Greenleaf Quotes

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

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

The servant-leader is servant first ... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first ... ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

Low stir of leaves and dip of oars And lapsing waves on quiet shores. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

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

Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Thanks to you, the leaders of the University branch - Masters Greenleaf and Smith - are safely out of harm's way. As to the Northern branch - well, my agent currently describes it as an association of young men, young and unmarried, who gather in the woods from time to time to celebrate elaborate rituals that draw equally from local folklore and a youthful taste for mysticism and indiscriminate copulation. We're watching them closely. ~ Ellen Kushner

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

The laws of changeless justice bind oppressor and oppressed; and, close as sin and suffering joined we march to fate abreast. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

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

Press bravely onward! - not in vainYour generous trust in human kind;The good which bloodshed could not gainYour peaceful zeal shall find. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The simple heart that freely asks in love, obtains. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The great eventful Present hides the Past; but through the din Of its loud life hints and echoes from the life behind steal in. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The hope of all earnest souls must be realized. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

A bending staff I would not break,
A feeble faith I would not shake,
Nor even rashly pluck away
The error which some truth may stay,
Whose loss might leave the soul without
A shield against the shafts of doubt. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways! Re-clothe us in our rightful mind, In purer lives thy service find, In deeper reverence praise ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The low green tent Whose curtain never outward swings. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Man is more than constitutions. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

And step by step, since time began, I see the steady gain of man. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Behind every impossible achievement is a dreamer of impossible dreams." - Robert K. Greenleaf ~ Brian P. Moran

What airs outblown from ferny dells And clover-bloom and sweet brier smells. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

There is religion in everything around us, - a calm and holy religion in the unbreathing things of Nature, which man would do well to imitate. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

But if, on the other hand, we should be justified in rejecting it, if there testified on oath, then, supposing our rules of evidence to be sound, we may be excused if we hesitate elsewhere to give it credence. ~ Simon Greenleaf

Nothing much happens without a dream. For something really great to happen, it takes a really great dream. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

Rest if you must, but never quit. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September morn ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The variable that marks some periods as barren and some as rich in prophetic vision is in the interest, the level of seeking, the responsiveness of the hearers. The variable is not in the presence or absence or the relative quality and force of the prophetic voices. The prophet grows in stature as people respond to his message ... It is the seekers, then, who make the prophet. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

In examining the evidence of the Christian religion, it is essential to the discovery of truth that we bring to the investigation a mind freed, as far as possible, from existing prejudice, and open to conviction. ~ Simon Greenleaf

If woman lost us Eden, such As she alone restore it. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Waking or sleeping, I see a wreck,
And hear a cry from a reeling deck! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Formed on the good old plan, A true and brave and downright honest man! He blew no trumpet in the market-place, Nor in the church with hypocritic face Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace; Loathing pretence, he did with cheerful will What others talked of while their hands were still. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie? ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Every chain that spirits wear crumbles in the breadth of prayer. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Sweeter than any sungMy songs that found no tongue;Nobler than any factMy wish that failed of act.Others shall sing the song,Others shall right the wrong,-Finish what I begin,And all I fail of win. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Few have borne unconsciously the spell of loveliness. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

But if they are well-founded and just, they can be no less than the high requirements of heaven, addressed by the voice of God to the reason and understanding of man, concerning things deeply affecting his relations to his sovereign, and essential to the formation of his character and of course to his destiny, both for this life and for the life. ~ Simon Greenleaf

Small leisure have the poor for grief. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

I hear the tread of pioneers
Of nations yet to be,
The first low wash of waves where soon
Shall roll a human sea. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond his love and care. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

From the death of the old the new proceeds, and the life of truth from the death of creeds. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

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

Through the open door A drowsy smell of flowers -grey heliotrope And white sweet clover, and shy mignonette Comes fairly in, and silent chorus leads To the pervading symphony of Peace. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

What is really momentous and all-important with us is the present, by which the future is shaped and colored. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Good leaders must first become good servants. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

Behind every great achievement is a dreamer of great dreams. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

One must not be afraid of a little silence. Some find silence awkward or oppressive. But a relaxed approach to dialogue will include the welcoming of some silence. It is often a devastating question to ask oneself, but it is sometimes important to ask it - 'In saying what I have in mind will I really improve on the silence? ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

What, my soul, was thy errand here?
Was it mirth or ease,
Or heaping up dust from year to year?
"Nay, none of these!"
Speak, soul, aright in His holy sight,
Whose eye looks still
And steadily on thee through the night;
"To do His will! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

By competent evidence, is meant such as the nature of the thing to be proved requires; and by satisfactory evidence, is meant that amount of proof, which ordinarily satisfies an unprejudiced mind, beyond any reasonable doubt. ~ Simon Greenleaf

