SELECTIONS FOR MEMORIZATION
Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above.
—Brewer
God make my life a little light,
Within the world to glow,—
A little flame that burneth bright.
Wherever I may go.
The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.
—Stevenson
Be kind and be gentle
To those who are old,
For dearer is kindness
And better than gold.
Politeness is to do and say
The kindest thing in the kindest way.
Two ears and only one mouth have you;
The reason, I think, is clear:
It teaches, my child, that it will not do
To talk about all you hear.
Whene'er a task is set for you,
Don't idly sit and view it,
Nor be content to wish it done;
Begin at once and do it.
Work while you work, play while you play;
This is the way to be cheerful and gay.
All that you do, do with your might;
Things done by halves are never done right.
Five things observe with care,—
Of whom you speak, to whom you speak
And how, and when, and where.
—Gray
See that little sunbeam
Darting through the room,
Scattering the darkness,
Lighting up the gloom.
Let me be a sunbeam
Everywhere I go,
Making glad and happy
Every one I know.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!
—Stevenson
Do all the good you can,
In all the ways you can,
To all the people you can,
Just as long as you can.
When you come to think of it,
The day is what you make it;
And whether good, or whether bad,
Depends on how you take it.
Slumber, slumber, little one, now
The bird is asleep in his nest on the bough;
The bird is asleep, he has folded his wings,
And over him softly the dream fairy sings:
Lullaby, lullaby—lullaby!
Pearls in the deep—
Stars in the sky,
Dreams in our sleep;
So lullaby!
—F. D. Sherman
Dare to be true; nothing can need a lie.
The face you wear, the thoughts you bring,
A heart may heal or break.
He who is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.—Franklin
To be good is the mother of to do good.
I'll not willingly offend,
Nor be easily offended;
What's amiss I'll try to mend,
And endure what can't be mended.
A man of words and not of deeds,
Is like a garden full of weeds;
For when the weeds begin to grow,
Then doth the garden overflow.
Little children, you must seek
Rather to be good than wise,
For the thoughts you do not speak
Shine out in your cheeks and eyes.
—Alice Cary
To tell a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain.—Sadi
All that's great and good is done
Just by patient trying.
'Tis a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again.
If a task is once begun,
Never leave it till it's done;
Be the labour great or small,
Do it well, or not at all.
For every evil under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none.
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.
There are many flags in many lands,
There are flags of every hue,
But there is no flag in any land
Like our own Red, White, and Blue.
The inner side of every cloud
Is always bright and shining;
And so I turn my clouds about,
And always wear them inside out,
To show the silver lining.
I would not hurt a living thing,
However weak or small;
The beasts that graze, the birds that sing,
Our Father made them all.
Little drop of dew,
Like a gem you are;
I believe that you
Must have been a star.
When the day is bright,
On the grass you lie;
Tell me then, at night
Are you in the sky?
—F. D. Sherman
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and the heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
—Longfellow
In spring, when stirs the wind, I know
That soon the crocus buds will show;
For 'tis the wind who bids them wake
And into pretty blossoms break.
O, pause and think for a moment
What a desolate land it would be,
If, east or west, the eye should rest
On not a single tree!
—Gray
It was only a sunny smile,
And little it cost in the giving,
But it scattered the night,
Like the morning light,
And made the day worth living.
Keep pushing—'tis wiser
Than sitting aside,
And dreaming and sighing,
And waiting the tide.
In life's earnest battle,
They only prevail
Who daily march onward,
And never say "fail".
One step and then another,
And the longest walk is ended.
One stitch and then another,
And the largest rent is mended.
One brick and then another,
And the highest wall is made.
One flake and then another,
And the deepest snow is laid.
Speak the truth and speak it ever,
Cost it what it will.
He who hides the wrong he did,
Does the wrong thing still.
Whichever way the wind doth blow,
Some heart is glad to have it so;
Then blow it east or blow it west,
The wind that blows, that wind is best.
We should make the same use of books that the bee does of a flower: he gathers sweets from it, but does not injure it.
