Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Action

“Let us, then, be up and doing. With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.”

“Trust no future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act,—act in the living Present! Heart within and God o'erhead.”

“No action, whether foul or fair, Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere A record, written by fingers ghostly, As a blessing or a curse, and mostly In the greater weakness or greater strength Of the acts which follow it.”

“The good one, after every action, closes His volume, and ascends with it to God. The other keeps his dreadful day-book open Till sunset, that we may repent; which doing, The record of the action fades away, And leaves a line of white across the page Now if my act be good, as I believe, It cannot be recalled. It is already Sealed up in heaven, as a good deed accomplished. The rest is yours.”