No longer forward or behind
I look in hope or fear,
But grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The dreariest spot in all the land to Death they set apart; with scanty grace from Nature's hand, and none from that of Art. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Beauty seen is never lost, God's colors all are fast. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Simon Greenleaf's Masonic work documents the relationship between defining the Patriarch Enoch as a Pythagorean figure while linking the Druidical priestly presence through Phoenician exploration from Egyptian source. Thus Enoch brought the content of Masonic knowledge to a greater mystical perfection as he was deemed to have caused the emergence of the restoration of learning from the vault into solar Apollonian radiance through the application of Pythagorean learning to the inspiration of the new Republic through mathematics and the laws derived from it. The result was for Greenleaf a pre- critical logic of unfolding of the Logos envisaged by Salem Town along lines delineated in the L'Enfant-Latrobe District of Columbia template from the national capital into districts of Masonic Grand Lodge administration was devolved into districts, paralleling judicial and congressional districts, symbolically as an extension of the Latrobe-L'Enfant template just after the moral and political defeat of Jedidiah Morse and the Federalists in 1800 and theological attacks on Masonry and before the onset of the Morgan fervor in 1826. This period enables the historian to see a sequence of Masonic and mythic legal unfolding from legendary history which linked the emergence of Enochic design to civil religion through monumental architecture which also links the dynamism of a Third Age of Masonic "Aquarian" millennialism rooted in third age eschatology within its Tudor derivative of an articulat ~ Robert W. Sullivan IV

For still the new transcends the old In signs and tokens manifold; Slaves rise up men; the olive waves, With roots deep set in battle graves! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

So all night long the storm roared on:
The morning broke without a sun;
In tiny spherule traced with lines
Of Nature's geometric signs,
In starry flake, and pellicle,
All day the hoary meteor fell;
And, when the second morning shone,
We looked upon a world unknown,
On nothing we could call our own.
Around the glistening wonder bent
The blue walls of the firmament,
No cloud above, no earth below,
A universe of sky and snow! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

After Ian left for the Greenleaf Inn, where he planned to stop for the night before continuing the trip to his own home, Elizabeth stayed downstairs to put out the candles and tidy up the drawing room. In one of the guest chambers above, Jordan glanced at his wife's faint, preoccupied smile and suppressed a knowing grin. "Now what do you think of the Marquess of Kensington?" he asked.
Her eyes were shining as she lifted them to his. "I think," she softly said, "that unless he does something dreadful, I'm prepared to believe he could truly be your cousin."
"Thank you, darling," Jordan replied tenderly, paraphrasing Ian's words. "I'm happy to see your opinion of him is already improving. ~ Judith McNaught

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

Thanks to Allah, who gives the palm! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

These are no ordinary claims; and it seems hardly possible for a rational being to regard them with even a subdued interest; much less to treat them with mere indifference and contempt. If not true they are little else than the pretensions of a bold imposture, which not satisfied with having already enslaved millions of the human race, seeks to continue its encroachments upon human liberty, until all nations be subjected under its iron rule. ~ Simon Greenleaf

For the person with creative potential there is no wholeness except in using it. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

If a close examination of the evidences of Christianity may be expected of one class of men more than another, it would seem incumbent upon lawyers who make the law of evidence one of our peculiar studies. Our profession leads us to explore the mazes of falsehood, to detect its artifices, to pierce its thickest veils, to follow and expose its sophistries, to compare the statements of different witnesses with severity, to discover truth and separate it from error. ~ Simon Greenleaf

Every document, apparently ancient, coming from the proper repository or custody, and bearing on its face no evident marks of forger, the law presumes to be genuine, and devolves on the opposing party the burden of proving it to be otherwise. ~ Simon Greenleaf

Bathsheba! to whom none ever said scat- No worthier cat Ever sat on a mat, Or caught a rat. Requiescat! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

And I will trust that He who heeds
The life that hides in mead and wold,
Who hangs you alder's crimson beads,
And stains these mosses green and gold,
Will still, as He hath done, incline
His gracious care to me and mine. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The aged Summerlea nurse pushed past Valik and Laci and stalked over to his sickbed. "You are supposed to be sleeping." Her face scrunched up in an expression of severe disapproval. She didn't care that he was king. She chided him like she might any misbehaving schoolboy.

He almost smiled. It was clear Tildavera Greenleaf was accustomed to being in charge, and equally accustomed to speaking her mind and having her orders obeyed. But this was one order he had no intention of heeding.

"I've slept long enough. Khamsin told me you were the best healer in all of Mystral, and it's clear she wasn't exaggerating. You did a fine job bringing me back from the brink of death. I'm sure you can keep me clinging to life a while longer."

