110+ John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes On Education, Friendship And All Sad Words

John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American poet and Quaker from Massachusetts. He was a major figure in the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets to rival the popularity of British poets. Whittier is best known for his poems about nature and rural life, as well as his anti-slavery writings. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Greenleaf Whittier on education, life, love.

Top 10 John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes

1. Swan flocks of lilies shoreward lying, In sweetness, not in music, dying.
2. Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress-trees Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day Across the mournful marbles play!
3. A little smile, a word of cheer, A bit of love from someone near, A little gift from one held dear, Best wishes for the coming year. These make a merry christmas!
4. Along the river's summer walk, The withered tufts of asters nod; And trembles on its arid stalk the hoar plum of the golden-rod.
5. If thou of fortune be bereft, and in thy store there be but left two loaves, sell one, and with the dole, buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.
6. All the windows of my heart I open to the day.
7. Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, Through showers the sunbeams fall; For God, who loveth all his works, Has left his Hope with all.
8. The Fates are just: they give us but our own; Nemesis ripens what our hands have sown.
9. Green calm below, blue quietness above.
10. Peace hath higher tests of manhood, than battle ever knew.

John Greenleaf Whittier Image Quotes

All the windows of my heart I open to the day. — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Short Quotes

• Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young.
• We meet today To thank Thee for the era done, And Thee for the opening one.
• The tints of autumn...a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.
• One brave deed makes no hero.
• Beauty seen is never lost, God's colors all are fast.
• Autumn, in his leafless bowers, is waiting for the winter's snow.
• Who sows a field, or trains a flower, Or plants at tree, is more than all.
• Rest if you must, but never quit.
• When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead.
• The smile of God is victory.

John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes About Life

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. — John Greenleaf Whittier

A charmed life old goodness hath; the tares may perish, but the grain is not for death. — John Greenleaf Whittier

From the death of the old the new proceeds, and the life of truth from the death of creeds. — John Greenleaf Whittier

With warning hand I mark Time's rapid flight, From Life's glad morning to its solemn night; Yet, through the dear Lord's love, I also show There's light above me by the shade I throw. — John Greenleaf Whittier

And I will trust that He who heeds The life that hides in mead and wold, Who hangs you alder's crimson beads, And stains these mosses green and gold, Will still, as He hath done, incline His gracious care to me and mine. — John Greenleaf Whittier

O Time and change! -- with hair as gray as was my sire's that winter day, how strange it seems, with so much gone of life and love, to still live on! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Clothe with life the weak intent, let me be the thing I meant. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The great eventful Present hides the Past; but through the din Of its loud life hints and echoes from the life behind steal in. — John Greenleaf Whittier

There's life alone in duty done, And rest alone in striving. — John Greenleaf Whittier

A true life is at once interpreter and proof of the gospel. — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes About Love

the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you — John Greenleaf Whittier

A grateful loving heart carries with it, under every parallel of latitude, the warmth and light of the tropics. It plants its Eden in the wilderness and solitary place, and sows with flowers the gray desolation of rock and mosses. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Somewhat of goodness, something true From sun and spirit shining through All faiths, all worlds, as through the dark Of ocean shines the lighthouse spark, Attests the presence everywhere Of love and providential care. — John Greenleaf Whittier

I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. — John Greenleaf Whittier

So let it be in God's own might We gird us for the coming fight, And, strong in Him whose cause is ours In conflict with unholy powers, We grasp the weapons he has given,-- The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven. — 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

O brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The simple heart that freely asks in love, obtains. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Love hath never known a law beyond its own sweet will. — John Greenleaf Whittier

For still in mutual sufferance lies The secret of true living; Love scarce is love that never knows The sweetness of forgiving. — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes About Death

God gives quietness at last. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Despair is infidelity and death. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The dreariest spot in all the land to Death they set apart; with scanty grace from Nature's hand, and none from that of Art. — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes About Quietness

All day the darkness and the cold Upon my heart have lain Like shadows on the winter sky Like frost upon the pane — John Greenleaf Whittier

Low stir of leaves and dip of oars And lapsing waves on quiet shores. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace. — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes About Nature

The still, sad music of humanity. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Nature eschews regular lines; she does not shape her lines by a common model. Not one of Eve's numerous progeny in all respects resembles her who first culled the flowers of Eden. To the infinite variety and picturesque inequality of nature we owe the great charm of her uncloying beauty. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Once more the liberal year laughs out O'er richer stores than gems or gold: Once more with harvest song and shout Is nature's boldest triumph told. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Nature speaks in symbols and in signs. — John Greenleaf Whittier

