“Heaven is not gained by a single bound,
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies;
And we mount to its summit round by round.”

— Josiah Gilbert Holland

Variant: Heaven is not gained by a single bound,
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies;
And we mount to its summit round by round.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 564.

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Josiah Gilbert Holland 16

Novelist, poet, editor 1819–1881

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In P. Léonard Hansen, Vita mirabilis, 1664, p. 137 https://archive.org/details/wotb_6743752/page/137/mode/2up?view=theater; quoted in Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1992, § 618 https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1O.HTM.