Robert Frost
1874–1963
12 genuine quotes, each found in the text, and 1 wrongly credited to Frost.
American poet of rural New England, born in San Francisco, who farmed in New Hampshire and Vermont, taught for many years at Amherst College, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times. Many of his best-known lines are spoken by the people in his dramatic poems or by a lyric ‘I’, and are often read more simply than the poems allow; he is also credited with a good many sayings reported by journalists and friends rather than written by him.
FrontispieceMade by an image model after Fred Palumbo’s photograph of Robert Frost (1941, public domain), in the manner of the WPA silkscreen posters (1935–1943). The likeness is the original’s; this picture is AI‑generated and not historical. The endpaper behind it is an AI‑generated pattern in the same manner.
Genuine Frost quotes
- In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
Ray Josephs, ‘Robert Frost’s Secret’, This Week Magazine (Sunday newspaper supplement), 5 September 1954, as printed in The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, Reported by Ray Josephs, ‘Robert Frost’s Secret’, This Week Magazine, 5 September 1954.
- But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
New Hampshire (1923), ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, stanza 4 (the final stanza); New Hampshire (1923), p. 87, said by the poem’s unnamed first-person traveller.
- Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
Mountain Interval (1916), ‘Birches’, near the close, after the speaker’s wish to leave earth and return; collected in Mountain Interval (1916), said by the poem’s adult lyric speaker.
- Good fences make good neighbours.
North of Boston (1914), ‘Mending Wall’, the neighbour’s first reply, after the comparison of apple trees and pines; North of Boston (1914), p. 12, said by the narrator’s neighbour.
- Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.
North of Boston (1914), ‘The Death of the Hired Man’, Warren and Mary’s discussion of home after Mary says Silas has returned to die, said by Warren.
- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Mountain Interval (1916), ‘The Road Not Taken’, stanza 4 (the final stanza); Mountain Interval (1916), p. 9, said by the poem’s first-person traveller.
- ‘Men work together.’ I told him from the heart, ‘Whether they work together or apart.’
A Boy’s Will (1913), ‘The Tuft of Flowers’, final couplet, said by the first-person field worker.
- Nothing gold can stay.
New Hampshire (1923), ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, final three lines (lines 6–8); New Hampshire (1923), p. 84, said by the poem’s lyric voice.
- Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.
New Hampshire (1923), ‘Fire and Ice’, opening two lines; later collected in New Hampshire (1923), said by the poem’s lyric speaker.
- The best way out is always through.
North of Boston (1914), ‘A Servant to Servants’, the passage beginning with Len’s advice about one more steady pull; North of Boston (1914), pp. 69-70, said by an unnamed overworked woman.
- The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
A Boy’s Will (1913), ‘Mowing’, penultimate line (line 13), said by the poem’s first-person mower.
- We love the things we love for what they are.
Mountain Interval (1916), ‘Hyla Brook’, final line (line 15), said by the poem’s lyric speaker.
Quotes wrongly credited to Frost
- A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back again when it begins to rain.
Not found. The Frost credit is unverified. A related banking joke appeared in 1905, and a fuller form circulated anonymously by 1930; a 1949 quotation dictionary later credited Frost without establishing his authorship.
The works we hold
Quotes are looked up word for word in these texts. The number is how many genuine quotes here come from each.
| Work | Year | Genuine quotes |
|---|---|---|
| A Boy’s Will | 1913 | 2 |
| North of Boston | 1914 | 3 |
| Mountain Interval | 1916 | 3 |
| New Hampshire | 1923 | 3 |