Dinah Craik Quotes (1826-1887)

Poet, Novelist

About Dinah Craik

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (20 April 1826 – 12 October 1887) was an English novelist and poet. Born Dinah Maria Mulock, the name under which her first works were published, her work has also been presented as by Dinah Craik, Dinah Maria Craik, Dinah Mulock Craik, and simply Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik.

Best Dinah Craik Quotes

Shortest
Earliest

Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Dinah Craik quotes.

“To-morrow is — ah, whose?”
Dinah Craik
“A parent, unlike a poet, is not born, he is made.”
“There never was night that had no morn.”
Dinah Craik
“[T]here is nothing so absolute as the tyranny of weakness.”
“Those whose own light is quenched are often the light-bringers.”
“[T]he only real parting is when there is no love left to part from.”
Dinah Craik
“The buttercups across the field
Made sunshine rifts of splendour.”
Dinah Craik
“Immortality
Alone could teach this mortal how to die.
”
“Oh, if I could live four weeks longer! but no matter, no matter!”
Dinah Craik
“[T]here are no judgments so harsh as those of the erring, the inexperienced, and the young.”
“O, my son's my son till he gets him a wife,
But my daughter's my daughter all her life.”
“It's astonishing what a lot of odd minutes one can catch during the day, if one really sets about it.”
“Two hands upon the breast,
And labour’s done;
Two pale feet crossed in rest,
The race is won.”
Dinah Craik
“One cannot make oneself, but one can sometimes help a little in the making of somebody else. It is well.”
“Half the sting of poverty is gone when one keeps house for one's own comfort and not for the comments of one's neighbours.”
“Lo! all life this truth declares!
Laborare est orare;
And the whole earth rings with prayers.
”
“To accept the inevitable, neither to struggle against it nor murmur at it, simply to bear it — this is the great lesson of life.”
“Nothing but a speck we seem
In the waste of waters round,
Floating, floating like a dream, —
Outward bound.
”
“Down in the deep, up in the sky,
I see them always, far or nigh,
And I shall see them till I die —

The old familiar faces.

”
“"Get out o' Mr. Fletcher's road, ye idle, lounging, little — "
"Vagabond," I think the woman (Sally Walkins, once my nurse,) was going to say, but she changed her mind.”
“Drink, my jolly lads, drink with discerning,
Wedlock's a lane where there is no turning;
Never was owl more blind than a lover,
Drink and be merry, lads, half seas over.”
Dinah Craik
“The present only is a man's possession; the past is gone out of his hand, wholly, irrevocably. He may suffer from it, learn from it — in degree, perhaps, expiate it; but to brood over it is utter madness.”
Dinah Craik
“Autumn to winter — winter into spring —
Spring into summer — summer into fall —
Thus rolls the changing year, and thus we change;
Motion so swift we know not that we move.
”
Dinah Craik
“When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why.”
Dinah Craik
“Sweet April-time — O cruel April-time!
Year after year returning, with a brow
Of promise, and red lips with longing paled,
And backward-hidden hands that clutch the joys
Of vanished springs, like flowers.”

Dinah Craik Quotes by Topic

Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Dinah Craik quotes by topic.

Dinah Craik on Happiness 5 quotes

“The only way to make people good, is to make them happy.”
Dinah Craik
View all 5 quotes on Happiness →

Dinah Craik on Love 4 quotes

“Be loving, and you will never want for love; be humble, and you will never want for guiding.”
Dinah Craik
View all 4 quotes on Love →

Dinah Craik on Birds 3 quotes

“Those Rooks, dear, from morning till night, They seem to do nothing but quarrel and fight, And wrangle and jangle, and plunder.”
Dinah Craik
View all 3 quotes on Birds →

Dinah Craik on Friendship 2 quotes

“As we sail through life towards death, Bound unto the same port—heaven,— Friend, what years could us divide?”
Dinah Craik
View all 2 quotes on Friendship →

Dinah Craik on Poetry about love 2 quotes

“Duty's a slave that keeps the keys, But Love, the master goes in and out Of his goodly chambers with song and shout, Just as he please—just as he please.”
View all 2 quotes on Poetry about love →

Dinah Craik on Truth 2 quotes

“No virtue ever was founded on a lie. The truth, then, at all risks and costs — the truth from the beginning. Make a clean breast to whomsoever you need to make it, and then — face the world.”
Dinah Craik
View all 2 quotes on Truth →

Dinah Craik on Christmas 2 quotes

“God rest ye, little children; let nothing you afright, For Jesus Christ, your Saviour, was born this happy night; Along the hills of Galilee the white blocks sleeping lay, When Christ, the child of Nazareth, was born on Christmas day.”
Dinah Craik
View all 2 quotes on Christmas →

Dinah Craik on Time 2 quotes

“... on the confines of this world, or from the unknown shores of the next, the question meets them: "What have you done with Time?" —Time, the only mortal gift bestowed equally on every living soul, and, excepting the soul, the only mortal loss which is totally irretrievable.”
Dinah Craik
View all 2 quotes on Time →

Dinah Craik on Tomorrow

“To-morrow is, ah, whose?”
Dinah Craik

Dinah Craik on Silence

“Silence sweeter is than speech.”
Dinah Craik

Dinah Craik on Night

“There never was night that had no morn.”
Dinah Craik

Dinah Craik on Secrecy

“A secret at home is like rocks under tide.”
Dinah Craik

Quotes About Dinah Craik

Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Dinah Craik from others.

Ch. on Dinah Craik 26 quotes

“For truly, the greatest of all external blessings is it to be able to lean your heart against another heart, faithful, tender, true, and tried, and record with a thankfulness that years deepen instead of diminishing, "I have got a friend!"”
View all 26 quotes on Ch. →

Source on Dinah Craik

“Nevertheless, taking life as a whole, believing that it consists not in what we have, but in our power of enjoying the same; that there are in it things nobler and dearer than ease, plenty, or freedom from care — nay, even than existence itself; surely it is not Quixotism, but common-sense and Christianity, to protest that love is better than outside show, labour than indolence, virtue than mere respectability”

Misattributed Quotes

Quotes mistakenly credited to Dinah Craik

“A vision without a task is but a dream.
A task without vision is but drudgery.
A vision with a task is the hope of the world.”

About Dinah Craik

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (20 April 1826 – 12 October 1887) was an English novelist and poet. Born Dinah Maria Mulock, the name under which her first works were published, her work has also been presented as by Dinah Craik, Dinah Maria Craik, Dinah Mulock Craik, and simply Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik.
QuotesCosmos Cross-Civilizational Archive

Explore Related Wisdom Pillars, Worldviews & Canonical Works

Discover how humanity's greatest philosophers, sacred scriptures, and literary masterpieces address the core questions of existence.

30 Wisdom Pillars
22 Worldviews & Traditions