James Whitcomb Riley Quotes

#1. The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.

James Whitcomb Riley

#2. To make the world a friendly place, one must show it a friendly face.

James Whitcomb Riley

#3. I bless the hoss from hoof to head -
From head to hoof, and tale to mane! -
I bless the hoss, as I have said,
From head to hoof, and back again!

James Whitcomb Riley

#4. The anger of a person who is strong, can always bide its time.

James Whitcomb Riley

#5. The jelly - the jam and the marmalade, And the cherry-and quince-'preserves' she made! And the sweet-sour pickles of peach and pear, With cinnamon in 'em, and all things rare! And the more we ate was the more to spare, Out to old Aunt Mary's! Ah!

James Whitcomb Riley

#6. It is no use to grumble and complain; It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice; When God sorts out the weather and sends rain - Why, rain's my choice.

James Whitcomb Riley

#7. Think of him still as the same, I say, He is not dead, he is just - away.

James Whitcomb Riley

#8. Just a wee cot-the crickets chirr-love and the smiling face of her.

James Whitcomb Riley

#9. Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strewberries melts
On the vine.

James Whitcomb Riley

#10. O'er folded blooms On swirls of musk, The beetle booms adown the glooms And bumps along the dusk.

James Whitcomb Riley

#11. The ripest peach is highest on the tree.

James Whitcomb Riley

#12. When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.

James Whitcomb Riley

#13. O, it sets my heart a clickin' like the tickin' of a clock, when the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

James Whitcomb Riley

#14. He is not dead, he is just - away.

James Whitcomb Riley

#15. When you awaken some morning and hear that somebody or other has been discovered, you can put it down as a fact that he discovered himself years ago - since that time he has been toiling, working, and striving to make himself worthy of general discovery.

James Whitcomb Riley

#16. One naked star has waded through
The purple shallows of the night,
And faltering as falls the dew
It drips its misty light.

James Whitcomb Riley

#17. As one who cons at evening o'er an album all alone,
And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,
So I turn the leaves of Fancy, till in shadowy design
I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.

James Whitcomb Riley

#18. Who bides his time tastes the sweet Of honey in the saltiest tear; And though he fares with slowest feet Joy runs to meet him drawing near.

James Whitcomb Riley

#19. Tell you what I like the best -
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine, - some afternoon
Like to jes' git out and rest,
And not work at nothin' else!

James Whitcomb Riley

#20. Oh, the world's a curious compound, with its honey and its gall, With its cares and bitter crosses, but a good world after all. And a good God must have made it-leastways, that is what I say, When a hand is on my shoulder in a friendly sort of way.

James Whitcomb Riley

#21. And the sun had on a crown
Wrought of gilded thistledown,
And a scarf of velvet vapor
And a raveled rainbow gown;
And his tinsel-tangled hair
Tossed and lost upon the air
Was glossier and flossier
Than any anywhere.

James Whitcomb Riley

#22. Somebody's sent a funny little valentine to me. It's a bunch of baby-roses in a vase of filigree, And hovering above them ... is a fairy cupid tangled in a scarf of poetry.

James Whitcomb Riley

#23. Continuous, unflagging effort, persistence and determination will win. Let not the man be discouraged who has these.

James Whitcomb Riley