Samuel Francis Smith

Samuel Francis Smith (1808–1895), Baptist minister, journalist and author, is best known for having written the lyrics to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee, which he entitled America.

Quotes

• My country, ’t is of thee,
  Sweet land of liberty
  Of thee I sing:
  Land where my fathers died,
  Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
  From every mountain-side
  Let freedom ring.
  • America, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Our fathers’ God, to thee,
  Author of liberty,
  To thee I sing;
  Long may our land be bright
  With freedom’s holy light;
  Protect us by thy might,
  Great God, our King!
  • America, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• If you cannot be great, be willing to serve God in that which is small. If you cannot do great things for Him, cheerfully do little ones. If you cannot be an Aaron to serve at the altar, or a Moses to guide the tribes, consent to be "a little maid" to Naaman the Syrian, for the honor of God's prophets, or a little child, for Christ's sake, to be set by Him in the midst of the people, as an illustration of the sweetness of humility.
  • Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 123.