Thomas Wentworth Higginson Quotes

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The first wild-flower of the year is like land after sea.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Flower, Years, Sea

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (2007). “Outdoor Studies, Poems”, p.59, Reprint Services Corporation

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To be really cosmopolitan a man must be at home even in his own country.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Country, Home, Country Love

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1880). “Short Studies of American Authors”

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How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year!

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Winter, Years, Lessons

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1863). “Out-door Papers”, p.239

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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, Doe, Use

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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, Grass, Walt

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1871). “Atlantic Essays”, p.44

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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

Work, Trying, Waste

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1871). “Atlantic Essays”, p.84

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Great men are rarely isolated mountain-peaks; they are the summits of ranges.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Humor, Men, Hiking

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1871). “Atlantic Essays”, p.18

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Originality is simply a pair of fresh eyes.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Eye, Creating, Pairs

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Noble discontent is the path to heaven.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Inspirational, Heaven, Noble

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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

Thomas Wentworth HIGGINSON (1872). “The Sympathy of Religions; an Address Delivered ... February 6, 1870”, p.18

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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

Summer, Spring, Taken

"The Procession of the Flowers: And Kindred Papers".

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Fields are won by those who believe in the winning.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Believe, Winning, Fields

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1871). “Atlantic Essays”, p.68

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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

Reading, Cake, Soul

Thomas Wentworth HIGGINSON (1854). “Woman and her Wishes, etc. ... Second edition, with an appendix”, p.7

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What instruction the baby brings to the mother!

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Mother, Baby, Instruction

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (2007). “Outdoor Studies, Poems”, p.237, Reprint Services Corporation

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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, Men, Weather

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (2007). “Outdoor Studies, Poems”, p.55, Reprint Services Corporation

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Lavish thousands of dollars on your baby clothes, and after all the child is prettiest when every garment is laid aside. That becoming nakedness, at least, may adorn the chubby darling of the poorest home.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Baby, Nature, Children

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1873). “Oldport Days”, p.218

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Life is as inexorable as the sea.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Sea, Water, Life Is

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1900). “Studies in romance”

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The test of an author is not to be found merely in the number of his phrases that pass current in the corner of newspapers... but in the number of passages that have really taken root in younger minds.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Taken, Writing, Roots

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1885). “Margaret Fuller Ossoli”, p.289, Ardent Media

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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

Spring, Flower, Years

"In a Fair Country".

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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

Children, Solitude, Quality

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (2007). “Outdoor Studies, Poems”, p.245, Reprint Services Corporation

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In ancient Boeotia brides were carried home in vehicles whose wheels were burned at the door, in token, that they would never again be needed.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Home, Doors, Wheels

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (2012). “Women and the Alphabet A Series of Essays”, p.37, tredition

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Genius is lonely without the surrounding presence of a people to inspire it.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Lonely, People, Inspire

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1871). “Atlantic Essays”, p.18

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Character shows itself apart from genius as a special thing. The first point of measurement of any man is that of quality.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Character, Men, Special

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An easy thing, O Power Divine, To thank thee for these gifts of Thine, For summer's sunshine, winter's snow, For hearts that kindle thoughts that glow.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Summer, Heart, Sunshine

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1889). “The Afternoon Landscape: Poems and Translations”

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In an audience of rough people a generous sentiment always brings down the house. In the tumult of war both sides applaud a heroic deed.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Appreciation, War, Heroic Deeds

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (2007). “Outdoor Studies, Poems”, p.234, Reprint Services Corporation

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Born: December 22, 1823
Died: May 9, 1911
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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