John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes
d. 1892 United States
John Greenleaf Whittier (17 December 1807 – 7 September 1892) was an American Quaker poet and abolitionist.
- United States
- 19th-century poets
- Poets
Also known as: Whittier, John Greenleaf
Random John Greenleaf Whittier quote
93 quotes
O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother;
where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.
Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.
Barbara Frietchie (1863)
The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.
When faith is lost, when honor dies
The man is dead!
Life is ever lord of Death
And Love can never lose its own.
Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good.
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
Maud Muller (1856)
Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young.
Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart.
Press bravely onward! — not in vain
Your generous trust in human kind;
The good which bloodshed could not gain
Your peaceful zeal shall find.
Around the mighty master came
The marvels which his pencil wrought,
Those miracles of power whose fame
Is wide as human thought.
Who never wins can rarely lose,
Who never climbs as rarely falls.
The hope of all who suffer,
The dread of all who wrong.
Again the shadow moveth o'er
The dial-plate of time.
Low stir of leaves and dip of oars
And lapsing waves on quiet shores.
Thine to work as well as pray,
Clearing thorny wrongs away;
Plucking up the weeds of sin,
Letting heaven's warm sunshine in.
For still in mutual sufferance lies
The secret of true living;
Love scarce is love that never knows
The sweetness of forgiving.
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
The harp at Nature's advent strung
Has never ceased to play;
The song the stars of morning sung
Has never died away.
O, rank is good, and gold is fair,
And high and low mate ill;
But love has never known a law
Beyond its own sweet will!
I pray the prayer of Plato old:
God make thee beautiful within.