Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
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It takes a man to make a devil; and the fittest man for such a purpose is a snarling, waspish, red-hot, fiery creditor.
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Mirthfulness is in the mind, and you cannot get it out. It is the blessed spirit that God has set in the mind to dust it, to enliven its dark places, and to drive asceticism, like a foul fiend, out at the back door. It is just as good, in its place, as conscience or veneration. Praying can no more be made a substitute for smiling than smiling can for praying.
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Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
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It is not what we read, but what we remember, that makes us learned. It is not what we intend, but what we do that makes us useful. It is not a few faint wishes, but a life long struggle, that makes us valiant.
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Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.
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Newspapers are to the body politic what arteries are to the human body, their function being to carry blood and sustenance and repair to every part of the body.
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The gravest events dawn with no more noise than the morning star makes in rising. All great developments complete themselves in the world and modestly wait in silence, praising themselves never, and announcing themselves not at all. We must be sensitive, and sensible, if we would see the beginnings and endings of great things. That is our part.
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A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad track-an inch between wreck and smooth-rolling prosperity.
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God made the human body, and it is the most exquisite and wonderful organization which has come to us from the divine hand.
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Tyrannies are overthrown by ideas. Armies are defeated by ideas. Nations, and Time itself, are overmatched by ideas.
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The mystery of history is an insoluble problem.
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We not only live among men, but there are airy hosts, blessed spectators, sympathetic lookers-on, that see and know and appreciate our thoughts and feelings and acts.
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God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.
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Many yet are the secret truths of God which will be unfolded as they are needed.
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The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences.
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Death is the dropping of the flower, that the fruit may swell.
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Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life.
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If God but cares for our inward and eternal life, if by all the experiences of this life He is reducing it and preparing for its disclosure, nothing can befall us but prosperity. Every sorrow shall be but the setting of some luminous jewel of joy. Our very morning shall be but the enamel around the diamond; our very hardships but the metallic rim that holds the opal, glancing with strange interior fires.
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The prouder a man is, the more he thinks he deserves, and the more he thinks he deserves, the less he really does deserve.
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Fear is the soul's signal for rallying.
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Anxiety in human life is what squeaking and grinding are in machinery that is not oiled. In life, trust is the oil.
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He that does not know how wisely to meddle with public affairs in preaching the gospel, does not know how to preach the gospel.
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The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.
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Blessed be the man whose work drives him. Something must drive men; and if it is wholesome industry, they have no time for a thousand torments and temptations.