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EWElla Wheeler Wilcox

49 collected words

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Dates not recorded

Personal byline in the 1911 Optimist anthology. Basic source-backed attribution identity; lifetime and independent authorship verification not established here.

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Quotations and sayings

02Undated
Talk happiness! The world is sad enough, Without your woes. No path is wholly rough; Look for the places that are smooth and clear And speak of those who rest the weary ear Of earth, so hurt by one continuous strain Of human discontent and grief and pain. Talk health! The dreary, never changing tale Of mortal maladies is worn and stale. You cannot charm or interest or please, By harping on that minor chord, disease. Say you are well, or all is well with you, And God shall hear your words and make them true.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox / quote
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04Undated
With every rising of the sun, Think of your life as just begun. The past has shrived and buried deep, All yesterdays; there let them sleep. Nor seek to summon back one ghost Of that innumerable host. Concern yourself with but today. Woo it, and teach it to obey Your will and wish. Since time began Today has been the friend of man; But in his blindness and his sorrow, He looks to yesterday and tomorrow. You, and today! a soul sublime, And the great pregnant hour of time, With God himself to bind the twain! Go forth, I say, attain, attain!
Ella Wheeler Wilcox / quote
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06Undated
There is no thing we cannot overcome. Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, And calls down punishment that is not merited. Back of thy parents and grandparents lies The Great Eternal Will. That, too, is thine Inheritance, strong, beautiful, divine, Sure lever of success, for him who tries. Pry up thy faults with this great lever, Will, However deeply bedded in propensity, However firmly set, I tell thee firmer yet Is that strange power that comes from truth's immensity!
Ella Wheeler Wilcox / quote
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12Undated
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;Weep, and you weep alone;For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,But has trouble enough of its own.Sing, and the hills will answer;Sigh, it is lost on the air;The echoes bound to a joyful sound,But shrink from voicing care.Rejoice, and men will seek you;Grieve, and they turn and go;They want full measure of all your pleasure,But they do not need your woe.Be glad, and your friends are many;Be sad, and you lose them all,—There are none to decline your nectared wine,But alone you must drink life’s gall.Feast, and your halls are crowded;Fast, and the world goes by.Succeed and give, and it helps you live,But no man can help you die.There is room in the halls of pleasureFor a large and lordly train,But one by one we must all file onThrough the narrow aisles of pain.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox / quote
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17Undated
Advice"I must do as you do? Your way I ownIs a very good way, and still,There are sometimes two straight roads to a town,One over, one under the hill.You are treading the safe and the well-worn way,That the prudent choose each time;And you think me reckless and rash to-dayBecause I prefer to climb.Your path is the right one, and so is mine.We are not like peas in a pod,Compelled to lie in a certain line,Or else be scattered abroad.'T were a dull old world, methinks, my friend,If we all just went one way;Yet our paths will meet no doubt at the end,Though they lead apart today.You like the shade, and I like the sun;You like an even pace,I like to mix with the crowd and run,And then rest after the race.I like danger, and storm, and strife,You like a peaceful time;I like the passion and surge of life,You like its gentle rhyme.You like buttercups, dewy sweet,And crocuses, framed in snow;I like roses, born of the heat,And the red carnation's glow.I must live my life, not yours, my friend,For so it was written down;We must follow our given paths to the end,But I trust we shall meet--in town.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox / quote
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19Undated
After the fierce midsummer all ablaze Has burned itself to ashes, and expires In the intensity of its own fires,There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin daysCrowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze. So after Love has led us, till he tires Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,He beckons us to follow, and across Cool verdant vales we wander free from care. Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete
Ella Wheeler Wilcox / quote
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20Undated
All Mad"'He is mad as a hare, poor fellow, And should be in chains,' you say,I haven't a doubt of your statement, But who isn't mad, I pray?Why, the world is a great asylum, And the people are all insane,Gone daft with pleasure or folly, Or crazed with passion and pain.The infant who shrieks at a shadow, The child with his Santa Claus faith,The woman who worships Dame Fashion, Each man with his notions of death,The miser who hoards up his earnings, The spendthrift who wastes them too soon,The scholar grown blind in his delving, The lover who stares at the moon.The poet who thinks life a paean, The cynic who thinks it a fraud,The youth who goes seeking for pleasure, The preacher who dares talk of God,All priests with their creeds and their croaking, All doubters who dare to deny,The gay who find aught to wake laughter, The sad who find aught worth a sigh,Whoever is downcast or solemn, Whoever is gleeful and gay,Are only the dupes of delusions— We are all of us—all of us mad.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox / quote
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