James Whitcomb Riley Quotes

James Whitcomb Riley offers whimsical, nature-filled verses that wander through night skies and quiet wonder.

16 quotes

1. The ripest peach is highest on the tree.

2. O'er folded blooms On swirls of musk, The beetle booms adown the glooms And bumps along the dusk.

3. One naked star has waded through The purple shadows of the night, And faltering as falls the dew It drips its misty light.

4. An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you Ef you don't watch out.

5. I don't know how to tell it--but ef such a thing could be As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me-- I'd want to 'ccommodate 'em--all the whole-in-durin' flock-- When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

6. Continuous, unflagging effort, persistence and determination will win. Let not the man be discouraged who has these.

7. It is no use to grumble and complain; It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice; When God sorts out the weather and sends rain - Why, rain's my choice.

8. But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock-When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

9. Who bides his time tastes the sweet Of honey in the saltiest tear; And though he fares with slowest feet Joy runs to meet him drawing near.

10. Oh, the world's a curious compound, with its honey and its gall, With its cares and bitter crosses, but a good world after all. And a good God must have made it-leastways, that is what I say, When a hand is on my shoulder in a friendly sort of way.

11. O, it sets my heart a clickin' like the tickin' of a clock, when the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

12. He is not dead, he is just - away.

13. Tell you what I like the best - 'Long about knee-deep in June, 'Bout the time strawberries melts On the vine, - some afternoon Like to jes' git out and rest, And not work at nothin' else!

14. I love the horse from hoof to head. From head to hoof and tail to mane. I love the horse as I have said - From head to hoof and back again.

15. To make the world a friendly place, one must show it a friendly face.

16. As one who cons at evening o'er an album all alone, And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known, So I turn the leaves of Fancy, till in shadowy design I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.