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There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Henry Van Dyke

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Henry Van Dyke
Age: 80 †
Born: 1852
Born: November 10
Died: 1933
Died: April 10
Diplomat
Poet
Writer
Germantown
Philadelphia
Observance
Keeping
Christmas
Better
Thing

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Tact is the unsaid part of what you think.
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A flawless cup: how delicate and fine The flowing curve of every jewelled line! Look, turn it up or down, 'tis perfect still-- But holds no drop of life's heart-warming wine.
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You may have to live in a crowd, but you do not have to live like it.
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Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.
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Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil.
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So in the heart, When, fading slowly down the past, Fond memories depart, And each that leaves it seems the last Long after all the rest are flown, Returns a solitary tone,— The after-echo of departed years,— And touches all the soul to tears.
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No matter what theory of the origin of government you adopt, if you follow it out to its legitimate conclusions it will bring you face to face with the moral law.
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The worlds in which we live at heart are one, The world I am, the fruit of I have done And underneath these worlds of flower and fruit, The world I love,--the only living root.
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Religion? Yes, I know it well I've heard its prayers and creeds, And seen men put them all to shame with poor, half-hearted deeds. They follow Christ, but far away they wander and they doubt. I'll serve him in a better way, and live his precepts out.
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I heard through the nightThe rush and the clamourThe pulse of the fightLike blows of Thor's hammerThe pattering flightOf the leaves, and the anguishedMoan of the forest vanquished.
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The birth of Jesus is the sunrise in the Bible.
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Favorite People, Favorite Places, Favorite Memories of the past ... These are the joys of a lifetime Those are the things that last
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No amount of energy will take the place of thought.
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Who can explain the secret pathos of Nature's loveliness? It is a touch of melancholy inherited from our mother Eve. It is an unconscious memory of the lost Paradise. It is the sense that even if we should find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever.
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Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.
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This is the soldier brave enough to tellThe glory-dazzled world that war is hell:Lover of peace, he looks beyond the strife,And rides through hell to save his country's life.
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Flowers rejoice when night is done, Lift their heads to greet the sun Sweetest looks and odours raise, In a silent hymn of praise.
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Love that leads life upward is the noblest and the best.
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The shadow by my finger cast Divides the future from the past: Before it, sleeps the unborn hour, In darkness, and beyond thy power. Behind its unreturning line, The vanished hour, no longer thine: One hour alone is in thy hands,- The NOW on which the shadow stands.
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Look around for a place to sow a few seeds.
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