Richard Watson Gilder Quotes

18 Sourced Quotes

I am the laughter of the new-born child On whose soft-breathing sleep an angel smiled.

Richard Watson Gilder
Better than honor and glory, and History's iron pen, Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.

Richard Watson Gilder
In Heaven's happy bowers
There blossom two flowers,
One with fiery glow
And one as white as snow;
While lo! before them stands,
With pale and trembling hands,
A spirit who must choose
One, and one refuse.

Richard Watson Gilder
We lean on Faith; and some less wise have cried, "Behold the butterfly, the see that's cast!" Vain hopes that fall like flowers before the blast! What man can look on Death unterrified?

Richard Watson Gilder
Ye living soldiers of the mighty war,
Once more from roaring cannon and the drums
And bugles blown at morn, the summons comes;
Forget the halting limb, each wound and scar:
Once more your Captain calls to you;
Come to his last review!

Richard Watson Gilder
I am the spirit of the morning sea, I am the awakening and the glad surprise.

Richard Watson Gilder
Since ancient Time began,
Ever on some great soul God laid an infinite burden--
The weight of all this world, the hopes of man,
Conflict and pain, and fame immortal are his guerdon.

Richard Watson Gilder
Fra Lippo, we have learned from thee A lesson of humanity: To every mother's heart forlorn, In every house the Christ is born.

Richard Watson Gilder
I count my time by times that I meet thee;
These are my yesterdays, my morrows, noons,
And nights, these are my old moons and my new moons.
Slow fly the hours, fast the hours flee,
If thou art far from or art near to me:
If thou art far, the bird's tunes are no tunes;
If thou art near, the wintry days are Junes.

Richard Watson Gilder
In the embers shining bright
A garden grows for thy delight,
With roses yellow, red, and white.
But, O my child, beware, beware!
Touch not the roses growing there,
For every rose a thorn doth bear.

Richard Watson Gilder
What babe new born is this that in a manger cries? Near on her lowly bed his happy mother lies. Oh, see the air is shaken with white and heavenly wings-- This is the Lord of all the earth, this is the King of Kings.

Richard Watson Gilder
From all the misty morning air, there comes a summer sound,
A murmur as of waters from skies, and trees, and ground. The birds they sing upon the wing, the pigeons bill and coo.

Richard Watson Gilder
Not from the whole wide world I chose thee,
Sweetheart, light of the land and the sea!
The wide, wide world could not inclose thee,
For thou art the whole wide world to me.

Richard Watson Gilder
Through love to light! Oh wonderful the way
That leads from darkness to the perfect day!

Richard Watson Gilder
I am a woman—therefore I may not
Call to him, cry to him,
Fly to him,
Bid him delay not.

Richard Watson Gilder
A man not perfect, but of heart so high, of such heroic rage, That even his hopes became a part of earth's eternal heritage.

Richard Watson Gilder
O white and midnight sky, O starry bath,
Wash me in thy pure, heavenly crystal flood:
Cleanse me, ye stars, from earthly soil and scath—
Let not one taint remain in spirit or blood!

Richard Watson Gilder
Oh, father's gone to market-town, he was up before the day,
And Jamie's after robins, and the man is making hay,
And whistling down the hollow goes the boy that minds the mill,
While mother from the kitchen door is calling with a will,
"Polly!-Polly!-
The cows are in the corn!
Oh, where's Polly?"

Richard Watson Gilder