They who wander widest lift No more of beauties' jealous veils, Than they who from their doorways see The miracle of flowers and trees. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Reason's voice and God's, Nature's and Duty's, never are at odds. — John Greenleaf Whittier

There is religion in everything around us, - a calm and holy religion in the unbreathing things of Nature, which man would do well to imitate. — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes About Words

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!' — John Greenleaf Whittier

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice. — John Greenleaf Whittier

What is good looking, as Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle,-generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you; and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration. — John Greenleaf Whittier

God blesses still the generous thought,And still the fitting word He speeds,And Truth, at His requiring taught,He quickens into deeds. — John Greenleaf Whittier

His daily prayer, far better understood in acts than in words, was simply doing good. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The saddest thing of word or pen, To know the things that might have been. — John Greenleaf Whittier

God fills the gaps of human need, Each crisis brings its word and deed. — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes About Wakes

Again the blackbirds sings; the streams Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams, And tremble in the April showers The tassels of the maple flowers. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Oh, for boyhood's painless play, Sleep that wakes in laughing day,Health that mocks the doctor's rules,Knowledge never learned of schools. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Oh, for boyhood's painless play, sleep that wakes in laughing day, health that mocks the doctor's rules, knowledge never learned of schools. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Waking or sleeping, I see a wreck, And hear a cry from a reeling deck! — John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier Famous Quotes And Sayings

All the windows of my heart I open to the day. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The green earth sends her incense up. From many a mountain shrine; From folded leaf and dewey cup She pours her sacred wine. — John Greenleaf Whittier

I hear the tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a human sea. — John Greenleaf Whittier

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie? — John Greenleaf Whittier

Our toil is sweet with thankfulness, Our burden is our boon; The curse of earth's gray morning is The blessing of its noon. — John Greenleaf Whittier

So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore! — John Greenleaf Whittier

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

Truth should be the first lesson of the child and the last aspiration of manhood; for it has been well said that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. — John Greenleaf Whittier

What, my soul, was thy errand here? Was it mirth or ease, Or heaping up dust from year to year? "Nay, none of these!" Speak, soul, aright in His holy sight, Whose eye looks still And steadily on thee through the night; "To do His will! — John Greenleaf Whittier

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard! Heap high the golden corn! No richer gift has Autumn poured From out her lavish horn! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Here Greek and Roman find themselves alive along these crowded shelves; and Shakespeare treads again his stage, and Chaucer paints anew his age. — John Greenleaf Whittier

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

And the more you spend in blessing The poor and lonely and sad, The more of your heart's possessing Returns to you glad. — John Greenleaf Whittier

And let these altars, wreathed with flowers And piled with fruits, awake again Thanksgivings for the golden hours, The early and the latter rain! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Up from the sea, the wild north wind is blowing, under the sky's gray arch. Smiling, I watch the shaken elm boughs, knowing It is the wind of March. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The sun that brief December day Rose cheerless over hills of gray, And, darkly circled, gave at noon A sadder light than waning moon. — John Greenleaf Whittier

And close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood. And close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood. — John Greenleaf Whittier

To be saved is only this-salvation from our own selfishness. — John Greenleaf Whittier

From purest wells of English undefiled None deeper drank than he, the New World's Child, Who in the language of their farm field spoke The wit and wisdom of New England folk. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Like warp and woof all destinies Are woven fast, Linked in sympathy like the keys Of an organ vast. Pluck one thread, and the web ye mar; Break but one Of a thousand keys, and the paining jar Through all will run. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Around the mighty master came The marvels which his pencil wrought, Those miracles of power whose fame Is wide as human thought. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Through the open door A drowsy smell of flowers -grey heliotrope And white sweet clover, and shy mignonette Comes fairly in, and silent chorus leads To the pervading symphony of Peace. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Oh, talk as we may of beauty as a thing to be chiselled from marble or wrought out on canvas, speculate as we may upon its colors and outlines, what is it but an intellectual abstraction, after all? The heart feels a beauty of another kind; looking through the outward environment, it discovers a deeper and more real love-liness. — John Greenleaf Whittier

What miracle of weird transforming Is this wild work of frost and light, This glimpse of glory infinite? — John Greenleaf Whittier

Romance is always young. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Small leisure have the poor for grief. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September morn — John Greenleaf Whittier

