Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846–1916) was an American essayist, editor, critic, and lecturer.
Born in Cold Spring, New York, to a wealthy Scottish-English family, Mabie attended Williams College and Columbia Law School. From 1879 until his death, he worked at the weekly magazine, Christian Union; it was renamed The Outlook in 1893. In 1890, a small collection of Mabie’s essays, which reflected upon life, literature, and nature, were published as a volume entitled My Study Fire (1890 and 1894.)
Mabie’s other notable books include Works and Days (1902,) Parables of Life (1902,) Short Studies in Literature (1891,) Under the Trees and Elsewhere (1891,) Essays in Literary Interpretation (1892,) and Introduction to Notable Poems (1909.) He also compiled Famous Stories Every Child Should Know (1903,) Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know (1905,) and Myths That Every Child Should Know (1905.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Hamilton Wright Mabie
A man can never be idle with safety and advantage until he has been so trained by work that he makes his freedom from times and tasks more fruitful than his toil has been.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Leisure
The mother loves her child most divinely, not when she surrounds him with comfort and anticipates his wants, but when she resolutely holds him to the highest standards and is content with nothing less than his best.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Mothers Day
I do not believe that the deeper problems of living can ever be answered by the process of thought. I believe that life itself teaches us either patience with regard to them, or reveals to us possible solutions when our hearts are pressed close against duties and sorrows and experiences of all kinds.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Reason, Instincts
The rewards of great living are not external things, withheld until the crowning hour of success arrives; they come by the way, — in the consciousness of growing power and worth, of duties nobly met, and work thoroughly done. To the true artist, working always in humility and sincerity, all life is a reward, and every day brings a deeper satisfaction. Joy and peace are by the way.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
To have a quiet mind is to possess one’s mind wholly; to have a calm spirit is to possess one’s self.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Solitude
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Christmas
Don’t be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against—not with—the wind.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Opposition
It is better to go down on the great seas which human hearts were made to sail than to rot at the wharves in ignoble anchorage.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Heart
Real freedom comes from the mastery, through knowledge, of historic conditions and race character which makes possible a free and intelligent use of experience for the purpose of progress.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Freedom
Nothing is lost upon a person who is bent upon growth; nothing is wasted on one who is always preparing for his work and life by keeping eyes, mind, and heart open to nature, men, books, experience. Such a man finds ministries to his education on all sides; everything cooperates with his passion for growth.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Growth
Genius can do much, but even genius falls short of the actuality of a single human life.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Topics: Genius
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