Nathaniel Parker Willis

Nathaniel Parker Willis (20 January 1806 – 20 January 1867) was an American author and editor who had worked with notable American writers including Harriet Jacobs and Edgar Allan Poe.

He who binds
His soul to knowledge, steals the key of heaven.

Quotes

If there is any thing that keeps the mind open to angel visits, and repels the ministry of ill, it is human love.

• If there is any thing that keeps the mind
  Open to angel visits, and repels
  The ministry of ill—'tis human love.
  • Poem Delivered before the Society of United Brothers at Brown University on the Day Preceding Commencement, September 6, 1831 (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1831), p. 19.

• Wisdom sits alone
  Topmost in Heaven.
  • "The Scholar of Thebet Ben Khorat", II, in Melanie and Other Poems (London: Saunders and Otley, 1835), p. 128.

• He who binds
  His soul to knowledge steals the key of heaven.
  • "The Scholar of Thebet Ben Khorat", II, in Melanie and Other Poems (London: Saunders and Otley, 1835), p. 129.

• At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.
  • Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil, Part IV: Ephemera (New York: J. S. Redfield, 1845), p. 161.
  • Note in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919):— Compare: "I want you to see Peel, Stanley, Graham, Sheil, Russell, Macaulay, Old Joe, and soon. They are all upper-crust here." Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Sam Slick in England, 2 Chap., xxiv.; "Those families, you know, are our upper-crust,—not upper ten thousand", James Fenimore Cooper, The Ways of the Hour, chapter vi. (1850)

• One lamp—thy mother's love—amid the stars
  Shall lift its pure flame changeless, and, before
  The throne of God burn through eternity—
  Holy—as it was lit and lent thee here.
  • "Rizpah with Her Sons", in Sacred Poems (New York: Clark & Austin, 1847), p. 69.

• They are all up—the innumerable stars—
  And hold their place in heaven. […]
  There they stand,
  Shining in order, like a living hymn
  Written in light, awaking at the breath
  Of the celestial dawn, and praising Him
  Who made them, with the harmony of spheres.
  • "Contemplation", in Sacred Poems (New York: Clark & Austin, 1847), p. 104.

• For it stirs the blood in an old man’s heart,
  And makes his pulses fly,
  To catch the thrill of a happy voice,
  And the light of a pleasant eye.
  • "Saturday Afternoon", in Poems of Early and After Years (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1848), p. 120.

• Let us weep in our darkness—but weep not for him!
  Not for him—who, departing, leaves millions in tears!
  Not for him—who has died full of honor and years!
  Not for him—who ascended Fame’s ladder so high
  From the round at the top he has stepp'd to the sky.
  • "The Death of Harrison", in Poems of Early and After Years (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1848), p. 220.

• But the sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven
  By man is cursed alway!
  • "Unseen Spirits", in Poems of Early and After years (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1848), p. 234.

• The value of life deepens incalculably with the privileges of travel.
  • Summer Cruise in the Mediterranean on board an American Frigate (Auburn: Alden, Beardsley & Co., 1853), Letter V, p. 58.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• It is the month of June,
  The month of leaves and roses,
  When pleasant sights salute the eyes,
  And pleasant scents the noses.
  • The Month of June

External links

• N P Willis at Project Gutenberg
• The Complete Works of N. P. Willis (1846)
• Summer Cruise in the Mediterranean on board an American Frigate (1853)