Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
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Oftentimes great and open temptations are the most harmless because they come with banners flying and bands playing and all the munitions of war in full view, so that we know we are in the midst of enemies that mean us damage, and we get ready to meet and resist them. Our peculiar dangers are those that surprise us and work treachery in our fort.
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All words are pegs to hang ideas on.
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God never made anything else so beautiful as man.
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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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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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Men judge of Christians by taking as fair samples those that lie rotten on the ground.
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That which distinguishes man from the brute is his power, in dealing with Nature, to milk her laws, and make them give forth their bounty.
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Weak minds may be injured by novel-reading; but sensible people find both amusement and instruction therein.
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Mirth is the sweet wine of human life. It should be offered sparkling with zestful life unto God.
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The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a But.
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In the sacred precinct of that dwelling where the despotic woman wields the sceptre of fierce neatness, one treads as if he carried his life in his hands.
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Theology is but a science of applied to God. As schools change theology must necessarily change. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas of truth are not. Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged.
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In the family, happiness is in the ratio in which each is serving the others, seeking one another's good, and bearing one another's burdens.
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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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No emotion, any more than a wave, can long retain its own individual form.
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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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Men are like trees: each one must put forth the leaf that is created in him.
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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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The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigor to our moral nature.
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God sends experience to paint men's portraits.
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Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself.
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Fear is the soul's signal for rallying.
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The church is no more religion than the masonry of the aqueduct is the water that flows through it.
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To do good work a man should no doubt be industrious. To do great work he must certainly be idle a well.