255 Quotes by John Greenleaf Whittier

From the death of the old the new proceeds, and the life of truth from the death of creeds.

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!

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

Man is more than constitutions.

Peace hath higher tests of manhood, than battle ever knew.

Nature eschews regular lines; she does not shape her lines by a common model. Not one of Eve's numerous progeny in all respects resembles her who first culled the flowers of Eden. To the infinite variety and picturesque inequality of nature we owe the great charm of her uncloying beauty.

God blesses still the generous thought,And still the fitting word He speeds,And Truth, at His requiring taught,He quickens into deeds.

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.

And the more you spend in blessing The poor and lonely and sad, The more of your heart's possessing Returns to you glad.