Quotes by Henry Van Dyke

As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.

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

Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.

He that planteth a tree is a servant of God, he provideth a kindness for many generations, and faces that he haith not seen shall bless him.

I thank God for the honesty and virility of Jesus religion which makes us face the facts and calls us to take a man's part in the real battle of life.

In the progress of personality, first comes a declaration of independence, then a recognition of interdependence.

Look around for a place to sow a few seeds.

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

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.

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

There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.

There is only one way to get ready for immortality, and that is to love this life and live it as bravely and faithfully and cheerfully as we can.

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.

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.

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

When once you have tasted flight you will always walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward: for there you have been and there you will always be.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!'
Gone where? Gone from my sight ... that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, 'There she goes!' there are other eyes watching her coming and their voices ready to take up the glad shouts 'Here she comes!'

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.

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.

Love is the best thing in the world, and the thing that lives the longest.

It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.

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

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.

Genius is talent set on fire by courage.

Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.

A peace that depends on fear is nothing but a suppressed war.