John Keble Quotes

Peace is the first thing the angels sang.

And help us, this and every day, to live more nearly as we pray.

When you find yourself overpowered, as it were, by melancholy, the best way is to go out and do something.

If the Church of England were to fail, it would be found in my parish

Give us grace to listen well.

Once you make up your mind never to stand waiting and hesitating when your conscience tells you what you ought to do, and you have got the key to every blessing that a sinner can reasonably hope for.

Blest are the pure in heart, for they shall see our God. The secret of the Lord is theirs; Their soul is Christ's abode.

Abide with me from morn to eve, / For without Thee I cannot live: / Abide with me when night is nigh. / For without Thee I dare not die.

New every morning is the love Our waking and uprising prove, Through sleep and darkness safely brought, Restored to life and power and thought.

Sun of my soul! Thou Saviour dear, It is not night if Thou be near.

God hath sworn to lift on high Who sinks himself by true humility.

Sweet is the smile of home; the mutual look when hearts are of each other sure.

The deeds we do, the words we say,Into still air they seem to fleet;We count them ever past;But they shall last -In the dread judgment theyAnd we shall meet.

When the shore is won at last, Who will count the billow past?

For as fire is kindled by fire, so is a poet's mind kindled by contact with a brother poet.

Sun of my soul, thou Savior dear, It is not night if thou be near. Oh, may no earthborn cloud arise To hide thee from thy servant's eyes.

Why should we faint and fear to live alone,Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die?Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own,Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh.

Love masters agony; the soul that seemed Forsaken feels her present God again And in her Father's arms Contented dies away.

The trivial round, the common task,Would furnish all we ought to ask.

Soft as Memnon's harp at morning, To the inward ear devout, Touched by light, with heavenly warning Your transporting chords ring out. Every leaf in every nook, Every wave in every brook, Chanting with a solemn voice Minds us of our better choice.

Time's waters will not ebb nor stay.

Thou art the Sun of other days. They shine by giving back the rays.

Sprinkled along the waste of years Full many a soft green isle appears: Pause where we may upon the desert road, Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode.

Sweet is the infant's waking smile, And sweet the old man's rest-- But middle age by no fond wile, No soothing calm is blest.

The watchful mother tarries nigh Though sleep have closed her infant's eye, For should he wake, and find her gone.