Quotes from Henry Van Dyke

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.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

No amount of energy will take the place of thought. A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.

There are two good rules which ought to be written on every heart - never to believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true never to tell even that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening.

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, and to work, and to play, and to look up at the stars and sun.

Four things a man must learn to doIf he would make his record true:To think without confusion clearly;To love his fellow-men sincerely;To act from honest motives purely;To trust in God and Heaven securely.

Happiness is inward and not outward and so it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are.

Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.

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. - from Fisherman's Luck

Time is: Too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear.

Use what talent you possess the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.

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.

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.

The woods would be quiet if no bird sang but the one that sang best.

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very quiet if only those birds sing there that sang best.

Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.

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.

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.

Genius is talent set on fire by courage.

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.

Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul, May keep the path, but will not reach the goal; While he who walks in love may wander far, Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.

There is a loftier ambition than to stand high in the world. It is to step down and lift mankind a little higher.

It is better to burn the candle at both ends, and in the middle, too, than to put it away in the closet and let the mice eat it.

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.