I smile, and then the Sun comes out;
He hides away whene'er I pout;
He seems a very funny sun,
To do whatever he sees done.
And when it rains he disappears;
Like me, he can't see through the tears.
Now isn't that the reason why
I ought to smile and never cry?
—F. D. Sherman
If fortune, with a smiling face,
Strew roses in our way,
When shall we stoop to pick them up?
To-day, my friend, to-day.
If those who've wronged us own their faults,
And kindly pity pray,
When shall we listen and forgive?
To-day, my friend, to-day.
Are you almost disgusted with life, little man?
I will tell you a wonderful trick
That will bring you contentment if anything can—
Do something for somebody, quick.
Are you very much tired with play, little girl?
Weary, discouraged, and sick?
I'll tell you the loveliest game in the world—
Do something for somebody, quick.
"Were it not for me",
Said a chickadee,
"Not a single flower on earth would be;
For under the ground they soundly sleep,
And never venture an upward peep,
Till they hear from me,
Chickadee-dee-dee!"
—Sidney Dayre
The world at noon belongs to the sun,
At eve to the home-coming herds;
But while the dew is early—very, very early—
The world belongs to the birds.
As still as in a dream lie the meadows and the stream,
'Neath the soaring and outpouring of the birds.
I know, blue modest violets,
Gleaming with dew at morn—
I know the place you come from,
And the way that you are born!
When God cuts holes in Heaven,
The holes the stars look through,
He lets the scraps fall down to earth,—
The little scraps are you.
The blossoms, down in the meadow,
In the gardens, and woods, and the hills,
Are singing, too, with their playmates,
The birds, and the breezes, and rills.
And I think, if you listen closely,
In the sweet glad days of spring,
With the song of the brook, the breeze, and the birds,
You can hear the flowers sing.
—Moorehouse
Good-night, little shivering grasses!
'Tis idle to struggle and fight
With tempest and cruel frost-fingers;
Lie down, little grasses, to-night!
Good-night, little shivering grasses!
Lie down 'neath the coverlet white,
And rest till the cuckoo is singing;
Good-night, little grasses, good-night!
—A November Good-night.—Beers
Daffydowndilly came up in the cold,
Through the brown mould,
Although the March breezes blew keen on her face,
Although the white snow lay on many a place.
I can't do much yet, but I'll do what I can.
It's well I began!
For unless I can manage to lift up my head,
The people will think that the Spring herself's dead.
O Daffydowndilly, so brave and so true,
I wish all were like you!
So ready for duty in all sorts of weather,
And holding forth courage and beauty together.
One to-day is worth two to-morrow's.—Poor Richard's Almanac
The future is purchased by the present.—Samuel Johnson
The sober second thought is always essential, and seldom wrong.—Martin Van Buren
Recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle.—Michael Angelo
Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest.
—Shakespeare
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.—O. W. Holmes
Let all the end thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's and truth's.
—Shakespeare
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Learn to obey and you will know how to command.—Lubbock
One who is contented with what he has done will never become famous for what he will do.
Be not simply good, be good for something.—Thoreau
The better part of valour is discretion.—Shakespeare
They that touch pitch will be defiled.—Shakespeare
Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.—Shakespeare
Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and choice.—Ben Jonson
One "do" is worth a thousand "don'ts" in the destruction of evil or the production of good.—Hughes
I look upon the simple and childish virtues of veracity and honesty as the root of all that is sublime in character.—Emerson
Remember that though it is a good thing to be a great man, it is a great thing to be a good man.
Striving not to be rich or great,
Never questioning fortune or fate,
Contented slowly to earn, and wait.
In the workshop, on the farm,
Or wherever you may be,
From your future efforts, boys,
Comes a nation's destiny.
It is a low benefit to give me something; it is a high benefit to enable me to do something of myself.—Emerson
Greatly begin! though thou hast time
But for a line, be that sublime,—
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
—Lowell
Never give up! 'Tis the secret of glory;
Nothing so wise can philosophy preach;
Look at the lives that are famous in story;
"Never give up" is the lesson they teach.
