Henry van Dyke Quotes

105 Sourced Quotes

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

Henry van Dyke
For ever so our thoughtful hearts repeat
On fields of triumph dirges of defeat;
And still we turn on gala-days to tread
Among the rustling memories of the dead.

Henry van Dyke
The storm is ended! The impartial sun
Laughs down upon the battle lost and won,
And crowns the triumph of the cloudy host
In rolling lines retreating to the coast.

Henry van Dyke
Not to the swift, the race:
Not to the strong, the fight:
Not to the righteous, perfect grace:
Not to the wise, the light.

Henry van Dyke
If all the skies were sunshine,
Our faces would be fain
To feel once more upon them
The cooling splash of rain. If all the world were music,
Our hearts would often long
For one sweet strain of silence.
To break the endless song. If life were always merry,
Our souls would seek relief,
And rest from weary laughter
In the quiet arms of grief.

Henry van Dyke
We measure success by accumulation. The measure is false. The true measure is appreciation. He who loves most has most.

Henry van Dyke
The lintel low enough to keep out pomp and pride: The threshold high enough to turn deceit aside.

Henry van Dyke
O brave flag, O bright flag, O flag to lead the free!
The glory of thy silver stars,
Engrailed in blue above the bars
Of red for courage, white for truth,
Has brought the world a second youth
And drawn a hundred million hearts to follow after thee.

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
The shadow by my finger cast Divides the future from the past: Before it, sleeps the unborn hour, In darkness, and beyond thy power. Behind its unreturning line, The vanished hour, no longer thine: One hour alone is in thy hands,- The NOW on which the shadow stands.

Henry van Dyke
Christ never asks us to give up merely for the sake of giving up, but always in order to win something better.

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
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
Many a treasure besides Ali Baba's is unlocked with a verbal key.

Henry van Dyke
But every house where Love abides
And Friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home, sweet home,
For there the heart can rest.

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
A tear that trembles for a little while
Upon the trembling eyelid, till the world
Wavers within its circle like a dream,
Holds more of meaning in its narrow orb
Than all the distant landscape that it blurs.

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

Henry van Dyke
The Bible teaches that God owns the world. He distributes to every man according to His own good pleasure, conformably to general laws.

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
Thou warden of the western gate, above Manhattan Bay, The fogs of doubt that hid thy face are driven clean away: Thine eyes at last look far and clear, thou liftest high thy hand To spread the light of liberty world-wide for every land.

Henry van Dyke
So in the heart,
When, fading slowly down the past,
Fond memories depart,
And each that leaves it seems the last;
Long after all the rest are flown,
Returns a solitary tone,—
The after-echo of departed years,—
And touches all the soul to tears.

Henry van Dyke
Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that's westward bound to plow the rolling sea,
To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

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
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 one by whom This work can best be done in the right way."

Henry van Dyke