Jean Ingelow Quotes

Jean Ingelow shares gentle musings on happiness, life, and family that comfort the wandering heart.

21 quotes

1. Reign, and keep life in this our deep desire Our only greatness is that we aspire.

2. Crowds of bees are giddy with clover Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet, Crowds of larks at their matins hang over, Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet.

3. But two are walking apart forever And wave their hands for a mute farewell.

4. A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.

5. Man dwells apart, though not alone, He walks among his peers unread; The best of thoughts which he hath known For lack of listeners are not said.

6. How short our happy days appear! How long the sorrowful!

7. To bear, to nurse, to rear, To watch and then to lose, To see my bright ones disappear, Drawn up like morning dews.

8. Man is the miracle in nature. God Is the One Miracle to man. Behold, "There is a God," thou sayest. Thou sayest well: In that thou sayest all. To Be is more Of wonderful, than being, to have wrought, Or reigned, or rested.

9. What change has made the pastures sweet And reached the daisies at my feet, And cloud that wears a golden hem? This lovely world, the hills, the sward-- They all look fresh, as if our Lord But yesterday had finished them.

10. And old affront will stir the heart Through years of rankling pain.

11. There's no dew left on the daisies and clover; there's no rain left in heaven.

12. I am glad to think I am not bound to make the world go right, but only to discover and to do, with cheerful heart, the work that God appoints.

13. Work is its own best earthly meed, Else have we none more than the sea-born throng Who wrought those marvellous isles that bloom afar.

14. And the guelder rose In a great stillness dropped, and ever dropped, Her wealth about her feet.

15. A birthday:-and now a day that rose With much of hope, with meaning rife- A thoughtful day from dawn to close: The middle day of human life.

16. O woman! thou wert fashioned to beguile: So have all sages said, all poets sung.

17. I opened the doors of my heart. And behold, There was music within and a song, And echoes did feed on the sweetness, repeating it long. I opened the doors of my heart. And behold, There was music that played itself out in aeolian notes: Then was heard, as a far-away bell at long intervals tolled.

18. People newly emerged from obscurity generally launch out into indiscriminate display.

19. When our thoughts are born, Though they be good and humble, one should mind How they are reared, or some will go astray And shame their mother.

20. You moon, have you done something wrong in heaven / That God has hidden your face?

21. There is but halting for the wearied foot; The better way is hidden. Faith hath failed; One stronger far than reason mastered her. It is not reason makes faith hard, but life.