Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Resignation
To be resign’d when ills betide,
Patient when favours are denied,
And pleased with favours given;—
Dear Chloe, this is wisdom’s part,
This is that incense of the heart
Whose fragrance smells to heaven.
Nathaniel Cotton—The Fireside. St. 11.
Give what thou canst, without thee we are poor;
And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away.
Cowper—The Task. Bk. V. Last lines.
Dare to look up to God and say, Deal with me in the future as Thou wilt; I am of the same mind as Thou art; I am Thine; I refuse nothing that pleases Thee; lead me where Thou wilt; clothe me in any dress Thou choosest.
Epictetus—Discourses. Bk. II. Ch. XVI.
Bends to the grave with unperceived decay,
While resignation gently slopes the way
And, all his prospects brightening to the last,
His heaven commences ere the world be past.
Goldsmith—Deserted Village. L. 110.
To will what God doth will, that is the only science
That gives us any rest.
Malherbe—Consolation. St. 7. Longfellow’s trans.
That’s best
Which God sends. ’Twas His will: it is mine.
Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton)—Lucile. Pt. II. Canto VI. St. 29.
The pious farmer, who ne’er misses pray’rs,
With patience suffers unexpected rain;
He blesses Heav’n for what its bounty spares,
And sees, resign’d, a crop of blighted grain.
But, spite of sermons, farmers would blaspheme,
If a star fell to set their thatch on flame.
Lady Mary Wortley Montague—Poem. Written Oct., 1736.
Placato possum non miser esse deo.
If God be appeased, I can not be wretched.
Ovid—Tristium. III. 40.
Unum est levamentum malorum pati et necessitatibus suis obsequi.
One alleviation in misfortune is to endure and submit to necessity.
Seneca—De Ira. III. 16.
Placeat homini quidquid deo placuit.
Let that please man which has pleased God.
Seneca—Epistolæ Ad Lucilium. LXXIV.
Thus ready for the way of life or death,
I wait the sharpest blow.
Pericles. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 54.
It seem’d so hard at first, mother, to leave the blessed sun,
And now it seems as hard to stay—and yet His will be done!
But still I think it can’t be long before I find release;
And that good man, the clergyman, has told me words of peace.
Tennyson—The May-Queen. Conclusion. St. 3.