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Welcome
to my page of new year quotes. Depending on where you are from — in time,
space,
and culture — the new year can mean the end of autumn, the winter
solstice, the first of January, or the beginning of spring. For many it is a
time to honor and reflect on the past, let go, and celebrate the potential of
the future.
The
relentless punctuality, the unwearied urgency, of old Time, who turns his
hour-glass with such a sonorous ring on New-year's Day... ~George William
Curtis (1824–1892), "Editor's Easy Chair," Harper's New Monthly
Magazine, January 1887
Comes now a smiling New-Born Year
To fill to-day with goodly cheer—
An infant hale and lusty.
Upon our door-sill he is left
By Daddy Time, of clothes bereft
Despite the season gusty.
If he be Churl or doughty Knight,
A Son of Darkness or of Light
No man can tell, God bless him!
But be he base or glorious
Time puts it wholly up to us
To dress him!
~John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922), "The New-Born Year" (January
First), The Cheery Way: A Bit of Verse For Every Day, 1920
I fear thee not, O untried morrow! ~Julia B. Cady (d.1869), "New-Year
Thoughts," in Sabbath at Home, January 1870
Christmas-day is the pleasantest day in the whole year. On that day we think
tenderly of distant friends; we strive to forgive injuries—to close accounts
with ourselves and the world—to begin the new year with a white leaf, and a
trust that the chapter of life about to be written will contain more notable
entries, a fairer sprinkling of good actions, fewer erasures made in blushes,
and fewer ugly blots than some of the earlier ones. ~Alexander Smith
(1829–1867), "Winter," 1863
Even while we sing he smiles his last,
And leaves our sphere behind.
The good old year is with the past;
Oh be the new as kind!
~William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878), "A Song for New Year's Eve,"
1857
Hope and faith flower from the cheerful seeds of the old year to the
sprouting garden of the new year's dawn. ~Terri Guillemets,
"Annuals," 2004
O good New Year, we clasp
This warm shut hand of thine,
Loosing for ever, with half sigh, half gasp,
That which from ours falls like dead fingers' twine:
Ay, whether fierce its grasp
Has been, or gentle, having been, we know
That it was blessed: let the Old Year go.
~Dinah Maria Craik (1826–1887), "A Psalm for New Year's Eve,"
1855 ["The author of 'John Halifax, Gentleman,' has written to
her publishers to say that she does not wish her name to appear as it usually
does, Dinah Muloch Craik, but as Dinah Maria Craik. The fashion of retaining
one's family surname after marriage is peculiarly American. In England they
drop it, and retain the middle name." The Critic, 1883 December 8th —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]
A Happy New Year! There is a glow of cheer and optimism in the very words
"New Year." The old year, with its anxieties and worries, is over.
It too brought happy days and sunshine, and in memory we must cherish the
bright places. ~May Louise Crane, "Poet-O-Grams," American
Poetry Magazine, January 1934
New Year's Day—Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good
resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.
Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore
his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days
from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting
our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also
reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this
time. However, go in, community. New Year's is a harmless annual institution,
of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks,
and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with
a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion. ~Mark Twain (1835–1910),
in Territorial Enterprise, 1863 January 1st
1. A Wise Man should never resolve upon any thing,
at least never let the World know his Resolution, for if he cannot arrive at
that, he is asham'd....
2. Never tell your Resolution before hand; but when
the Cast is thrown, Play it as well as you can to win the Game you are at.
~John Selden (1584–1654), "Wisedom," Table-talk,
published posthumously, 1689 [There is a quote going around,
"Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a
duty," but I find it not in Selden's works, nor any other's. It appears
to be an anonymous and recent repurposing of Selden's quotation. —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]
When then is lost, as time is by,
we look upon the yearly wine
to see our substance in the lees.
Did tribe and purse most pleasing leave?
To look for clear and faithful sense,
that gives a bodied stance bouquet,
then see the vat at mirror's face
and find in it, the yearly pace.
~E. Marshall, "Vintner Epilogue (Happy Old Year)," 2008
Many years ago I resolved never to bother with New Year's resolutions, and
I've stuck with it ever since. ~Dave Beard (@Raqhun), 2009
I am fading from you,
But one draweth near,
Called the Angel-guardian
Of the coming year.
If my gifts and graces
Coldly you forget,
Let the New Year's Angel
Bless and crown them yet...
May you hold this Angel
Dearer than the last,—
So, I bless his Future,
While he crowns my Past.
~Adelaide A. Procter (1825–1864), "The Old Year's Blessing," A
Chaplet of Verses, 1862 [Procter, a philanthropist, published
her book of poems for the benefit of The Providence Row Night Refuge for
Homeless Women and Children. —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]
I have always liked the idea of hearing the clock strike twelve on the last
night of the old year.... wakeful to welcome the new year's angel when the
old one has winged his flight from us, bearing with him the record of our
inner years, its sins and sorrows. ~Claribel (Charlotte Alington Pye Barnard,
1830–1869), "New Year's Eve," Fireside Thoughts, Ballads, etc.,
etc., 1865
sourc: quotegarden
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