Ella 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

I will not doubt, though sorrows fall like rain, And troubles swarm like bees about a hive; I shall believe the heights for which I strive Are only reached by anguish and by pain; And though I groan and tremble with my crosses, I yet shall see, through my severest losses, The greater gain. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Talk faith. The world is better off without, Your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It is easy to be pleasant when life flows by like a song, but the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, and it always comes with years, and the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through the tears. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Thank Fate for foes! I hold mine dear As valued friends. He cannot know The zest of life who runneth here His earthly race without a foe ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

How does Love speak? In the faint flush upon the telltale cheek, And in the pallor that succeeds it; by The quivering lid of an averted eye
The smile that proves the parent to a sigh Thus doth Love speak. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Cry and you'll cry alone, Laugh and the world will laugh with you. — 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

To know for an hour you were mine completely
Mine in body and soul, my own
I would bear unending tortures sweetly,
With not a murmur and not a moan.
A lighter sin or a lesser error
Might change through hope or fear divine;
But there is no fear, and hell has no terror,
To change or alter a love like mine. — 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

Give of thy love, nor wait to know the worth Of what thou lovest; and ask no returning. And wheresoe'er thy pathway leads on earth, There thou shalt find the lamp of love-light burning. — 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

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

The splendid discontent of God With chaos made the world. And from the discontent of man The worlds best progress springs. — 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

Love is the crown that glorifies; the curse That brands and burdens; it is life and death. It is the great law of the universe; And nothing can exist without its breath. — 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

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

'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

I know not whence I came,
I know not whither I go;
But the fact stands clear that I am here
In this world of pleasure and woe.
And out of the mist and murk,
Another truth shines plain.
It is in my power each day and hour
To add to its joy or its pain.
I know that the earth exists,
It is none of my business why.
I cannot find out what it's all about,
I would but waste time to try.
My life is a brief, brief thing,
I am here for a little space.
And while I stay I would like, if I may,
To brighten and better the place. — 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

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

Lady beware. Fan not the harmless glow Of admiration into ardent love, Lean not with red curled smiling lips above The flickering spark of sinless flame, and blow, Lest in the sudden waking of desire Thou, like the child, shalt perish in the fire. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is the only thing that pays for birth, Or makes death welcome. Oh, dear God above This beautiful but sad, perplexing earth, Pity the hearts that know
or know not
Love! — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

In time the earth will be inhabited by almost god-like beings who shall analyze and discuss the remnants of humanity as we now discuss the chimpanzee. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

'Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Be hald, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are to decline your nectared wine,
But all you must drink life's gall. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Oh! I know this truth, if I know no other, That passionate Love is Pain's own mother. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Look in; and learn the wrong, and right,
From your own soul's unwritten laws.
And when you question, or demur,
Let Love be your Interpreter. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Be careful what rubbish you toss in the tide. On outgoing billows it drifts from your sight, But back on the incoming waves it may ride And land at your threshold again before night. Be careful what rubbish you toss in the tide ... — 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

One bitter time of mourning, I remember, When day, and night, my sad heart did complain, My life, I said, was one cold, bleak December, And all its pleasures, were but whited pain ... — 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

You never can tell when you send a word, Like an arrow shot from a bow By an archer blind, be it cruel or kind, Just where it may chance to go! — 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

It is never too late to begin rebuilding, Though all into ruins your life seems hurled; For see! how the light of the New Year is gilding The wan, worn face of the bruised old world. — 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

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

'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

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

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

Many times I am asked why the suffering of animals should call forth more sympathy from me than the suffering of human beings; why I work in this direction of charitable work more than toward any other. My answer is that because I believe that this work includes all the education and lines of reform which are needed to make a perfect circle of peace and goodwill about the Earth. — 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

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

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

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

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

Love gives us copious potions of delight, Of pain and ecstasy, and peace and care; Love leads us upward, to the mountain height, And, like an angel, stands beside us there; Then thrusts us, demon-like, in some abyss: Where, in the darkness of despair, we grope, Till, suddenly, Love greets us with a kiss And guides us back to flowery fields of hope. — 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

God sent us here to make mistakes — 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

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

The sin and the shame and the sorrow, The crime and the want and the woe That are born there in your workshop, No hand can paint, you know ... — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Don't look for flaws as you go through life and even when you find them it is wise and kind to be somewhat blind, and look for the virtue behind them. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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

Let us clear a little space, And make Love a burial-place. He is dead, dear, as you see, And he wearies you and me. — 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

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough
Without your woe. No path is wholly rough. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

No one will grieve because your lips are dumb. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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

The art of being kind is all the world needs. — 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

To possess character is to be useful, and to be useful is to be independent, and to be useful and independent, is to be happy, even in the midst of sorrow; for sorrow is not necessarily unhappiness. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

My life's long radiant Summer halts at last, And lo! beside my path way I behold Pursuing Autumn glide: nor frost nor cold Has heralded her presence; but a vast Sweet calm that comes not till the year has passed Its fevered solstice, and a tinge of gold Subdues the vivid colouring of bold And passion-hued emotions. I will cast My August days behind me with my May, Nor strive to drag them into Autumn's place, Nor swear I hope when I do but remember. Now violet and rose have had their day, I'll pluck the soberer asters with good grace And call September nothing but September. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

All roads that lead to God are good. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

For this is wisdom- to love and live To take what fate or the Gods may give, To ask no question, to make no prayer, To kiss the lips and caress the hair, Speed passion's ebb as we greet its flow, To have and to hold, and, in time
let go. — 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

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

It is easy to tell the toiler How best he can carry his pack But no one can rate a burden's weight Until it has been on his back — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon sand. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The passion you forbade my lips to utter Will not be silenced. You must hear it in The sullen thunders when they roll and mutter: And when the tempest nears, with wail and din, I know your calm forgetfulness is broken, And to your heart you whisper, "He has spoken." — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is the centre and circumference; The cause and aim of all things
'tis the key To joy and sorrow, and the recompense For all the ills that have been, or may be. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Come, cuddle your head on my shoulder, dear, your head like the golden rod, and we will go sailing away from here to the beautiful Land Of Nod. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I like the roar of cities. In the mart, Where busy toilers strive for place and gain, I seem to read humanity's great heart, And share its hopes, its pleasures, and its pain. — 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

There's one sad truth in life I've found
While journeying east and west -
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

But though that place I never gain,
Herein lies comfort for my pain:
I will be worthy of it. — 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