John Greenleaf Whittier

The hope of all earnest souls must be realized.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Romance is always young.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Beauty is its own excuse.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Simple duty hath no place for fear.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

God's colors all are fast.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Thanks to Allah, who gives the palm!

— John Greenleaf Whittier

All the windows of my heart I open to the day.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

This is truth the poet sings . . .

— John Greenleaf Whittier

I'll lift you and you lift me, and we'll both ascend together.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

His daily prayer, far better understood in acts than in words, was simply doing good.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Beauty seen is never lost, God's colors all are fast.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Freedom's soil hath only place For a free and fearless race!

— John Greenleaf Whittier

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

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Autumn, in his leafless bowers, is waiting for the winter's snow.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Here Greek and Roman find themselves alive along these crowded shelves; and Shakespeare treads again his stage, and Chaucer paints anew his…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

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

— John Greenleaf Whittier

I hear the tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

They tell me, Lucy, thou art dead, that all of thee we loved and cherished has with thy summer roses perished; and…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

On leaf of palm, on sedge-wrought roll; on plastic clay and leather scroll, man wrote his thoughts; the ages passed, and lo!…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

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

— John Greenleaf Whittier

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

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

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Through this broad street, restless ever, ebbs and flows a human tide, wave on wave a living river; wealth and fashion side…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

What, my soul, was thy errand here? Was it mirth or ease, Or heaping up dust from year to year? "Nay, none…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

We search the world for truth; we cull The good, the pure, the beautiful, From all old flower fields of the soul;…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Like warp and woof all destinies Are woven fast, Linked in sympathy like the keys Of an organ vast. Pluck one thread,…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

The age is dull and mean. Men creep, Not walk; with blood too pale and tame To pay the debt they owe…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

The continuity of life is never broken; the river flows onward and is lost to our sight, but under its new horizon…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

He is wisest, who only gives, True to himself, the best he can: Who drifting on the winds of praise, The inward…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone, How falls the polished hammer! Rap, rap! the measured sound has grown A quick and merry…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

God should be most where man is least: So, where is neither church nor priest, And never rag nor form of creed…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Quite the ugliest face I ever saw was that of a woman whom the world called beautiful. Through its silver veil the…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

The slave will be free. Democracy in America will yet be a glorious reality; and when the top-stone of that temple of…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

With smoking axle hot with speed, with steeds of fire and steam, Wide-waked To-day leaves Yesterday behind him like a dream. Still,…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West, From North and South, come the pilgrim and guest, When the gray-haired…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

So all night long the storm roared on: The morning broke without a sun; In tiny spherule traced with lines Of Nature’s…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

We live by faith; but Faith is not the slave Of text and legend. Reason's voice and God's, Nature's and Duty's, never…

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Rest if you must, but never quit.

— John Greenleaf Whittier