Henry Van Dyke famous quotes

To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for all of us; and surely it is a good haven to sail for.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Choices #Sailing #Desire

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Love #Life #Happiness

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Inspirational #Change #Strength

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Thanksgiving #Gratitude #Kindness

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Love #Life #Time

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Positive #Ambition #Political

Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Self Esteem #Soul #Prison

There is only one way to get ready for immortality, and that is to love this life and live it as bravely and faithfully and cheerfully as we can.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Love #Way #Immortality

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Inspirational #Death #Character

If all the skies were sunshine Our faces would be fain To feel once more upon them The cooling splash of rain. If all the world were music, Our hearts would often long For one sweet strain of silence, To break the endless song If life were always merry, Our souls would seek relief, And rest from weary laughter In the quiet arms of grief.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Song #Sweet #Laughter

Let me but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, "This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the one by whom This work can best be done in the right way."
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Heart #Blessing #Wish

Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Inspirational #Success #Softball

Love is not about getting - but giving.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Inspirational Love #Love Is #Giving

Heaven often seems distant and unknown, but if He who made the road... is our guide, we need not fear to lose the way.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Heaven #Needs #Way

It is better to follow even the shadow of the best, than to remain content with the worst.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Shadow #Worst

There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Christmas

It is better to burn the candle at both ends, and in the middle, too, than to put it away in the closet and let the mice eat it.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Ends #Middle #Closets

The birth of Jesus is the sunrise in the Bible.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Jesus #Sunrise #Birth

What we do belongs to what we are; and what we are is what becomes of us.
-- Henry Van Dyke

Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Knowing #Culture #Habit

Happiness is inward, and not outward; and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Life #Happiness #Success

Genius is talent set on fire by courage.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Courage #Fire #Genius

As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Spiritual #Long #Soul

Some people are so afraid do die that they never begin to live.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Death #People

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Spring #Differences #Firsts

In the progress of personality, first comes a declaration of independence, then a recognition of interdependence.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Personality #Independence #Progress

The woods would be quiet if no bird sang but the one that sang best.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Bird #Singing #Would Be

There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Happiness #Cheerful #Charm

These are the things I prize And hold of dearest worth: Light of the sapphire skies, Peace of the silent hills, Shelter of the forests, comfort of the grass, Music of birds, murmur of little rills, Shadows of cloud that swiftly pass, And, after showers, The smell of flowers And of the good brown earth,- And best of all, along the way, friendship and mirth.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Flower #Sky #Smell

You never see the stock called Happiness quoted on the exchange.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Happiness

Every house where love abides And friendship is a guest, Is surely home, and home sweet home For there the heart can rest.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Sweet #Home #Heart

Heaven is blessed with perfect rest but the blessing of earth is toil.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Motivational #Blessed #Blessing

No amount of energy will take the place of thought. A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Eye #Thinking #Insanity

Long ago Apollo called to Aristæus, youngest of the shepherds, Saying, "I will make you keeper of my bees." Golden were the hives, and golden was the honey; golden, too, the music, Where the honey-makers hummed among the trees.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Long #Tree #Shepherds

Religion? Yes, I know it well; I've heard its prayers and creeds, And seen men put them all to shame with poor, half-hearted deeds. They follow Christ, but far away; they wander and they doubt. I'll serve him in a better way, and live his precepts out.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Prayer #Men #Doubt

Deeds not Words: I say so too! And yet I find it somehow true, A word may help a man in need, To nobler act and braver deed.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Men #Needs #Deeds

This is the gospel of labour, ring it, ye bells of the kirk! The Lord of Love came down from above, to live with the men who work. This is the rose that He planted, here in the thorn-curst soil: Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Work #Blessing #Men

A flawless cup: how delicate and fine The flowing curve of every jewelled line! Look, turn it up or down, 'tis perfect still-- But holds no drop of life's heart-warming wine.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Heart #Wine #Curves

Peace without Justice is a low estate,— A coward cringing to an iron Fate! But Peace through Justice is the great ideal,— We'll pay the price of war to make it real.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Peace #Real #War

Courage is the standing army of the soul which keeps it from conquest, pillage, and slavery.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Courage #Army #Soul

A peaceful man must fight For that which peace demands,— Freedom and faith, honor and right, Defend with heart and hands.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Peace #Heart #Fighting

Tact is the unsaid part of what you think.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Thinking #Unsaid #Tact

No matter what theory of the origin of government you adopt, if you follow it out to its legitimate conclusions it will bring you face to face with the moral law.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Moral #Conclusion

One truly affectionate soul in a family will evert a sweetening and harmonizing influence upon all its members.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Soul #Influence #Members

A clean and sensitive conscience, a steady and scrupulous integrity in small things as well as large, is the most valuable of all possessions, to a nation as to an individual.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Integrity #Sensitive #Individual

The more keenly we are awake to the perils of life, the higher and grander is the possibility of being truly brave.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Courage #Brave #Possibility

The brave man is intelligent; he faces danger because he understands it and is prepared to meet it. The drunkard who runs, in the delirium of intoxication, into a burning house is not brave; he is only stupid. But the clear-eyed hero who makes his way, with every sense alert and every nerve strung, into the hell of flames to rescue some little child, proves his courage.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Running #Courage #Children

So in the heart, When, fading slowly down the past, Fond memories depart, And each that leaves it seems the last; Long after all the rest are flown, Returns a solitary tone,— The after-echo of departed years,— And touches all the soul to tears.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Memories #Heart #Past

Fidelity is simply daring to be true in small things as well as great.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Fidelity #Daring #Being True