It is a good thing to be rich, and a good thing to be strong, but it is a better thing to be beloved of many friends.—Euripides
Do what conscience says is right;
Do what reason says is best;
Do with all your mind and might;
Do your duty, and be blest.
What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labour.—Bulwer-Lytton
So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The soul replies I can.
—Emerson
Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and it becomes so strong we cannot break it.—Horace Mann
Ponder well, and know the right,
Onward then, with all thy might!
Haste not! years can ne'er atone
For one reckless action done.
—Goethe
Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.—Carlyle
Slight is the sting of his trouble whose winnings are less than his worth:
For he who is honest is noble, whatever his fortune or birth.
—Alice Cary
Press on! There's no such word as fail!
Push nobly on! The goal is near!
Ascend the mountain! Breast the gale!
Look upward, onward—never fear!
He who has a thousand friends
Has not a friend to spare;
And he who has one enemy
Will meet him everywhere.
—Omar Khayyam
Work for some good, be it ever so slowly;
Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly;
Labour!—all labour is noble and holy.
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong; which is but saying in other words that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday.—Pope
Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
Fill up each hour with what will last;
Buy up the moments as they go;
The life above, when this is past,
Is the ripe fruit of life below.
New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth.
—Lowell
The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
—Longfellow
Nothing useless is, or low,
Each thing in its place is best,
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
—Longfellow
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.
—Clough
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.—Benjamin Franklin
I do not know
Where falls the seed that I have tried to sow
With greatest care;
But I shall know
The meaning of each waiting hour below
Sometime, somewhere!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.
—Longfellow
Begin while life is bright and young,
Work out each noble plan;
True knowledge lends a charm to youth,
And dignifies the man.
Then upward, onward, step by step,
With perseverance rise,
And emulate, with hearts of hope,
The good, the great, the wise.
The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies,
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.
In the darkness as in daylight,
On the water as on land,
God's eye is looking on us,
And beneath us is His hand!
Death will find us soon or later,
On the deck or in the cot;
And we cannot meet him better
Than in working out our lot.
—Whittier
The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength—the floating bulwark of our Island.—Blackstone's Commentaries
It is the land that freemen till,
That sober-suited Freedom chose.
The land, where girt with friends or foes
A man may speak the thing he will;
A land of settled government,
A land of just and old renown,
Where Freedom slowly broadens down
From precedent to precedent.
—Tennyson
O triune kingdom of the brave,
O sea-girt island of the free,
O empire of the land and wave
Our hearts, our hands, are all for thee.
Stand, Canadians, firmly stand,
Round the flag of our Fatherland.
—Laclede
Sharers of our glorious past,
Brothers, must we part at last?
Shall we not thro' good and ill
Cleave to one another still?
Britain's myriad voices call,
"Sons, be welded each and all
Into one Imperial whole,
One with Britain, heart and soul!
One life, one flag, one fleet, one Throne!"
Britons, hold your own!
"England! What thou wert, thou art!"
Gird thee with thine ancient might.
Forth! and God defend the Right.
—Newbolt
Believe not each accusing tongue,
As most weak people do;
But still believe that story wrong
Which ought not to be true.
—Sheridan
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things, both great and small,
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
—Coleridge
For whatever men say in blindness,
And spite of the fancies of youth,
There's nothing so kingly as Kindness,
And nothing so royal as Truth.
—Alice Cary
To do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being.—Lubbock
Small service is true service while it lasts.
Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one:
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dew-drops from the sun.
—Wordsworth
Look up and not down;
Look forward and not back;
Look out and not in;
And lend a hand.
—Hale
Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on.
'Twas not given for you alone,
Pass it on.
Let it travel down the years,
Let it wipe another's tears;
Till in heaven the deed appears.
Pass it on.
A little spring had lost its way
Amid the grass and fern;
A passing stranger scooped a well
Where weary men might turn.
He walled it in, and hung with care,
A ladle on the brink;
He thought not of the deed he did,
But judged that Toil might drink.
He passed again; and lo! the well,
By summer never dried,
Had cooled ten thousand parchèd tongues,
And saved a life beside.
