Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
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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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If there be any one whose power is in beauty, in purity, in goodness, it is a woman.
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Love is the river of life in this world. Think not that ye know it who stand at the little tinkling rill, the first small fountain. Not until you have gone through the rocky gorges, and not lost the stream; not until you nave gone through the meadow, and the stream has widened and deepened until fleets could ride on its bosom; not until beyond the meadow you have come to the unfathomable ocean, and poured your treasures into its depths – not until then can you know what love is.
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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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Not thine the sorrow, but ours, sainted soul! Thou hast indeed entered into the promised land, while we are yet on the march. To us remain the rocking of the deep, the storm upon the land, days of duty and nights of watching; but thou are sphered high above all darkness and fear, beyond all sorrow and weariness. Rest, oh, weary heart!
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Do not be afraid of defeat. You are never so near victory as when you are defeated in a good cause.
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Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality.
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The dog is the god of frolic.
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Do not give, as many rich men do, like a hen that lays her eggs ...and then cackles.
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I have great hope of a wicked man, slender hope of a mean one. A wicked man may be converted and become a prominent saint. A mean man ought to be converted six or seven times, one right after the other, to give him a fair start and put him on an equality with a bold, wicked man.
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The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.
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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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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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It usually takes a hundred years to make a law, and then, after it has done its work; it usually takes a hundred years to get rid of it.
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God never made anything else so beautiful as man.
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Our government is built upon the vote. But votes that are purchasable are quicksands, and a government built on them stands upon corruption and revolution.
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God puts the excess of hope in one man, in order that it may be a medicine to the man who is despondent.
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A book is a garden; A book is an orchard; A book is a storehouse; A book is a party. It is company by the way; it is a counselor; it is a multitude of counselors.
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All words are pegs to hang ideas on.
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Laws are not masters but servants, and he rules them who obey them.
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Never be grandiloquent when you want to drive home a searching truth. Don't whip with a switch that has the leaves on, if you want it to tingle.
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Flowers are sent to do God's work in unrevealed paths, and to diffuse influence by channels that we hardly suspect.
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A man who cannot get angry is like a stream that cannot overflow, that is always turbid. Sometimes indignation is as good as a thunderstorm in summer, clearing and cooling the air.
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All true religion must stand on true morality.