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What we do belongs to what we are; and what we are is what becomes of us.
-Henry Van Dyke
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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.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Character
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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.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Charisma
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There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Charity
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Look around for a place to sow a few seeds.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Christianity
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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.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Criticism
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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.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Culture
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Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Death
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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!'
-Henry Van Dyke, A Parable of Immortality
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Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Friends
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In the progress of personality, first comes a declaration of independence, then a recognition of interdependence.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Gossip
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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; and never to tell that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening while you tell it.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Gratitude
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Gratitude is a twofold love -- love coming to visit us, and love running out to greet a welcome guest.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Home
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Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home, sweet home
For there the heart can rest.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Life
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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.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to live and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Mankind, Man
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There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Nature
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Who can explain the secret pathos of Nature's loveliness? It is a touch of melancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is an unconscious memory of the lost Paradise. It is the sense that even if we should find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Peace
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A peace that depends on fear is nothing but a suppressed war.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Seasons
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The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometines as great as a month.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Service
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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.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Talent
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Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Time
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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.
Hours fly, flowers die,
new days, new ways pass by,
Love stays.
-Henry Van Dyke, Katrina's Sun Dial
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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.
-Henry Van Dyke
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Books by and about Henry Van Dyke