Quotes by James Oppenheim

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.”

“My tiny hands not being able to weave a garland of the stars, I made curious songs for my beloved, To crown her with.”

“Why do I not sink down with unending despair? Yesterday I walked the Earth like the shell of a man: For neither in the world was good nor yet in myself... Only a dark fret of dead days flicked me. Now morning breaks with rain, And I am closed like a withering thing in grayness... Why do I not sink down in unending despair? Is it I that was once a seed and shall soon be dust? Is not life two silences divided by one brief suffering? The two ends of a century know me not: Unborn, then dead, they find me... Yet do I not sink down... For life is a golden wind of wine, And it blows through me, and drunk with its glory My heart forgets the dark.”

“Glory's not otherwhere but here: Yonder stars may be more horrible than the worst of Earth. The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance: The wise grows it under his feet.”