John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes

143 quotes in 1778 categories

• 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…
• The laws of changeless justice bind oppressor and oppressed; and, close as sin and suffering joined we march to fate abreast.
• 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…
• 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 are at odds.…
• 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…
• God's ways seem dark, but, soon or late, They touch the shining hills of day; The evil cannot brook delay, The good can well afford…
• I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care.
• God is good and God is light In this faith I rest secure, Evil can but serve the right, Over all shall love endure.
• And step by step, since time began, I see the steady gain of man.
• Give lettered pomp to teeth of Time, So "Bonnie Doon" but tarry; Blot out the epic's stately rhyme, But spare his "Highland Mary!"
• 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…
• So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!
• Bathsheba! to whom none ever said scat- No worthier cat Ever sat on a mat, Or caught a rat. Requiescat!
• This is truth the poet sings . . .
• 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…
• Low stir of leaves and dip of oars And lapsing waves on quiet shores.
• The hope of all who suffer, The dread of all who wrong.
• Every chain that spirits wear crumbles in the breadth of prayer.
• The simple heart that freely asks in love, obtains.
• His daily prayer, far better understood in acts than in words, was simply doing good.

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