Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister.
To look forward and not back, To look out and not in, and To lend a hand.
[I]t is easy to regard the mind and the body as two slaves trained to obey the imperial soul. . . . [I]n this trinity of soul, mind, and body, it is sometimes hard to tell which of the three is at work; and the personality of each of the three parties interferes a good deal with that of each of the others. But if you who read will remember that you are an infinite child of God, and can partake of his nature, and that you have given to you the management and direction of your mind and your body, you will be saved many failures.
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.
Can it be possible that all human sympathies can thrive, and all human powers be exercised, and all human joys increase, if we live with all our might with the thirty or forty people next to us, telegraphing kindly to all other people, to be sure? Can it be possible that our passion for large cities, and large parties, and large theatres, and large churches, develops no faith nor hope nor love which would not find aliment and exercise in a little "world of our own"?
The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man's success in life.
[S]leep, and enough of it, is the prime necessity. Enough exercise, and good food and enough, are other necessities. But sleep—good sleep, and enough of it—this is a necessity without which you cannot have the exercise of use, nor the food.
Friendship is one of the greatest luxuries of life.
You and I must not complain if our plans break down if we have done our part. That probably means that the plans of One who knows more than we do have succeeded.
Make it your habit not to be critical about small things.
I can't do everything, but that won't stop me from doing the little I can do.
Behind all these men you have to do with, behind officers, and government, and people even, there is the country herself, your country, and. . . you belong to her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her, boy, as you would stand by your mother.
Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.
An intelligent class can scarce ever be, as a class, vicious, and never, as a class, indolent. The excited mental activity operates as a counterpoise to the stimulus of sense and appetite.
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
I know I am only one, but I am one, and just because I'm one should not stop me from
War - hard apprenticeship of freedom.
No gilded dome swells from the lowly roof to catch the morning or evening beam; but the love and gratitude of united America settle upon it in one eternal sunshine. From beneath that humble roof went forth the intrepid and unselfish warrior, the magistrate who knew no glory but his country's good; to that he returned, happiest when his work was done. There he lived in noble simplicity, there he died in glory and peace.
For all mankind that unstained scroll unfurled, Where God might write anew the story of the World.
Wise anger is like fire from a flint: there is great ado to get it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.