Subjection to fear is weakness, bondage, feverish unrest. To be afraid is to have no soul that we can call our own; it is to be at the beck and call of alien powers, to be chained and driven and tormented; it is to lose the life itself in the anxious care to keep it.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Soul #Weakness #Unrest

The meditative angler is not exempt from sensational periods. There are times when all the uncertainty of his chosen pursuit seems to condense itself into one big chance, and stand out before him like a salmon on the top wave of a rapid. He sees his luck hangs by a single strand of gut, and he cannot tell whether it will hold or break. This is the thrilling moment and he never forgets it.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Rivers #Lakes #Sea

Christ never asks us to give up merely for the sake of giving up, but always in order to win something better.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Giving Up #Winning #Order

I'm only wishing to go a-fishing;For this the month of May was made.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Fishing #Wish #May

The simple life which blandly ignores all care and conflict, soon becomes flabby and invertebrate, sentimental and gelatinous.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Simple #Care #Sentimental

Death comes in its own time, in its own way.Death is as unique as the individual experiencing it.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Unique #Way #Individual

Thou warden of the western gate, above Manhattan Bay, The fogs of doubt that hid thy face are driven clean away: Thine eyes at last look far and clear, thou liftest high thy hand To spread the light of liberty world-wide for every land.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Eye #Light #Fog

I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack;The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Past #Europe #People

For ever so our thoughtful hearts repeatOn fields of triumph dirges of defeat;And still we turn on gala-days to treadAmong the rustling memories of the dead.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Memories #Heart #Thoughtful

The storm is ended! The impartial sunLaughs down upon the battle lost and won,And crowns the triumph of the cloudy hostIn rolling lines retreating to the coast.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Storm #Battle #Triumph

I heard through the nightThe rush and the clamour;The pulse of the fightLike blows of Thor's hammer;The pattering flightOf the leaves, and the anguishedMoan of the forest vanquished.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Blow #Pulse #Hammers

The world is full of warfare 'twixt the evil and the good;I watched the battle from afar as one who understoodThe shouting and confusion, the bloody, blundering fight-How few there are that see it clear, how few that wage it right!
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Fighting #Evil #Confusion

This is the soldier brave enough to tellThe glory-dazzled world that "war is hell":Lover of peace, he looks beyond the strife,And rides through hell to save his country's life.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Country #War #Brave

The lintel low enough to keep out pomp and pride; The threshold high enough to turn deceit aside; The doorband strong enough from robbers to defend; This door will open at a touch to welcome every friend.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Strong #Pride #Doors

The worlds in which we live at heart are one, The world "I am," the fruit of "I have done"; And underneath these worlds of flower and fruit, The world "I love,"--the only living root.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Flower #Heart #Roots

We are all swimmers in God's mighty sea.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Sea #Swimmer

If all the world were music, Our hearts would often long For one sweet strain of silence. To break the endless song.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Song #Sweet #Heart

Hymns of today that may be sung by people who know the thought of the age...are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy Christianity, or any revolution will overthrow the Kingdom of Heaven.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Hymns #People #Heaven

No amount of energy will take the place of thought.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Energy

Count not the cost of honour to the dead!The tribute that a mighty nation paysTo those who loved her well in former daysMeans more than gratitude for glories fled;For every noble man that she hath bred,Lives in the bronze and marble that we raise,Immortalised by art's immortal praise,To lead our sons as he our fathers led.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Gratitude #Art #Father

Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air; And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair; And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome; But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Dream #Sweet #Flower

It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Reality #Rivers #People

Love that leads life upward is the noblest and the best.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Life

There are many kinds of love, as many kinds of light, And every kind of love makes a glory in the night. There is love that stirs the heart, and love that gives it rest, But the love that leads life upward is the noblest and the best.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Life #Heart #Night

Hours fly, Flowers die: New days, New ways: Pass by! Love stays.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Life #Flower #New Day

A peace that depends on fear is nothing but a suppressed war.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Peace #War

Love is not getting, but giving; It is goodness, and honor, and peace and pure living.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Love #Giving #Honor

I thank God for the honesty and virility of Jesus religion which makes us face the facts and calls us to take a man's part in the real battle of life.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#God #Jesus #Honesty

I shall grow old, but never lose life's zest, because the road's last turn will be the best.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Zest #Age #Lasts

Oh, it's home again and home again, America for me! I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea To the blessed land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Stars #Blessed #Ocean

Love is not getting, but giving. Not a wild dream of pleasure and madness of desire - oh, no - love is not that! It is goodness and honor and peace and pure living - yes, love is that and it is the best thing in the world and the thing that lives the longest....
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Dream #Love You #Love Is

Who can explain the secret pathos of Nature's loveliness? It is a touch of melancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is an unconscious memory of the lost Paradise. It is the sense that even if we should find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Mother #Memories #Eden

be glαd of life, becαuse it gives you the chαnce to love αnd to work αnd to plαy αnd to look up αt the stαrs; to be sαtisfied with your posessions, to despise nothing in the world except fαlsehood αnd meαnness αnd to feαr nothing except cowαrdice; to be governed by your αdmirαtions rαther thαn by your disgusts, to covet nothing thαt is your neighbour's except his kindness of heαrt αnd gentleness of mαnners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends and to spend αs much time αs you cαn with body αnd with spirit.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Kindness #Thinking #Giving

Many a treasure besides Ali Baba's is unlocked with a verbal key.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Keys #Treasure #Baba

There are two good rules which ought to be written on every heart - never to believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true; never to tell even that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Believe #Heart #Two

Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.
-- Henry Van Dyke

#Sad #Men #Ideas