Edgar Lee Masters — American Poet born on August 23, 1868, died on March 05, 1950

Edgar Lee Masters 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... (wikipedia)

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.
Immortality is not a gift, Immortality is an achievement; And only those who strive mightily Shall possess it.
Beware of the man who rises to power from one suspender.
How shall the soul of a man be larger than the life he has lived?
Those who first oppose a good work, seize it and make it their own, when the cornerstone is laid and memorial tablets are erected.