Henry van Dyke Quotes

We cannot find happiness until we forget to seek for it.

We cannot find Peace until we enter the Path of Self-sacrificing Usefulness.

The promotion from all-day picnics to a two weeks' camping-trip is like going from school to college.

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

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

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

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

ambition

Every house where love abides and friendship is a guest, is surely home, and home, sweet home; for there the heart can rest.

Modest egotism is the salt of conversation; you do not want too much of it, but if it is altogether omitted, everything tastes flat.

conversation

Oh, to those bereft of hope
Sleep is the only blessing left—the last
Asylum of the weary, the one sign
Of pity from impenetrable heaven.

sleep

There is a nobler character than that which is merely incorruptible.  It is the character which acts as an antidote and preventive of corruption.

character

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 not.

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.