Top 100 John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes
#1. And light is mingled with the gloom, And joy with grief; Divinest compensations come, Through thorns of judgment mercies bloom In sweet relief.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#2. Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#6. Here Greek and Roman find themselves alive along these crowded shelves; and Shakespeare treads again his stage, and Chaucer paints anew his age.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#8. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#11. And one there was, a dreamer born,
Who, with a mission to fulfill,
Had left the Muses' haunts to turn
The crank of an opinion-mill,
Making his rustic reed of song
A weapon in the war with wrong, ...
A Tent on the Beach
John Greenleaf Whittier
#12. I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond his love and care.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#14. Give lettered pomp to teeth of Time, So "Bonnie Doon" but tarry; Blot out the epic's stately rhyme, But spare his "Highland Mary!"
John Greenleaf Whittier
#17. 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!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#18. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#20. The Fates are just: they give us but our own; Nemesis ripens what our hands have sown.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#21. Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone, How falls the polished hammer! Rap, rap! the measured sound has grown A quick and merry clamor. Now shape the sole! now deftly curl The glassy vamp around it, And bless the while the bright-eyed girl Whose gentle fingers bound it!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#23. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#26. The sun that brief December day Rose cheerless over hills of gray, And, darkly circled, gave at noon A sadder light than waning moon.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#27. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#28. For still the new transcends the old In signs and tokens manifold; Slaves rise up men; the olive waves, With roots deep set in battle graves!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#29. The great eventful Present hides the Past; but through the din Of its loud life hints and echoes from the life behind steal in.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#31. Yet, in the maddening maze of things, And tossed by storm and flood, To one fixed trust my spirit clings; I know that God is good!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#32. O brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#36. Once more the liberal year laughs out O'er richer stores than gems or gold: Once more with harvest song and shout Is nature's boldest triumph told.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#37. What, my soul, was thy errand here?
Was it mirth or ease,
Or heaping up dust from year to year?
"Nay, none of these!"
Speak, soul, aright in His holy sight,
Whose eye looks still
And steadily on thee through the night;
"To do His will!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#38. They who wander widest lift No more of beauties' jealous veils, Than they who from their doorways see The miracle of flowers and trees.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#39. He is wisest, who only gives, True to himself, the best he can: Who drifting on the winds of praise, The inward monitor obeys. And with the boldness that confuses fear Takes in the crowded sail, and lets his conscience steer.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#40. If thou of fortune be bereft, and in thy store there be but left two loaves, sell one, and with the dole, buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#41. And I will trust that He who heeds
The life that hides in mead and wold,
Who hangs you alder's crimson beads,
And stains these mosses green and gold,
Will still, as He hath done, incline
His gracious care to me and mine.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#42. Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace; East, west, north, and south let the long quarrel cease; Sing the song of great joy that the angels began, Sing the glory to God and of good-will to man!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#45. Nothing before, nothing behind; The steps of faith Fall on the seeming void, and find The Rock beneath.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#46. Around the mighty master came
The marvels which his pencil wrought,
Those miracles of power whose fame
Is wide as human thought.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#47. At what point does a man turn into a monster? I don't believe that it's when he does horrible things, but when he accepts that he's able to do them, and that he does them well.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#48. Formed on the good old plan, A true and brave and downright honest man! He blew no trumpet in the market-place, Nor in the church with hypocritic face Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace; Loathing pretence, he did with cheerful will What others talked of while their hands were still.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#50. Thine to work as well as pray, Clearing thorny wrongs away; Plucking up the weeds of sin, Letting heaven's warm sunshine in.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#51. A little smile, a word of cheer, A bit of love from someone near, A little gift from one held dear, Best wishes for the coming year. These make a merry christmas!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#52. Up from the sea, the wild north wind is blowing, under the sky's gray arch. Smiling, I watch the shaken elm boughs, knowing It is the wind of March.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#55. Through the open door A drowsy smell of flowers -grey heliotrope And white sweet clover, and shy mignonette Comes fairly in, and silent chorus leads To the pervading symphony of Peace.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#56. The age is dull and mean. Men creep, Not walk; with blood too pale and tame To pay the debt they owe to shame; Buy cheap, sell dear; eat. drink, and sleep down-pillowed, deaf to moaning want; Pay tithes for soul-insurance; keep Six days to Mammon, one to Cant
John Greenleaf Whittier
#57. I hear the tread of pioneers
Of nations yet to be,
The first low wash of waves where soon
Shall roll a human sea.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#59. A charmed life old goodness hath; the tares may perish, but the grain is not for death.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#60. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#63. Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress-trees Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day Across the mournful marbles play!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#65. And the more you spend in blessing The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing
Returns to you glad.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#66. Our toil is sweet with thankfulness, Our burden is our boon; The curse of earth's gray morning is The blessing of its noon.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#70. The green earth sends her incense up. From many a mountain shrine; From folded leaf and dewey cup She pours her sacred wine.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#71. A bending staff I would not break,
A feeble faith I would not shake,
Nor even rashly pluck away
The error which some truth may stay,
Whose loss might leave the soul without
A shield against the shafts of doubt.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#72. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#73. O Time and change! - with hair as gray as was my sire's that winter day, how strange it seems, with so much gone of life and love, to still live on!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#74. Along the river's summer walk,
The withered tufts of asters nod;
And trembles on its arid stalk
the hoar plum of the golden-rod.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#76. The laws of changeless justice bind oppressor and oppressed; and, close as sin and suffering joined we march to fate abreast.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#78. All day the darkness and the cold
Upon my heart have lain
Like shadows on the winter sky
Like frost upon the pane
John Greenleaf Whittier
#80. From purest wells of English undefiled None deeper drank than he, the New World's Child, Who in the language of their farm field spoke The wit and wisdom of New England folk.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#81. Through this broad street, restless ever, ebbs and flows a human tide, wave on wave a living river; wealth and fashion side by side; Toiler, idler, slave and master, in the same quick current glide.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#83. On leaf of palm, on sedge-wrought roll; on plastic clay and leather scroll, man wrote his thoughts; the ages passed, and lo! the Press was found at last!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#86. And close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood. And close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#88. It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#89. But let the good old corn adorn
The hills our fathers trod;
Still let us, for his golden corn,
Send up our thanks to God!
John Greenleaf Whittier
#90. We search the world for truth; we cull The good, the pure, the beautiful, From all old flower fields of the soul; And, weary seeker of the best, We come back laden from out quest, To find that all the sages said Is in the Book our mothers read.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#92. So let it be in God's own might We gird us for the coming fight, And, strong in Him whose cause is ours In conflict with unholy powers, We grasp the weapons he has given,
The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#93. What does the good ship bear so well? The cocoa-nut with its stony shell, And the milky sap of its inner cell.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#94. Happy he whose inward ear Angel comfortings can hear, O'er the rabble's laughter; And, while Hatred's fagots burn, Glimpses through the smoke discern Of the good hereafter.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#95. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier
#99. Like warp and woof all destinies
Are woven fast,
Linked in sympathy like the keys
Of an organ vast.
Pluck one thread, and the web ye mar;
Break but one
Of a thousand keys, and the paining jar
Through all will run.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