—Mackay
Evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart.
—Hood
Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.—Epictetus
Count that day lost whose low-descending sun
Views from thy hand no worthy action done.
If happiness have not her seat
And centre in the breast,
We may be wise or rich or great,
But never can be blest.
—Burns
A kindly act is a kernel sown,
That will grow to a goodly tree,
Shedding its fruit when time has flown,
Down the gulf of eternity.
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Into his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
It is pleasant to think, just under the snow,
That stretches so bleak and blank and cold,
Are beauty and warmth that we cannot know,
Green fields and leaves and blossoms of gold.
Under the green hedges after the snow,
There do the dear little violets grow,
Hiding their modest and beautiful heads
Under the hawthorn in soft, mossy beds.
Sweet as the roses, and blue as the sky,
Down there do the dear little violets lie;
Hiding their heads where they scarce may be seen,
By the leaves you may know where the violets have been.
—Moultrie
The linnet is singing the wild wood through;
The fawn's bounding footsteps skim over the dew.
The butterfly flits round the blossoming tree,
And the cowslip and bluebell are bent by the bee;
All the creatures that dwell in the forest are gay,
And why should not I be as merry as they?
—Mitford
Do the duty which lies nearest thee!
Thy second duty will already have become clearer.
—Carlyle
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
—Hooper
Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.—Longfellow
Opinions shape ideals, and it is ideals that inspire conduct.—John Morley
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself into one.—Froude
Not once or twice in our fair island story
The path of duty was the way to glory.
—Tennyson
Know thy work and do it, and work at it like a Hercules. One monster there is in the world—an idle man.—Carlyle
Every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor. We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.—Emerson
In every common hour of life,
In every flame that glows,
In every breath of being rife
With aspiration or of strife
Man feels more than he knows.
—W. W. Campbell
Never to the bow that bends
Comes the arrow that it sends;
Never comes the chance that passed:
That one moment was its last.
Oh, fear not in a world like this,
And thou shalt know ere long,
Know how sublime a thing it is
To suffer and be strong.
—H. W. Longfellow
Sow an act, and reap a tendency; sow a tendency, and reap a habit; sow a habit, and reap a character; sow a character, and reap a destiny.—Thackeray
The gifts that we have, heaven lends for right using, and not for ignoring, and not for abusing.
It is not what he has, nor even what he does, which directly expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.—Journal—Amiel
My good blade carves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
True worth is in being, not seeming,—
In doing each day that goes by
Some little good—not in the dreaming
Of great things to do by and by.
No work which God sets a man to do—no work to which God has specially adapted a man's powers—can properly be called either menial or mean.—Carlyle
Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again;
Th' eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers.
—Bryant
To thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can'st not then be false to any man.
—Shakespeare
No life
Can be pure in its purpose or strong in its strife
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby.
—Lytton
Knowledge and wisdom far from being one, have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.—Cowper
Wish not to taste what doth not to thee fall;
Do well thyself, before thou striv'st to lead,
And truth shall thee deliver without dread.
—Geoffrey Chaucer
Oh, many a shaft, at random sent,
Finds mark the archer little meant!
And many a word at random spoken,
May soothe, or wound, a heart that's broken.
—Sir W. Scott
Govern the lips as they were palace doors, the king within. Tranquil and fair and courteous be all words which from that presence win.
Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts, in glad surprise,
To higher levels rise.
—Longfellow
Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues; be just, and fear not.
—Shakespeare
Not by the power of commerce, art, or pen,
Shall our great Empire stand, nor has it stood,
But by the noble deeds of noble men—
Heroic lives and heroes' outpoured blood.
—F. G. Scott
Take up the white man's burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.
—Kipling
Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied Past, and used
Within the Present, but transfused
Thro' future time by power of thought.
—Tennyson
For as long as conquest holds the earth,
Or commerce sweeps the sea,
By orient jungle or western plain
Will the Saxon spirit be;
And whatever the people that dwell beneath,
Or whatever the alien tongue,
Over the freedom and peace of the world
Is the flag of England flung.
