an old building can do to you when you happen to know a little about things that went on long ago in that building. – Carl Sandburg
When I was writing pretty poor poetry, this girl with midnight black hair told me to go on. – Carl Sandburg
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
In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning. – Carl Sandburg
When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along. – Carl Sandburg
My room for books and study or for sitting and thinking about nothing in particular to see what would happen was at the end of a hall. – Carl Sandburg
A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected. – Carl Sandburg
