Henry Van Dyke Quotes

Who can explain the secret pathos of Nature’s loveliness? It is a touch of melancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is an unconscious memory of the lost Paradise. It is the sense that even if we should find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever.

The birth of Jesus is the sunrise in the Bible.

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you … to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old … Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest ting in the world … stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death… Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone.

Spend as much time as possible, with body and with spirit in God’s out-of-doors.

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.

Count not the cost of honour to the dead!The tribute that a mighty nation paysTo those who loved her well in former daysMeans more than gratitude for glories fled;For every noble man that she hath bred,Lives in the bronze and marble that we raise,Immortalised by art’s immortal praise,To lead our sons as he our fathers led.

Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil.

Fidelity is simply daring to be true in small things as well as great.

Not to the swift, the race: Not to the strong, the fight: Not to the righteous, perfect grace: Not to the wise, the light. But often faltering feet Come surest to the goal; And they who walk in darkness meet The sunrise of the soul.

To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind – this is a choice which is possible for all of us; and surely it is a good haven to sail for.

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.

Hymns of today that may be sung by people who know the thought of the age…are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy Christianity, or any revolution will overthrow the Kingdom of Heaven.