Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
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The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success.
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Thorough selfishness destroys or paralyzes enjoyment. A heart made selfish by the contest for wealth is like a citadel stormed in war, utterly shattered.
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Maple-trees are the cows of trees (spring-milked).
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At the bottom of every leaf-stem is a cradle, and in it is an infant germ; the winds will rock it, the birds will sing to it all summer long, but the next season it will unfold and go alone.
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Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.
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Many men are mere warehouses full of merchandise--the head, the heart, are stuffed with goods. . . . There are apartments in their souls which were once tenanted by taste, and love, and joy, and worship, but they are all deserted now, and the rooms are filled with earthy and material things.
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God is the one great employer, thinker, planner, supervisor.
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Grim care, moroseness, anxiety-all this rust of life ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth. Mirth is God's medicine.
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There is not a heart but has its moments of longing, yearning for something better; nobler; holier than it knows now.
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A woman's pity often opens the door to love.
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That endless book, the newspaper, is our national glory.
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Reason is a permanent blessing of God to the soul. Without it there can be no large religion.
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Like waves, our feelings may continue by repeating themselves, by intermittent rushes.
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The blossom cannot tell what becomes of its odor, and no person can tell what becomes of his or her influence and example.
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A gamester, as such, is the cool, calculating, essential spirit of concentrated, avaricious selfishness.
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Hope is sweet-minded and sweet-eyed. It draws pictures; it weaves fancies; it fills the future with delight.
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I have known men who thought the object of conversion was to cleanse them as a garment is cleansed, and that when they are converted they were to be hung up in the Lord's wardrobe, the door of which was to be shut, so that no dust could get at them. A coat that is not used the moths eat; and a Christian who is hung up so that he shall not be tempted, the moths eat him; and they have poor food at that.
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Make men large and strong and tyranny will bankrupt itself in making shackles for them.
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It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hard put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction.
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Leaves die, but trees do not. They only undress.
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But when we borrow trouble, and look forward into the future to see what storms are coming, and distress ourselves before they come as to how we shall avert them if they ever do come, we lose our proper trustfulness in God. When we torment ourselves with imaginary dangers, or trials, or reverses, we have already parted with that perfect love which casteth out fear.
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Some people think black is the color of heaven, and that the more they can make their faces look like midnight, the more evidence they have of grace. But God, who made the sun and the flowers, never sent me to proclaim to you such a lie as that.
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The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold.
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Prayer covers the whole of man's life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which if it affects our real interest or happiness, we may not lay before God and be sure of sympathy.