Henry Van Dyke

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

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

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

“What we do belongs to what we are; and what we are is what becomes of us.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

“A friend is what the heart needs all the time.”

“Genius is talent set on fire by courage.”