Henry van Dyke Quotes

105 Sourced Quotes

Ere thou sleepest, gently lay Every troubled thought away; Put off worry and distress As thou puttest off thy dress; Drop thy burden and thy care In the quiet arms of prayer. Lord thou knowest how I live, All I'VE DONE AMISS FORGIVE; ALL OF GOOD I'VE TRIED TO DO STRENGTHEN, bless and carry through; All I love in safety keep While in Thee I fall asleep.

Henry van Dyke
What is Fortune, what is Fame?
Futile gold and phantom name-
Riches buried in a cave,
Glory written on a grave.

Henry van Dyke
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
And so, by night, while we were all at rest,
I think the coming sped the parting guest.

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

Henry van Dyke
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
I heard through the night
The rush and the clamour;
The pulse of the fight
Like blows of Thor's hammer;
The pattering flight
Of the leaves, and the anguished
Moan of the forest vanquished.

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

Henry van Dyke
This is the soldier brave enough to tell
The 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
The mountain is voiceless and imperturbable; and its very loftiness and serenity sometimes make us the more lonely.

Henry van Dyke
In warlike pomp, with banners flowing,
The regiments of autumn stood:
I saw their gold and scarlet glowing
From every hillside, every wood.

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

Henry van Dyke
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
If Might made Right, life were a wild-beasts' cage;
If Right made Might, this were the golden age;
But now, until we win the long campaign,
Right must gain Might to conquer and to reign.

Henry van Dyke
Every mountain is, rightly considered, an invitation to climb.

Henry van Dyke
There is a nobler character than that which is merely incorruptible. It is the character which acts as an antidote and preventive of corruption.

Henry van Dyke
How often a man has cause to return thanks for the enthusiasms of his friends! They are the little fountains that run down from the hills to refresh the mental desert of the despondent.

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

Henry van Dyke
The promotion from all-day picnics to a two weeks' camping-trip is like going from school to college.

Henry van Dyke
Oh, to those bereft of hope
Sleep is the only blessing left—the last
Asylum of the weary, the one sign
Of pity from impenetrable heaven.

Henry van Dyke
And yet there is an anger that purifies the heart:
The anger of the better against the baser part,
Against the false and wicked, against the tyrant's sword,
Against the enemies of love, and all that hate the Lord.

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

Henry van Dyke
Oh, come as comes the morn.
Serene and strong and full of faith, America, arise,
With steady hope and mighty help to join thy brave Allies.
O dearest country of my heart, home of the high desire,
Make clean thy soul for sacrifice on Freedom's altar-fire:
For thou must suffer, thou must fight, until the warlords cease,
And all the peoples lift their heads in liberty and peace.

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

Henry van Dyke
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
He that planteth a tree is the servant of God,
He provideth a kindness for many generations,
And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.

Henry van Dyke
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
Memory is a capricious and arbitrary creature. You never can tell what pebble she will pick up from the shore of life to keep among her treasures, or what inconspicuous flower of the field she will preserve as the symbol of "thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."... And yet I do not doubt that the most Important things are always the best remembered.

Henry van Dyke