Yet, in the maddening maze of things, And tossed by storm and flood, To one fixed trust my spirit clings; I know that God is good.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: God, Faith
Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Action
The simple heart that freely asks in love, obtains.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Prayer, Work
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: “It might have been!”
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Oh, brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother; where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
All the windows of my heart I open to the day.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Carpe-diem
Autumn, in his leafless bowers, is waiting for the winter’s snow.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Autumn
No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Beauty seen is never lost, God’s colors all are fast.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Beauty
Who never climbs as rarely falls.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Success
How dwarfed against his manliness she sees the poor pretension, the wants, the aims, the follies, born of fashion and convention!
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Men
Of all that Orient lands can vaunt, of marvels with our own competing, the strangest is the Haschish plant, and what will follow on its eating.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Drugs
The smile of God is victory.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: One liners
The craven’s fear is but selfishness, like his merriment.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Cowardice, Fear
Forever from the hand that takes one blessing from us, others fall; and soon or late, our Father makes his perfect recompense to all.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Before me, even as behind, God is, and all is well.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: God, Faith
Clothe with life the weak intent, let me be the thing I meant.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
They tell me, Lucy, thou art dead, that all of thee we loved and cherished has with thy summer roses perished; and left, as its young beauty fled, an ashen memory in its stead.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Bereavement
Tradition wears a snowy beard.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Tradition
Who fathoms the Eternal Thought?$Who talks of scheme and plan?$The Lord is God! He needeth not$The poor device of man.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: God, Faith
Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;
Let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall;
Who sows a field, or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree, is more than all.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Character
But beauty seen is never lost,
God
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Yet sometimes glimpses on my sight,
Through present wrong the eternal right;
And, step by step, since time began,
I see the steady gain of man…
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Progress
To be saved is only this,–salvation from our own selfishness.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Selfishness
The vain regret that steals above the wreck of squandered hours.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Topics: Man, Faith
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
James Russell Lowell American Poet, Critic
Emily Dickinson American Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow American Poet
Edgar Allan Poe American Poet
Marge Piercy American Poet
Josiah Gilbert Holland American Editor, Novelist
Thomas Bailey Aldrich American Writer
Walt Whitman American Poet
Ella Wheeler Wilcox American Poet, Journalist
Washington Allston American Poet