All honor to him who shall win the prize,
The world has cried for a thousand years;
But to him who tries and fails and dies,
I give great honor and glory and tears.
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Failure
God’s poet is silence! His song is unspoken,
And yet so profound, so loud, and so far,
It fills you, it thrills you with measures unbroken,
And as soft, and as fair, and as far as a star.
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Silence
In men whom men pronounce as ill I find so much of goodness still. In men whom men pronounce divine, I find so much of sin and blot; I hesitate to draw the line between the two, when God has not.
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Man
Death is delightful. Death is dawn, the waking from a weary night of fevers unto truth and light.
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Death, Dying
There are many To-morrows, my Love, my Love, –
There is only one To-day.
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Carpe-diem
He gives twice who gives quickly.
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Gift
They sailed. They sailed. Then spoke the mate:
“This mad sea shows its teeth to-night
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave admiral, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?.”
The words leapt like a leaping sword:
“Sail on! sail on! and on!”
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Endurance, Resolve, Hope, Perseverance
Under the storm and the cloud today, and today the hard peril and pain—tomorrow the stone shall be rolled away, for the sunshine shall follow the rain.
—Joaquin Miller
Topics: Hope
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Mark Van Doren American Poet, Critic
Langston Hughes American Poet, Writer
Edgar Lee Masters American Poet, Novelist
John Neal American Author, Critic
Robert Anton Wilson American Polymath
Bret Harte American Author
Paul Auster American Novelist, Poet
Henry van Dyke Jr. American Author, Educator, Clergyman
Hervey Allen American Author
Wendell Berry American Author, Environmentalist