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Nathaniel Parker Willis Quotes

1806–1867 United States

Nathaniel Parker Willis (20 January 1806 – 20 January 1867) was an American author and editor who had worked with notable American writers including Harriet Jacobs and Edgar Allan Poe.

United States
19th-century poets
Essayists
Playwrights
Poets

Random Nathaniel Parker Willis quote

19 quotes

He who binds
His soul to knowledge steals the key of heaven.

If there is any thing that keeps the mind
Open to angel visits, and repels
The ministry of ill—tis human love.

At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.

The value of life deepens incalculably with the privileges of travel.

The world well tried—the sweetest thing in life
Is the unclouded welcome of a wife.

But he who never sins can little boast
Compared to him who goes and sins no more!

For it stirs the blood in an old man’s heart,
And makes his pulses fly,
To catch the thrill of a happy voice,
And the light of a pleasant eye.

But the sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven
By man is cursed alway!

How like a mounting devil in the heart
Rules the unreined ambition!

Press on!—"for in the grave there is no work
And no device"—Press on! while yet ye may!

a poem delivered at Yale College (1827)

How beautiful it is for a man to die
Upon the walls of Zion! to be called
Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel,
To put his armour off, and rest in heaven!

And mad ambition trumpeteth to all.

a poem delivered at the Departure of the Senior Class of Yale College (1827)

It is the month of June,
The month of leaves and roses,
When pleasant sights salute the eyes,
And pleasant scents the noses.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

One lamp—thy mother's love—amid the stars
Shall lift its pure flame changeless, and, before
The throne of God burn through eternity—
Holy—as it was lit and lent thee here.

It is not the fear of death
That damps my brow;
It is not for another breath
I ask thee now;
I could die with a lip unstirred.

Your love in a cottage is hungry,
Your vine is a nest for flies—
Your milkmaid shocks the Graces,
And simplicity talks of pies!
You lie down to your shady slumber
And wake with a bug in your ear,
And your damsel that walks in the morning
Is shod like a mountaineer.

Wisdom sits alone
Topmost in Heaven.

Let us weep in our darkness—but weep not for him!
Not for him—who, departing, leaves millions in tears!
Not for him—who has died full of honor and years!
Not for him—who ascended Fame’s ladder so high
From the round at the top he has stepp'd to the sky.

They are all up—the innumerable stars—
And hold their place in heaven. […]
There they stand,
Shining in order, like a living hymn
Written in light, awaking at the breath
Of the celestial dawn, and praising Him
Who made them, with the harmony of spheres.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Nathaniel Parker Willis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.