The old woman's lips pursed. "My patients do not 'cling to life,' " she snapped. "I pride myself on their making a full and miraculous recovery. But carting them all about the countryside with their insides hanging out is not at all conducive to that outcome! ~ C.L. Wilson

Freedom's soil hath only place For a free and fearless race! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The best leaders are clear. They continually light the way, and in the process, let each person know that what they do makes a difference. The best test as a leader is: Do those served grow as persons; do they become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become leaders? ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

Mrs. May winced. She thought the word Jesus should be kept inside the church building like other words inside the bedroom. ~ Flannery O'Connor

Flowers spring to blossom where she walks
The careful ways of duty;
Our hard, stiff lines of life with her
Are flowing curves of beauty.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier

It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

O Time and change! - with hair as gray as was my sire's that winter day, how strange it seems, with so much gone of life and love, to still live on! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Romance is always young. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

In all human transactions, the highest degree of assurance to which we can arrive, short of the evidence of our own senses, is that of probability. The most that can be asserted is, that the narrative is more likely to be true than false; and it may be in the highest degree more likely, but still be short of absolute mathematical certainty. Yet this very probability may be so great as to satisfy the mind of the most cautious, and enforce the assent of the most reluctant and unbelieving. If it is such as usually satisfies reasonable men, in matters of ordinary transaction, it is all which the greatest sceptic has a right to require; for it is by such evidence alone that our rights are determined, in the civil tribunals; and on no other evidence do they proceed, even in capital cases. ~ Simon Greenleaf

Even the frankest and bravest of subordinates do not talk with their boss the same way they talk with colleagues. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

In the ordinary affairs of life we do not require nor expect demonstrative evidence, because it is inconsistent with the nature of matters of fact, and to insist on its production would be unreasonable and absurd. ~ Simon Greenleaf

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. On the other hand, there are faces which the multitude, at first glance, pronounce homely, unattractive and such as "Nature fashions by the gross," which I always recognize with a warm heart-thrill. Not for the world would I have one feature changed; they please me as they are; they are hallowed by kind memories, and are beautiful through their associations. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

If we write at all, why not use our talents to the best advantage? ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

And one there was, a dreamer born,
Who, with a mission to fulfill,
Had left the Muses' haunts to turn
The crank of an opinion-mill,
Making his rustic reed of song
A weapon in the war with wrong, ...
A Tent on the Beach ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Who is the enemy? Who is holding back more rapid movement to the better society that is reasonable and possible with available resources? ... Evil, stupidity, apathy, the 'system' are not the enemy ... The real enemy is fuzzy thinking on the part of good, intelligent, vital people ... In short, the enemy is strong natural servants who have the potential to lead but do not lead, or who choose to follow a non-servant. ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

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

The religion of Jesus Christ aims at nothing less than the utter overthrow of all other systems of religion in the world; denouncing them as inadequate to the wants of man, false in their foundations, and dangerous in their tendency. ~ Simon Greenleaf

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

If you don't think big, you're not done thinking- John Greenleaf ~ Johnny Moscato

God gives quietness at last. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

A charmed life old goodness hath; the tares may perish, but the grain is not for death. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

[Lunch] was composed of one of the fish she had caught, evidently rescued from Mogget. This had been grilled with ginger, pepper, and some spice she didn't know, set atop a salad of grains and greenleaf, accompanied by a lightly sparkling clear wine she had to admit was delicious and refreshing. ~ Garth Nix

That man is a religious being, is universally conceded, for it has been seen to be universally true. ~ Simon Greenleaf

Despair is infidelity and death. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

God's colors all are fast. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The sun that brief December day Rose cheerless over hills of gray, And, darkly circled, gave at noon A sadder light than waning moon. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

We shape ourselves the joy or fear
Of which the coming life is made,
And fill our Future's atmosphere
With sunshine or with shade. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

I dimly guess, from blessings known, of greater out of sight. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The object of man's worship, whatever it be, will naturally be his standard of perfection. He clothes it with every attribute, belonging, in his view, to a perfect character; and this character he himself endeavors to attain. ~ Simon Greenleaf

But the Christian writer seems, by the usual course of the argument, to have been deprived of the common presumption of charity in his favor; and reversing the ordinary rule of administering justice in human tribunals, his testimony is unjustly presumed to be false, until it is proved to be true. ...{independent historians} have been treated, in the argument, almost as if the New Testament were the entire production, at once, of a body of men, conspiring by a joint fabrication, to impose a false religion upon the world. ~ Simon Greenleaf

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

But let the good old corn adorn
The hills our fathers trod;
Still let us, for his golden corn,
Send up our thanks to God! ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Somewhat of goodness, something true
From sun and spirit shining through
All faiths, all worlds, as through the dark
Of ocean shines the lighthouse spark,
Attests the presence everywhere
Of love and providential care. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier