Ella Wheeler Wilcox Quotes & Sayings

Body and mind, and spirit, all combineTo make the Creature, human and divine.Of this great trinity no part deny.Affirm, affirm, the Great Eternal I. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Through strife the slumbering soul awakes, We learn on error's troubled route The truths we could not prize without The sorrow of our sad mistakes. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great; All things give way before it, soon or late. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Hide in your heart a bitter thought, Still it has power to blight; Think Love, although you speak it not It gives the world more light. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is no thing we cannot overcome Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, And calls down punishment that is not merited ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Went up from my feet to my head,
With little chills after it stealing-
And my hands got as numb as the dead.
A moment, and then it was over:
The diamond blazed up in my eyes,
And I saw in the face of my lover
A questioning, strange surprise.
Maybe 'twas the scent of the flowers,
That heavy with fragrance bloomed near,
But I didn't feel natural for hours;
It was odd now, wasn't it, dear?
Write soon to your fortunate Clara
Who has carried the prize away,
And say you'll come on when I marry;
I think it will happen in May. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Back on its golden hinges The gate of Memory swings, And my heart goes into the garden And walks with the olden things. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Life is too short for aught but high endeavor. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

All hope is prayer; who calls it hope no more, Sends prayer footsore forth over weary wastes, While he who calls it prayer, gives wings to hope. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love moves the world along. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Dear friend, I pray thee, if thou wouldst be proving Thy strong regard for me, Make me no vows. Lip-service is not loving; Let thy faith speak for thee ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind, While just the art of being kind Is all the sad world needs. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

God made poor woman with no heart, But gave her skill, and tact, and art, And so she lives, and plays her part. We must not blame, but pity her ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is a haunting phantom called Regret, A shadowy creature robed somewhat like woe, But fairer in the face, whom all men know By her said mien, and eyes forever wet. No heart would seek her; but once having met All take her by the hand, and to and fro They wander through those paths of long ago
Those hallowed ways 'twere wiser to forget. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Let the dream go. Are there not other dreams
In vastness of clouds hid from thy sight
That yet shall gild with beautiful gold gleams,
And shoot the shadows through and through with light?
What matters one lost vision of the night?
Let the dream go! ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

You are your own devil, you are your own God, You fashioned the paths that your footsteps have trod, And no one can save you from error or sin, Until you shall hark to the Spirit within. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Just a little every day That's the way Children learn to read and write Bit by bit and mite by mite. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It has ever been since time began, and ever will be, till time lose breath, that love is a mood - no more - to man, and love to a woman is life or death. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Our lives are songs; God write the words And we set them to music at pleasure; And the song grows glad, or sweet or sad, As we choose to fashion the measure. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

For every hour of pain I have had a day of pleasure. For every moment of worry, an hour of content. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It stands in the light transfigured, It speaks from the heights above, "Each Soul Is Its Own Redeemer; There Is No Law But Love." — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Time is the best avenger. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

You will be surprised to find how much that has seemed hopelessly disagreeable possesses either an instructive or an amusing side." from "The Heart of the New Thought" 1902. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Feast, and your halls are crowded Fast, and the world goes by Succeed and give, and it helps you live But no man can help you die — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is the only duty that we know ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ah, lady! it is hardly what you thought it, This life of luxury and social power; You gave yourself as principal, and bought it, But God extracts the interest hour by hour. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

And he who has dwelt with his heart alone, Hears all the music in friendship's tone. So better and better I comprehend How sorrow ever would be our friend. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Whatever your work and whatever its worth, No matter how strong or clever, Some one will sneer if you pause to hear, And scoff at your best endeavor. For the target art has a broad expanse, And wherever you chance to hit it, Though close be your aim to the bull's-eye fame, There are those who will never admit it. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is as bitter as the dregs of sin, As sweet as clover-honey in its cell; Love is the password whereby souls get in To Heaven
the gate that leads, sometimes, to Hell. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is no balking genius. Only death can silence it or hinder. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

But now I know that there is no killing A thing like Love, for it laughs at Death. There is no hushing, there is no stilling That which is part of your life and breath. You may bury it deep, and leave behind you The land, the people that knew your slain; It will push the sods from its grave, and find you On wastes of water or desert plain. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is the impulse which directs the world, And all things know it and obey its power. Man, in the maelstrom of his passions whirled; The bee that takes the pollen to the flower; The earth, uplifting her bare, pulsing breast To fervent kisses of the amorous sun;
Each but obeys creative Love's behest, Which everywhere instinctively is done. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Let no man pray that he know not sorrow, Let no soul ask to be free from pain, For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow, And the moment's loss is the lifetime's gain. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

This world is a vaporous jest at best, Tossed off by the gods in laughter, And a cruel attempt at wit were it, If nothing better came after. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I have always been looking for the noble qualities in human beings, and I have found them. There are great souls all along the highway of life, and there are great qualities even in the people who seem common and weak to us ordinarily. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Life is too short for any vain regretting ... Between the swift sun's rising and its setting, we have no time for useless tears or fretting, life is too short ... Time is the best avenger if we wait, the years speed by, and on their wings bear healing, life is too short for aught but high endeavor-too short for spite, but long enough for love. And love lives on forever and forever. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

How fleeting the sorrows of youth, how slight the foundations on which the young build towers of despair — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

High in the heavens I saw the moon this morning, Albeit the sun shone bright; Unto my soul it spoke, in voice of warning, "Remember Night!" — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Give us that grand word 'woman' once again, and let's have done with 'lady'; one's a term full of fine force, strong, beautiful, and firm, fit for the noblest use of tongue or pen; and one's a word for lackeys. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Distrust that man who tells you to distrust. He takes the measure of his own small soul, and thinks the world no larger. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Thank God, I say, for while I love you so, With that vast love, as passionate as tender, I feel an exultation as I know I have not made you a complete surrender. Here is my body; bruise it, if you will, And break my heart; I have that something still. You cannot grasp it — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is nothing ridiculous in love. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The world has a thousand creeds, and never a one have I;
Nor a church of my own, though a million spires are pointing the way on high.
But I float on the bosom of faith, that bears me along like a river;
And the lamp of my soul is alight with love, for life, and the world, and the Giver. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It is easy enough to be virtuous When nothing tempts you to stray; When without or within No voice of sin Is luring your soul away. But it is only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire. For the soul that is worth the treasures of the earth is the soul that resists desire. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I know there are no errors, In the great Eternal plan. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

All the past is not worth one today. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Give, and thou shalt receive. Give thoughts of cheer,Of courage and success, to friend and stranger.And from a thousand sources, far and near,Strength will be sent thee in thy hour of danger. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Say you are well, or all is well with you, and God shall hear your words and make them true. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

In the long run all love is paid by love,
Though undervalued by the hosts of earth;
The great eternal Government above
Keeps strict account and will redeem its worth.
Give thy love freely; do not count the cost;
So beautiful a thing was never lost
In the long run. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent, or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Sweep up the debris of decaying faith;
Sweep down the cobwebs of worn-out out beliefs,
And throw your soul wide open to the light of reason and of knowledge.
Be not afraid
To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Affirm the body, beautiful and whole,The earth-expression of immortal soul.Affirm the mind, the messenger of the hour,To speed between thee and the source of power.Affirm the spirit, the Eternal I -Of this great trinity no part deny. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,And that's the burden of a year. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Let no one pray that they know not sorrow,
Let no soul ask to be free from pain,
For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow,
And the moment's loss is the lifetime's gain.
Through want of a thing does its worth redouble,
Through hunger's pangs does the feast content,
And only the heart that has harboured trouble
Can fully rejoice when joy is sent.
Let no one shrink from the bitter tonics
Of grief, and yearning, and need, and strife,
For the rarest chords in the soul's harmonics
Are found in the minor strains of life. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A weed is but an unloved flower. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

