Words to cheer someone up

Get well soon quotes & messages

Kind, hopeful lines for a get-well card or a message to someone resting up: Emily Dickinson's 'Hope is the thing with feathers', Stevenson's 'The Land of Counterpane', Longfellow on the sun behind the clouds and Anne Shirley on tomorrow being a new day. Every passage is public domain and copied word for word from the original book.

22 passages

Nature & seasons
I wandered lonely as a CloudThat floats on high o'er Vales and Hills,When all at once I saw a crowdA host of dancing Daffodills;Along the Lake, beneath the trees,Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.The waves beside them danced, but theyOutdid the sparkling waves in glee:—A Poet could not but be gayIn such a laughing company:I gaz'd—and gaz'd—but little thoughtWhat wealth the shew to me had brought:For oft when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude,And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the Daffodils.
William WordsworthPoems, in Two Volumes, Vol. 2, 1807 · "I wandered lonely as a Cloud"
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Courage & motivation
OUT of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest HenleyPoems, 1888 · Invictus (Echoes, IV)
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Courage & motivation
Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune without the words,And never stops at all,And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the stormThat could abash the little birdThat kept so many warm.I 've heard it in the chillest land,And on the strangest sea;Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me.
Emily DickinsonPoems by Emily Dickinson, 1891 · Hope (Second Series)
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Courage & motivation
Say not the struggle naught availeth,The labour and the wounds are vain,The enemy faints not, nor faileth,And as things have been they remain.If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,And, but for you, possess the field.For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,Seem here no painful inch to gain,Far back, through creeks and inlets making,Comes silent, flooding in, the main.And not by eastern windows only,When daylight comes, comes in the light;In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!But westward, look, the land is bright!
Arthur Hugh CloughSay Not the Struggle Naught Availeth, 1862
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Joy & wonder
“Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them,” exclaimed Anne. “You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them.”
L. M. MontgomeryAnne of Green Gables, 1908 · Chapter XIII: The Delights of Anticipation
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Joy & wonder
Life has loveliness to sell,All beautiful and splendid things,Blue waves whitened on a cliff,Soaring fire that sways and sings,And children's faces looking upHolding wonder like a cup.
Sara TeasdaleLove Songs, 1917 · Barter
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Comfort & remembrance
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;Thy fate is the common fate of all,Into each life some rain must fall,Some days must be dark and dreary.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowThe Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1893 · The Rainy Day
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Nature & seasons
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John MuirOur National Parks, 1901 · Chapter II: The Yellowstone National Park
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Joy & wonder
When I was sick and lay a-bed,I had two pillows at my head,And all my toys beside me lay,To keep me happy all the day.And sometimes for an hour or soI watched my leaden soldiers go,With different uniforms and drills,Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;And sometimes sent my ships in fleetsAll up and down among the sheets;Or brought my trees and houses out,And planted cities all about.I was the giant great and stillThat sits upon the pillow-hill,And sees before him, dale and plain,The pleasant land of counterpane.
Robert Louis StevensonA Child's Garden of Verses, 1885 · The Land of Counterpane
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Courage & motivation
Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.
Frances Hodgson BurnettThe Secret Garden, 1911 · Chapter XXVII: In the Garden
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