But let the good old corn adorn The hills our fathers trod; Still let us, for his golden corn, Send up our thanks to God! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Nothing before, nothing behind; The steps of faith Fall on the seeming void, and find The Rock beneath. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Few have borne unconsciously the spell of loveliness. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The garden rose may richly bloom In cultured soil and genial air, To cloud the light of Fashion's room Or droop in Beauty's midnight hair, In lonelier grace, to sun and dew The sweetbrier on the hillside shows Its single leaf and fainter hue, Untrained and wildly free, yet still a sister rose! — John Greenleaf Whittier

With silence only as their benediction, God's angels come Where in the shadow of a great affliction, The soul sits dumb! — John Greenleaf Whittier

On leaf of palm, on sedge-wrought roll; on plastic clay and leather scroll, man wrote his thoughts; the ages passed, and lo! the Press was found at last! — John Greenleaf Whittier

But beauty seen is never lost, God — John Greenleaf Whittier

Through the dark and stormy night Faith beholds a feeble light Up the blackness streaking; Knowing God's own time is best, In a patient hope I rest For the full day-breaking! — John Greenleaf Whittier

For still the new transcends the old In signs and tokens manifold; Slaves rise up men; the olive waves, With roots deep set in battle graves! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace; East, west, north, and south let the long quarrel cease; Sing the song of great joy that the angels began, Sing the glory to God and of good-will to man! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The good is always beautiful, the beautiful is good! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Falsehoods which we spurn today, were the truths of long ago. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The hope of all earnest souls must be realized. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Thee lift me, and I lift thee, and together we ascend. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The age is dull and mean. Men creep, Not walk; with blood too pale and tame To pay the debt they owe to shame; Buy cheap, sell dear; eat. drink, and sleep down-pillowed, deaf to moaning want; Pay tithes for soul-insurance; keep Six days to Mammon, one to Cant — John Greenleaf Whittier

Life's sunniest hours are not without The shadow of some lingering doubt-- Amid its brightest joys will steal Spectres of evil yet to feel-- Its warmest love is blent with fears, Its confidence a trembling one-- Its smile--the harbinger of tears-- Its hope--the change of April's sun! A weary lot--in mercy given, To fit the chastened soul for heaven. — John Greenleaf Whittier

So all night long the storm roared on: The morning broke without a sun; In tiny spherule traced with lines Of Nature’s geometric signs, In starry flake, and pellicle, All day the hoary meteor fell; And, when the second morning shone, We looked upon a world unknown, On nothing we could call our own. Around the glistening wonder bent The blue walls of the firmament, No cloud above, no earth below,— A universe of sky and snow! — John Greenleaf Whittier

A faint blush melting through the light of thy transparent cheek like a rose-leaf bathed in dew. — John Greenleaf Whittier

I'll lift you and you lift me, and we'll both ascend together. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Time is hastening on, and we What our fathers are shall be,-- Shadow-shapes of memory! Joined to that vast multitude Where the great are but the good. — John Greenleaf Whittier

The continuity of life is never broken; the river flows onward and is lost to our sight, but under its new horizon it carries the same waters which it gathered under ours, and its unseen valleys are made glad by the offerings which are borne down to them from the past,--flowers, perchance, the germs of which its own waves had planted on the banks of Time. — John Greenleaf Whittier

We search the world for truth; we cull The good, the pure, the beautiful, From all old flower fields of the soul; And, weary seeker of the best, We come back laden from out quest, To find that all the sages said Is in the Book our mothers read. — John Greenleaf Whittier

God's colors all are fast. — John Greenleaf Whittier

What is really momentous and all-important with us is the present, by which the future is shaped and colored. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Through this broad street, restless ever, Ebbs and flows a human tide,Wave on wave a living river;Wealth and fashion side by side;Toiler, idler, slave and master, in the same quick current glide. — John Greenleaf Whittier

And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong! — John Greenleaf Whittier

Others may sing the song. Others may right the wrong. — John Greenleaf Whittier

A felon's cell-- The fittest earthly type of hell! — John Greenleaf Whittier

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

Life Lessons by John Greenleaf Whittier

1. John Greenleaf Whittier taught the importance of perseverance and resilience in the face of adversity, emphasizing that even when the odds seem insurmountable, we can still find strength within ourselves.
2. He also encouraged us to be kind to one another, to be humble and to always strive to do the right thing.
3. Lastly, he reminded us to be mindful of our actions and to always strive to make the world a better place.