Henry Vaughan Quotes

#1. (Patrick Henry) He understood that the home was the foundation of a stable society and that the authority a man "exercised within the larger society was rooted in the authority exercised at home." Thus ... the training ground for all sound leadership is the family.

David J. Vaughan

#2. Mornings are mysteries; the first world's youth,
Man's resurrection, and the future's bud
Shroud in their births.

Henry Vaughan

#3. For each inclosed spirit is a star
Enlightening his own little sphere

Henry Vaughan

#4. Bright pledge of peace and sunshine! the sure tie Of thy Lord's hand, the object of His eye! When I behold thee, though my light be dim, Distinct, and low, I can in thine see Him Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne, And minds the covenant between all and One.

Henry Vaughan

#5. Dear beauteous death, the jewel of the just.

Henry Vaughan

#6. The skin and shell of things Though fair are not Thy wish nor prayer but got My meer despair of wings.

Henry Vaughan

#7. Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move, And when this dust falls to the urn In that state I came, return.

Henry Vaughan

#8. Affliction is a mother,
Whose painful throes yield many sons,
Each fairer than the other.

Henry Vaughan

#9. Death, and darkness get you packing, Nothing now to man is lacking, All your triumphs now are ended, And what Adam marred, is mended.

Henry Vaughan

#10. Should poor souls fear a shade or night,
Who came sure from a sea of light?
Or since those drops are all sent back
So sure to thee, that none doth lack,
Why should frail flesh doubt any more
That what God takes, He'll not restore?

Henry Vaughan

#11. As great a store
Have we of books as bees of herbs or more.

Henry Vaughan

#12. Man hath still either toys or care: But hath no root, nor to one place is tied, but ever restless and irregular, about this earth doth run and ride. He knows he hath a home, but scarce knows where; He says it is so far, that he has quite forgot how to go there.

Henry Vaughan

#13. As men are killed by fighting, the truth is lost in disputing.

Henry Vaughan

#14. Caesar had perished from the world of men, had not his sword been rescued by his pen.

Henry Vaughan

#15. So stick up ivy and the bays, and then restore the heathen ways, green will remind you of the Spring, though this great day denies the thing, and mortifies the earth, and all, but your wild revels, and loose hall.

Henry Vaughan

#16. Dear, harmless age! the short, swift span Where weeping Virtue parts with man; Where love without lust dwells, and bends What way we please without self-ends. An age of mysteries! which he Must live that would God's face see Which angels guard, and with it play, Angels! which foul men drive away.

Henry Vaughan

#17. Some syllables are swords.

Henry Vaughan

#18. Still young and fine! but what is still in view We slight as old and soil'd, though fresh and new.

Henry Vaughan

#19. If thou canst but thither, There grows the flower of Peace, The Rose that cannot wither, Thy fortress and thy ease.

Henry Vaughan

#20. When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave
To do the like; our bodies but forerun
The spirit's duty. True hearts spread and heave
Unto their God, as flow'rs do to the sun.
Give him thy first thoughts then; so shalt thou keep
Him company all day, and in him sleep.

Henry Vaughan

#21. A ward, and still in bonds, one day
I stole abroad;
It was high spring, and all the way
Primrosed and hung with shade;
Yet was it frost within,
And surly winds
Blasted my infant buds, and sin
Like clouds eclipsed my mind.

Henry Vaughan

#22. Holy writing must strive (by all means) for perfection and true holiness, that a door may be opened to him in heaven.

Henry Vaughan

#23. And yet, as angels in some brighter dreams Call to the soul when man doth sleep. So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted dreams, And into glory peep.

Henry Vaughan

#24. Early, as well as late,
Rise with the sun, and set in the same bowers

Henry Vaughan

#25. They are all gone into the world of light, and I alone sit lingering here.

Henry Vaughan

#26. Man is the shuttle, to whose winding quest And passage through these looms God ordered motion, but ordained no rest.

Henry Vaughan

#27. The sun doth shake Light from his locks, and, all the way Breathing perfumes, doth spice the day.

Henry Vaughan

#28. Prayer is The world in tune, A spirit-voyce, And vocall joyes, Whose Eccho is heaven's blisse.

Henry Vaughan

#29. I played with fire, did counsel spurn, Made life my common stake; But never thought that fire would burn, O that a soul could ache.

Henry Vaughan

#30. Representative William McK. Springer, remarks in the House, quoting Henry Clay: As for me, I would rather be right than be President. Reed: Well, the gentleman will never be either.

Bill Vaughan

#31. Dear Night! this world's defeat; The stop to busy fools; care's check and curb; The day of spirits; my soul's calm retreat Which none disturb! Christ's progress, and His prayer-time; The hours to which high Heaven cloth chime.

Henry Vaughan

#32. But felt through all this fleshly dresse Bright shootes of everlastingnesse.

Henry Vaughan

#33. Yet never sleep the sun up. Prayer shou'd
Dawn with the day. There are set, awful hours
'Twixt heaven and us. The manna was not good
After sun-rising; far day sullies flowres.
Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sin glut,
And heaven's gate opens when the world's is shut.

Henry Vaughan