How will it be when one of us alone Goes on that strange last journey of the soul? That certain search for an uncertain goal, That voyage on which no comradeship is known? ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I'm sorry for the anguished hearts that break with passion's strain, But I'm sorrier for the poor starved souls that never knew love's pain, Who hunger on through barren years not tasting joys they crave, For sadder far is such a lot than weeping o'er a grave. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Whatever is ... is best. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Who climbs the mountain does not always climb.The winding road slants downward many a time;Yet each descent is higher than the last. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

After the fierce midsummer all ablaze
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires
In the intensity of its own fires,
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.
So after Love has led us, till he tires
Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,
He beckons us to follow, and across
Cool verdant vales we wander free from care.
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Time sped. And the poet through sorrow Became like his suffering kind. Again he toiled over his poems To lighten the grief of his mind ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

When the heart grows weary, all things seem dreary; When the burden grows heavy, the way seems long. Thank God for sending kind death as an ending, Like a grand Amen to a minor song. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Moon and Sea
You are the moon, dear love, and I the sea:
The tide of hope swells high within my breast,
And hides the rough dark rocks of life's unrest
When your fond eyes smile near in perigee.
But when that loving face is turned from me,
Low falls the tide, and the grim rocks appear,
And earth's dim coast-line seems a thing to fear.
You are the moon, dear one, and I the sea. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Content is not the pathway to great deeds. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A day which passed without a poem from my pen I considered lost and misused. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There is nothing we cannot live down, rise above, and overcome. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

And let its meaning permeate
Whatever comes, This too shall pass away. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

To be able to enjoy heaven, one must learn first to enjoy earth. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

India - The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

You may choose your words like a connoisseur, And polish it up with art, But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays, Is the word that comes from the heart. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I think I never passed so sad an hour, Dear friend, as that one at the church to-night. The edifice from basement to the tower Was one resplendent blaze of coloured light ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Even so We find the sea of sorrow. Black as night The sullen surface meets our frightened gaze, As down we sink to darkness and despair ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is a spy who is plotting treason, In league with that warm, red rebel, the Heart. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

And however dark the skies may appear, And however souls may blunder, I tell you it all will work out clear, For good lies over and under. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

For here lies the pleasure of living: In taking God's bounties, and giving The gifts back again. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

No fate could rob us of our own
No circumstance can make it less;
What time removes was but a loan,
For what was ours we still possess. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Mourn not for the vanished ages with their grand, heroic men, who dwell in history's pages and live in the poets pen for the grandest times are before us and the world is yet to see the noblest work of this old earth in the men that are to be. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

One ship drives east and other drives west by the same winds that blow. It's the set of the sails and not the gales that determines the way they go. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Know that you are great ... so dominate. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

God, what a world, if men in street and mart felt that same kinship of the human heart which makes them, in the face of fire and flood, rise to the meaning of true brotherhood. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go,
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,
There are none to decline your nectar'd wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It has always been my belief that children inherit the suppressed tendencies of their parents. A clergyman's son frequently shows abnormal tastes for the pleasures that his father denied himself ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

This dream of our youth will fade out as the splendor Fades from the skies when the sun sinks to sleep. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The man who radiates good cheer, who makes life happier wherever he meets it, is always a man of vision and faith. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Day's sweetest moments are at dawn. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Talk not of the river or lake To those who have looked on the sea. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It is a common fate
a woman's lot
To waste on one the riches of her soul, Who takes the wealth she gives him, but cannot Repay the interest, and much less the whole. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Slipping away are the hopes that made Bliss out of sorrow, and sun out of shade, Slipping away is our hold on life; And out of the struggle and wearing strife ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It is impossible to pursue a successful literary career and follow the advice of all one's 'best friends'.I feel compelled to follow the light which my own intellect & judgement cast upon my way, rather than any one of the many conflicting rays which other minds would lend me. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows along like a song; But the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Who would attain to summits still and fair,Must nerve himself through valleys of despair. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

'Tis they who are in their own chambers haunted By thoughts that like unbidden guests intrude, And sit down, uninvited and unwanted, And make a nightmare of the solitude. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Keep out of the past. It is haunted. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox