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Christmas Quotes

Most of the quotes on this page are not about Christmas at all. We built it from the pages on family, love and gratitude, which is what people tend to want for a card or a toast.

That makes it a long list, ordered by quality rather than by how seasonal each entry feels. If you want something that sounds like Christmas, search for it. If you want something that would be true at any family table, start here.

Random quote on Christmas

Most quoted on christmas:

Warriors!—and where are warriors found,
If not on martial Britain's ground?
And who, when waked with note of fire,
Love more than they the British lyre?

Walter Scott

While abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist. This is the only way to create the beloved community.

Martin Luther King Jr. Loving Your Enemies (1957)

First pledge our Queen this solemn night,
Then drink to England, every guest;
That man's the best Cosmopolite
Who loves his native country best.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

But how can he expect that others should
Build for him, sow for him, and at his call
Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all?

William Wordsworth Resolution and Independence (1807)

Days of absence, sad and dreary,
Clothed in sorrow's dark array,—
Days of absence, I am weary:
She I love is far away.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Love and a cough cannot be hid.

George Herbert Jacula Prudentum (1651)

"If we can remember the feeling of love we once had, we can die without ever going away."

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

The marriage of convenience has this to recommend it: we are better judges of convenience than we are of love.

Mignon McLaughlin The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981)

’T is said that absence conquers love;
But oh believe it not!
I’ve tried, alas! its power to prove,
But thou art not forgot.

Frederick William Thomas

Of all the days that's in the week
I dearly love but one day,
And that's the day that comes betwixt
A Saturday and Monday.

Henry Carey Sally in our Alley (1725)

His love was like the liberal air,—
Embracing all, to cheer and bless;
And every grief that mortals share
Found pity in his tenderness.

William Winter

Gather leaves and grasses,
Love, to-day;
For the Autumn passes
Soon away.
Chilling winds are blowing.
It will soon be snowing.

John Henry Boner

Modern man does not love, but seeks refuge in love; does not hope, but seeks refuge in hope; does not believe, but seeks refuge in a dogma.

Nicolás Gómez Dávila Escolios a un Texto Implicito (1977)

You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.

Martin Luther King Jr. The Drum Major Instinct (1968)

The nearest each of us can come to God is by loving the truth.

Buckminster Fuller Critical Path (1981)

Suddenly I find myself
Listening to a man I've never known before,
Telling me about the sea,
All his love, 'til Eternity.

Kate Bush

To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

Edmund Burke

In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.

William Congreve The Old Bachelor (1693)

Wit and valour are qualities that are more easily ascertained than virtue, or the love of wisdom.

Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith, and inward glee;
That was the song,—the song for me!

William Wordsworth

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