John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes

Let the thick curtain fall;I better know than allHow little I have gained,How vast the unattained.

Flowers spring to blossom where she walks The careful ways of duty; Our hard, stiff lines of life with her Are flowing curves of beauty.

Bathsheba! to whom none ever said scat- No worthier cat Ever sat on a mat, Or caught a rat. Requiescat!

Truth is one; And, in all lands beneath the sun, Whoso hath eyes to see may see The tokens of its unity.

The sooner we recognize the fact that the mercy of the Almighty extends to every creature endowed with life, the better it will be for us as men and Christians.

The dreariest spot in all the land to Death they set apart; with scanty grace from Nature's hand, and none from that of Art.

Leaning on Him, make with reverent meekness His own thy will.

A faint blush melting through the light of thy transparent cheek like a rose-leaf bathed in dew.

Others may sing the song. Others may right the wrong.

The hope of all earnest souls must be realized.

There's life alone in duty done, And rest alone in striving.

They who wander widest lift No more of beauties' jealous veils, Than they who from their doorways see The miracle of flowers and trees.

Thanks to Allah, who gives the palm!

I dimly guess, from blessings known, of greater out of sight.

No cloud above, no earth below, A universe of sky and snow.

We faintly hear, we dimly see, In differing phrase we pray; But dim or clear, we own in Him The life, the truth, the way.

Love hath never known a law beyond its own sweet will.

And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong!

A felon's cell-- The fittest earthly type of hell!

The Present, the Present is all thou hast For thy sure possessing; Like the patriarch's angel hold it fast Till it gives its blessing.

Falsehoods which we spurn today, were the truths of long ago.

Low stir of leaves and dip of oars And lapsing waves on quiet shores.

Man is more than constitutions.

Quite the ugliest face I ever saw was that of a woman whom the world called beautiful. Through its silver veil the evil and ungentle passions looked out, hideous and hateful.

Round the boles of the pine-wood the ground-laurel creeps, Unkissed of the sunshine, unbaptized of showers, With buds scarcely swelled, which should burst into flowers!

Waking or sleeping, I see a wreck, And hear a cry from a reeling deck!

Children have neither past nor future - they rejoice in the present.

The laws of changeless justice bind oppressor and oppressed; and, close as sin and suffering joined we march to fate abreast.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace.

Time is hastening on, and we What our fathers are shall be,-- Shadow-shapes of memory! Joined to that vast multitude Where the great are but the good.

God is good and God is light In this faith I rest secure, Evil can but serve the right, Over all shall love endure.

Give lettered pomp to teeth of Time, So "Bonnie Doon" but tarry; Blot out the epic's stately rhyme, But spare his "Highland Mary!"

With our sympathy for the wrongdoer we need the old Puritan and Quaker hatred of wrongdoing; with our just tolerance of men and opinions a righteous abhorrence of sin.

Reason's voice and God's, Nature's and Duty's, never are at odds.

The Beauty which old Greece or RomeSung, painted, wrought, lies close at home.

Beneath the winter's snow lie germs of summer flowers.

In kindly showers and sunshine bud The branches of the dull gray wood; Out from its sunned and sheltered nooks The blue eye of the violet looks.

They tell me, Lucy, thou art dead, that all of thee we loved and cherished has with thy summer roses perished; and left, as its young beauty fled, an ashen memory in its stead.

Sweeter than any sungMy songs that found no tongue;Nobler than any factMy wish that failed of act.Others shall sing the song,Others shall right the wrong,-Finish what I begin,And all I fail of win.

What does the good ship bear so well? The cocoa-nut with its stony shell, And the milky sap of its inner cell.

Nature speaks in symbols and in signs.

Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart.

Press bravely onward! - not in vainYour generous trust in human kind;The good which bloodshed could not gainYour peaceful zeal shall find.

What airs outblown from ferny dells And clover-bloom and sweet brier smells.

The low green tent Whose curtain never outward swings.

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.

Peace hath higher tests of manhood Than battle ever knew.

Our toil is sweet with thankfulness Our burden is our boon The curse of earth's gray morning is The blessing of its noon.

Reason's voice and God's Nature's and Duty's never are at odds.

Through the dark and stormy night Faith beholds a feeble light Up the blackness streaking Knowing God's own time is best In a patient hope I rest For the full day-breaking!