For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!
John Greenleaf Whittier
Oh, for boyhood’s painless play,
Sleep that wakes in laughing day,
Health that mocks the doctor’s rules,
Knowledge never learned of schools.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Of all that Orient lands can vaunt,
Of marvels with our own competing,
The strangest is the Haschish plant,
And what will follow on its eating.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;
Let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall;
Who sows a field, or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree, is more than all.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good. John Greenleaf Whittier
When faith is lost, when honor dies
The man is dead!
John Greenleaf Whittier
Each crisis brings its word and deed. John Greenleaf Whittier
Beauty seen is never lost. John Greenleaf Whittier
Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart. John Greenleaf Whittier
Nature speaks in symbols and in signs. John Greenleaf Whittier