How much that the world calls selfishness is only generosity with narrow walls,--a too exclusive solicitude to maintain a wife in luxury, or make one's children rich. Thomas Wentworth Higginson More Quotes by Thomas Wentworth Higginson More Quotes From Thomas Wentworth Higginson The first wild-flower of the year is like land after sea. Thomas Wentworth Higginson flower sea years How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year! Thomas Wentworth Higginson lessons winter years Do not waste a minute - not a second - in trying to demonstrate to others the merits of your performance. If your work does not vindicate itself, you cannot vindicate it. Thomas Wentworth Higginson waste work trying To be really cosmopolitan a man must be at home even in his own country. Thomas Wentworth Higginson country-love home country Great men are rarely isolated mountain-peaks; they are the summits of ranges. Thomas Wentworth Higginson hiking humor men It is no discredit to Walt Whitman that he wrote Leaves of Grass, only that he did not burn it afterwards. Thomas Wentworth Higginson leaves-of-grass walt grass All... religions show the same disparity between belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to exclude the rest. Test each sect by its best or its worst as you will, by its high-water mark of virtue or its low-water mark of vice. But falsehood begins when you measure the ebb of any other religion against the flood-tide of your own. There is a noble and a base side to every history. Thomas Wentworth Higginson religious practice water But days even earlier than these, in April, have a charm, — even days that seem raw and rainy, when the sky is dull and a bequest of March - wind lingers, chasing the squirrel from the tree and the children from the meadows. There is a fascination in walking through these bare early woods, – there is such a pause of preparation, winter's work is so cleanly and thoroughly done. Everything is taken down and put away. Thomas Wentworth Higginson taken summer spring Noble discontent is the path to heaven. Thomas Wentworth Higginson noble inspirational heaven In our methodical American life, we still recognize some magic in summer. Most persons at least resign themselves to being decently happy in June. They accept June. They compliment its weather. They complain of the earlier months as cold, and so spend them in the city; and they complain of the later months as hot, and so refrigerate themselves on some barren sea-coast. God offers us yearly a necklace of twelve pearls; most men choose the fairest, label it June, and cast the rest away. Thomas Wentworth Higginson summer weather men There are no days in the whole round year more delicious than those which often come to us in the latter half of April... The sun trembles in his own soft rays... The grass in the meadow seems all to have grown green since yesterday. Thomas Wentworth Higginson flower spring years The Englishman's strong point is his vigorous insularity; that of the American his power of adaptation. Each of these attitudes has its perils. The Englishman stands firmly on his feet, but he who merely does this never advances. The American's disposition is to step forward even at the risk of a fall. Thomas Wentworth Higginson strong attitude fall If I were to choose among all gifts and qualities that which, on the whole, makes life pleasantest, I should select the love of children. No circumstance can render this world wholly a solitude to one who has this possession Thomas Wentworth Higginson quality solitude children Nothing can hide from me the conviction that an immortal soul needs for its sustenance something more than visiting, and gardening, and novel-reading, and crochet-needle, and the occasional manufacture of sponge cake. Thomas Wentworth Higginson cake reading soul Originality is simply a pair of fresh eyes. Thomas Wentworth Higginson pairs creating eye What instruction the baby brings to the mother! Thomas Wentworth Higginson instruction mother baby That genius is feeble which cannot hold its own before the masterpieces of the world. Thomas Wentworth Higginson masterpiece genius world Fields are won by those who believe in the winning. Thomas Wentworth Higginson fields winning believe The most fertile soil does not necessarily produce the most abundant harvest. It is the use we make of our faculties which renders them valuable. Thomas Wentworth Higginson intelligence use doe There is certainly no defence or water -proof garment against adverse fortune which is, on the whole, so effectual as an habitual sense of humor. Thomas Wentworth Higginson laughter humor twilight
