Jean Ingelow Quotes

Let me be only sure; for sooth to tell
The sorest dole is doubt.

And we do want poetry for its beauty […] Yes, only for its beauty; for its moral power over us—its teaching, comforting, and elevating power all depend on its beauty.

The first feeling drew him to her side; all nature seemed to smile so on her sweetness. She reminded him, in that secluded spot, of a fair lily shaded by its own green leaf. And then the second feeling came like a smart box on the ear. He did not like to be so suddenly overcome.[…] So […] he went on and made the circuit of the garden. But that caused no difference, of course. Amabel, not being present, was only the more there. She was everywhere. The young growing things about him were lovely, for they were like her. The old steadfast trees were interesting, as in contrast to her. And here was the donkey! The very donkey was interesting, because she often tried in vain to make him go.

I am glad to think
I am not bound to make the wrong go right;
But only to discover, and to do
With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints.

If one cannot have success, the next most agreeable thing is failure.

There is nothing so unreasonable as infancy, excepting the maturer stages of life.

A man can sometimes hold his own with one woman, but never with two.

It seemed proper indeed to crowd the pages with children, for in real life they run all over; the world is covered thickly with the prints of their little footsteps, though, as a rule, books written for grown-up people are kept almost clear of them.

Divine Love came down to take on itself our sins, but there is no Saviour to do the like for our mistakes.

It would be hard to say of any man that he is never right. If he is always thinking that he has forgotten a certain lady, surely he is right sometimes.

The while He sits whose name is Love, And waits, as Noah did, for the dove, To wit if she would fly to him. He waits for us, while, houseless things, We beat about with bruised wings On the dark floods and water-springs, The ruined world, the desolate sea; With open windows from the prime All night, all day, He waits sublime,
Until the fulness of the time Decreed from His eternity.

Learn that to love is the one way to know,
Or God or man: it is not love received
That maketh man to know the inner life
Of them that love him; his own love bestowed
Shall do it.

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

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

[O]ne must have a certain amount of both intelligence and knowledge to be amazed even at the most extraordinary things.