Of old sat Freedom on the heights,
The thunders breaking at her feet;
Above her shook the starry lights;
She heard the torrents meet.
Her open eyes desire the truth.
The wisdom of a thousand years
Is in them. May perpetual youth
Keep dry their light from tears.
—Tennyson
If I have faltered more or less
In my great task of happiness;
If I have moved among my race
And shown no glorious morning face;
If beams from happy, human eyes
Have moved me not; if morning skies,
Books, and my food, and summer rain
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain—
Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take,
And stab my spirit broad awake.
—R. L. Stevenson
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.—Milton
The book which makes a man think the most is the book which strikes the deepest root in his memory and understanding.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
—Shakespeare
No book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable until it has been read and re-read, and loved, and loved again; and marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it, as a soldier can seize the weapon he needs in an armoury, or a housewife bring the spice she needs from her store. Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book.—Ruskin
Goodness moves in a larger sphere than justice. The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind, but kindness and beneficence should be extended to creatures of every species.—Plutarch
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die.
The child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
—Wordsworth
Be but yourself, be pure, be true,
And prompt in duty; heed the deep
Low voice of conscience; through the ill
And discord round about you, keep
Your faith in human nature still.
—Elizabeth Whittier
Four things a man must learn to do
If he would make his record true;
To think, without confusion, clearly;
To love his fellow-men sincerely:
To act from honest motives purely;
To trust in God and Heaven securely.
—Henry Van Dyke
Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.
—Shakespeare
Never do anything of which you will have cause to be ashamed. There is one good opinion which is of the greatest importance to you, namely, your own. "An easy conscience", says Seneca, "is a continual feast".—Lubbock
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
—Shakespeare
Man is his own star, and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man,
Commands all light, all influence, all fate,
Nothing for him falls early or too late;
Our acts our angels are, for good or ill;
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
—Beaumont and Fletcher
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar,
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home.
—Wordsworth
Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till-wisdom is pushed out of life.
Procrastination is the thief of time;
Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.
—Edward Young
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea.
—O. W. Holmes
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all nor be afraid!"
—Browning
Were a star quenched on high,
For ages would its light,
Still travelling downward from the sky,
Shine on our mortal sight.
So when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men.
—Longfellow
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make man better be;
Or standing long, an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear.
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night—
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be.
—Ben Jonson
We shape ourselves the joy or fear
Of which the coming life is made,
And fill our Future's atmosphere
With sunshine or with shade.
The tissue of the Life to be,
We weave with colours all our own;
And in the field of Destiny
We reap as we have sown.
—Whittier
Heaven is not reached at a single bound,
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.
I count this thing to be grandly true:
That a noble deed is a step toward God,—
Lifting the soul from the common clod
To a purer air and a broader view.
—J. G. Holland
Let me but do my work from day to day
In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
In roaring market-place or tranquil room;
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 only one by whom
The work can best be done in the right way."
—Henry Van Dyke
Good name, in man or woman, dear, my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their soul.
Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
—Shakespeare
God give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honour,—men who will not lie.
—J. G. Holland
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart; await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common,—this is my symphony.—Channing
O, may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
Of miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge men's minds
To vaster issues.
—George Eliot
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
—Keats
Sunset with its rosy feet
Stains the grasses low and sweet;
And the shadow-beeches softly fall
Across the meadows, dark and tall;
O fold away
The dusty day,
Sweet nightfall, in thy curtains gray.
—Japanese
Now fades the last long streak of snow,
Now bourgeons every maze of quick
About the flowering squares, and thick
By ashen roots the violets blow.
Now rings the woodland loud and long,
The distance takes a lovelier hue,
And drowned in yonder living blue
The lark becomes a sightless song.
A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun;
A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow;
Long had I watched the glory moving on
O'er the still radiance of the lake below.
Tranquil its spirit seemed, and floated slow!
Even in its very motion there was rest;
While every breath of eve that chanced to blow
Wafted the traveller to the beauteous west.
—Wilson