Henry Van Dyke was born November 10, 1852, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was an American clergyman, educator, and . Van Dyke graduated from Princeton in 1873 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1874. Henry Van Dyke was pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City (1883-1899), a professor of English literature at Princeton (1899-1923), and during World War I, acted as American Minister to the Netherlands (1913-1916).

Henry Van Dyke’s Christmas sermons, his essays, and his short stories made him a popular writer. His poems reveal a classical education as well as a common touch in matters of faith. Among Henry Van Dyke’s popular inspirational writings is the Christmas story, “The Other Wise Man,” written in 1896. The themes of his sermons are also expressed in his poetry and the essays collected in “Little Rivers” (1895) and “Fishermen’s Luck” (1899). Van Dyke also served as a naval chaplain, for which he was awarded the Legion of Honor. He died April 10, 1933.

“As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.”

“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.”

“What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.”

“There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.”

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”

“Look around for a place to sow a few seeds.”

“Some people are so afraid do die that they never begin to live.”

“There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.”

“Use what talent you possess-the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”

“When once you have tasted flight you will always walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward: for there you have been and there you will always be.”