“You never can tell when you do an act
Just what the result will be;
But with every deed you are sowing a seed,
Though the harvest you may not see.”

—  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

You Never Can Tell (1895).
Poetry quotes
Context: p>You never can tell when you do an act
Just what the result will be;
But with every deed you are sowing a seed,
Though the harvest you may not see.
Each kindly act is an acorn dropped
In God's productive soil;
You may not know, yet the tree shall grow
And shelter the brows that toil.You never can tell what your thoughts will do
In bringing you hate or love;
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe —
Each thing must create its kind;
And they speed o'er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.</p

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Ella Wheeler Wilcox photo
Ella Wheeler Wilcox46
American author and poet 1850–1919

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