Top 120 John Greenleaf Whittier Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “And sweet and far as from a star, replied a voice which shall not cease, till drowning all the noise of war, it sings the blessed song of peace.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

102. “With our sympathy for the wrongdoer we need the old Puritan and Quaker hatred of wrongdoing; with our just tolerance of men and opinions a righteous abhorrence of sin.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

103. “They tell me, Lucy, thou art dead, that all of thee we loved and cherished has with thy summer roses perished; and left, as its young beauty fled, an ashen memory in its stead.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

104. “I dimly guess, from blessings known, of greater out of sight.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

105. “So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

106. “Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone, How falls the polished hammer! Rap, rap! the measured sound has grown A quick and merry clamor. Now shape the sole! now deftly curl The glassy vamp around it, And bless the while the bright-eyed girl Whose gentle fingers bound it!”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

107. “Round the boles of the pine-wood the ground-laurel creeps, Unkissed of the sunshine, unbaptized of showers, With buds scarcely swelled, which should burst into flowers!”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

108. “A true life is at once interpreter and proof of the gospel.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

109. “Others may sing the song. Others may right the wrong.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

110. “A charmed life old goodness hath; the tares may perish, but the grain is not for death.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

111. “In kindly showers and sunshine bud The branches of the dull gray wood; Out from its sunned and sheltered nooks The blue eye of the violet looks.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

112. “Reason’s voice and God’s, Nature’s and Duty’s, never are at odds.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

113. “The hope of all who suffer, The dread of all who wrong.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

114. “The Beauty which old Greece or RomeSung, painted, wrought, lies close at home.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

115. “Few have borne unconsciously the spell of loveliness.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

116. “Small leisure have the poor for grief.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

117. “When earth as if on evil dreams Looks back upon her wars, And the white light of Christ outstreams From the red disc of Mars, His fame, who led the stormy van Of battle, well may cease; But never that which crowns the man Whose victory was peace.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

118. “What is good looking, as Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle,-generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you; and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

119. “Every chain that spirits wear crumbles in the breadth of prayer.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

120. “Give lettered pomp to teeth of Time, So “Bonnie Doon” but tarry; Blot out the epic’s stately rhyme, But spare his “Highland Mary!””

— John Greenleaf Whittier

121. “Quite the ugliest face I ever saw was that of a woman whom the world called beautiful. Through its silver veil the evil and ungentle passions looked out, hideous and hateful.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

122. “From the death of the old the new proceeds, and the life of truth from the death of creeds.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

123. “The hope of all earnest souls must be realized.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

124. “If woman lost us Eden, such As she alone restore it.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

125. “From purest wells of English undefiled None deeper drank than he, the New World’s Child, Who in the language of their farm field spoke The wit and wisdom of New England folk.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

126. “Methinks I see the sunset light flooding the river valley, the western hills stretching to the horizon, overhung with trees gorgeous and glowing with the tints of autumn – a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

127. “A faint blush melting through the light of thy transparent cheek like a rose-leaf bathed in dew.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

128. “The smile of God is victory.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

129. “And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong!”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

130. “We faintly hear, we dimly see, In differing phrase we pray; But dim or clear, we own in Him The life, the truth, the way.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

131. “If we write at all, why not use our talents to the best advantage?”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

132. “It is well for us if we have learned to listen to the sweet persuasion of the Beatitudes, but there are crises in all lives which require also the emphatic “Thou shalt not” of the decalogue which the founders wrote on the gateposts of their commonwealth.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

133. “Romance is always young.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

134. “Low stir of leaves and dip of oars And lapsing waves on quiet shores.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

135. “What does the good ship bear so well? The cocoa-nut with its stony shell, And the milky sap of its inner cell.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

136. “What is really momentous and all-important with us is the present, by which the future is shaped and colored.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

137. “The good is always beautiful, the beautiful is good!”

— John Greenleaf Whittier