Quote

Modest egotism is the salt of conversation you do not want too much of it, but if it is altogether omitted, everything tastes flat.

Henry Van Dyke

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Henry Van Dyke
Age: 80 †
Born: 1852
Born: November 10
Died: 1933
Died: April 10
Diplomat
Poet
Writer
Germantown
Philadelphia
Modest
Salt
Conversation
Omitted
Taste
Egotism
Everything
Tastes
Much
Altogether
Flat
Flats

More quotes by Henry Van Dyke

Image
It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
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.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
The more keenly we are awake to the perils of life, the higher and grander is the possibility of being truly brave.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
We measure success by accumulation. The measure is false. The true measure is appreciation. He who loves most has most.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Gratitude is a two fold love - love coming to visit us, and love running out to greet a welcome guest.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Deeds not Words: I say so too! And yet I find it somehow true, A word may help a man in need, To nobler act and braver deed.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
There are two good rules which ought to be written on every heart - never to believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true never to tell even that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Jazz: Music invented for the torture of imbeciles.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Courage is the standing army of the soul which keeps it from conquest, pillage, and slavery.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
No amount of energy will take the place of thought. A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
No amount of energy will take the place of thought.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
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.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
If all the skies were sunshine Our faces would be fain To feel once more upon them The cooling splash of rain. If all the world were music, Our hearts would often long For one sweet strain of silence, To break the endless song If life were always merry, Our souls would seek relief, And rest from weary laughter In the quiet arms of grief.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
The world is full of warfare 'twixt the evil and the goodI watched the battle from afar as one who understoodThe shouting and confusion, the bloody, blundering fight-How few there are that see it clear, how few that wage it right!
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Those who would see wonderful things must often be ready to travel alone.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for all of us and surely it is a good haven to sail for.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Happiness is inward, and not outward and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
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.
Henry Van Dyke
Image
Of all the things that man has made, no is so full of interest and charm, none possesses so distinct a life and character of its own, as a ship.
Henry Van Dyke