Quote#Speech
Sweeter than any sung
Quote byJohn Greenleaf Whittier · 1807–1892
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: My Triumph, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
English (original)
Sweeter than any sung My songs that found no tongue; Nobler than any fact My 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
More from John Greenleaf Whittier
Press bravely onward! — not in vain Your generous trust in human kind; The good which bloodshed could not gain Your peaceful zeal shall find.
The windows of my soul I throw Wide open to the sun.
O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.
What is good looking, as Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle,—generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you; and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration.
Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said.
So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!