Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
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Men think God is destroying them because he is tuning them. The violinist screws up the key till the tense cord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the string upon the musical rack.
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The man who perceives life only with his eye, his ear, his hand, and his tongue, is but little higher than the ox or an intelligent dog; but he who has imagination sees things around and above him, as the angels see them.
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What a pity flowers can utter no sound!-A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle ... oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be!
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A man is a fool who sits looking backward from himself in the past. Ah, what shallow, vain conceit there is in man! Forget the things that are behind. That is not where you live. Your roots are not there. They are in the present; and you should reach up into the other life.
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That endless book, the newspaper, is our national glory.
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Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
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A woman's pity often opens the door to love.
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A gamester, as such, is the cool, calculating, essential spirit of concentrated, avaricious selfishness.
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Your greatest pleasure is that which rebounds from hearts that you have made glad.
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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 think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more.
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All the sobriety which' religion needs or requires is that which real earnestness produces.
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The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
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There is no part of government which cannot better suffer derangement than the ballot. If you strike the ballot with disease, it is heart disease.
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It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stoney street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun.
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Debt rolls a man over and over, binding him hand and foot, and letting him hang upon the fatal mesh until the long-legged interest devours him.
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Suffering well borne is better than suffering removed.
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Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years.
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Love cannot endure indifference. It needs to be wanted. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another's heart, or its flame burns low.
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Affliction comes to us all ...not to impoverish, but to enrich us, as the plough enriches the field; to multiply our joy, as the seed, by planting, is multiplied a thousand-fold.
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Make men large and strong and tyranny will bankrupt itself in making shackles for them.
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God is like us to this extent, that whatever in us is good is like God.
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Do not be troubled because you have not great virtues. God made a million spears of grass where He made one tree. The earth is fringed and carpeted, not with forests, but with grasses. Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero or a saint.
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The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.