John Greenleaf Whittier

“Clothe with life the weak intent,Let me be the thing I meant ...”

“And still we love the evil causeAnd of the just effect complain;We tread upon life's broken lawsAnd murmur at our self-inflicted pain.”

“I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond his love and care.”

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

“And one there was, a dreamer born,Who, with a mission to fulfill,Had left the Muses' haunts to turnThe crank of an opinion-mill,Making his rustic reed of songA weapon in the war with wrong,... "A Tent on the Beach”

“Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.”

“The windows of my soul I throwWide open to the sun.”

“the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you”

“Nothing before, nothing behind;The steps of faithFall on the seeming void, and findThe Rock beneath.”

“And sweet and far as from a star, replied a voice which shall not cease, till drowning all the noise of war, it sings the blessed song of peace”

“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.”

“So all night long the storm roared on:The morning broke without a sun;In tiny spherule traced with linesOf Nature’s geometric signs,In starry flake, and pellicle,All day the hoary meteor fell;And, when the second morning shone,We looked upon a world unknown,On nothing we could call our own.Around the glistening wonder bentThe blue walls of the firmament,No cloud above, no earth below,—A universe of sky and snow!”

“The continuity of life is never broken; the river flows onward and is lost to our sight, but under its new horizon it carries the same waters which it gathered under ours, and its unseen valleys are made glad by the offerings which are borne down to them from the past,--flowers, perchance, the germs of which its own waves had planted on the banks of Time.”

“Flowers spring to blossom where she walks The careful ways of duty;Our hard, stiff lines of life with her Are flowing curves of beauty.”

“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!”

“The tints of autumn...a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.”

“No longer forward or behindI look in hope or fear,But grateful, take the good I find,The best of now and here.”

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”