Quotes on Thee

If Christ were born in Bethlehem a thousand times and not in thee thyself; then art thou lost eternally.

Since thy return, through days and weeks_x000D_ _x000D_ Of hope that grew by stealth,_x000D_ _x000D_ How many wan and faded cheeks_x000D_ _x000D_ Have kindled into health!_x000D_ _x000D_ The Old, by thee revived, have said,_x000D_ _x000D_ 'Another year is ours;'_x000D_ _x000D_ And wayworn Wanderers, poorly fed,_x000D_ _x000D_ Have smiled upon thy flowers.

O Solitude! If I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap of murky buildings

What call thou solitude? Is not the earth with various living creatures, and the air replenished, and all these at thy command to come and play before thee?

Even thus last night, and two nights more I lay,_x000D_ _x000D_ And could not win thee, Sleep, by any stealth:_x000D_ _x000D_ So do not let me wear to-night away._x000D_ _x000D_ Without thee what is all the morning's wealth?_x000D_ _x000D_ Come, blessed barrier between day and day,_x000D_ _x000D_ Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!

The Lord has said, ‘I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.’ (Isaiah 48:10, 1 Nephi 20:10). He knows, being omniscient, how we will cope with affliction beforehand. But we do not know this. We need, therefore, the refining that God gives to us, though we do not seek or crave such tribulation.

For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee!

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

What is there in thee, Moon! That thou should'st move My heart so potently?

It is not the distance of the earth from the sun, nor the sun's withdrawing itself, that makes a dark and gloomy day; but the interposition of clouds and vaporous exhalations. Neither is thy soul beyond the reach of the promise, nor does God withdraw Himself; but the vapours of thy carnal, unbelieving heart do cloud thee.

What is nature? Art thou not the living government of God? O Heaven, is it in very deed He then that ever speaks through thee, that lives and loves in thee, that lives and loves in me?

What name to call thee by, O virgin fair, I know not, for thy looks are not of earth And more than mortal seems thy countenances

Every friend whom not thy fantastic will but the great and tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. And this because the heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls uninterruptedly in endless circulation through all men, as the water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one.

Pain was not given thee merely to be miserable under; learn from it, turn it to account.

My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

With thee conversing I forget all time.

Ruin seize thee, ruthless king! Confusion on thy banners wait! Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing, They mock the air with idle state.

The big, blazing truth about man is that he has a heaven-sized hole in his heart, and nothing else can fill it. We pass our lives trying to fill the Grand Canyon with marbles. As Augustine said: Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

God is bound to act, to pour himself out (into thee) as soon as ever he shall find thee ready.