Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
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One might as well attempt to calculate mathematically the contingent forms of the tinkling bits of glass in a kaleidoscope as to look through the tube of the future and foretell its pattern.
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Sorrows, as storms, bring down the clouds close to the earth; sorrows bring heaven down close; and they are instruments of cleansing and purifying.
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I think half the troubles for which men go slouching in prayer to God are caused by their intolerable pride. Many of our cares are but a morbid way of looking at our privileges. We let our blessings get mouldy, and then call them curses.
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There are sorrows that are not painful, but are of the nature of some acids, and give piquancy and flavor to life.
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The monkey is an organized sarcasm upon the human race.
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Socially we are woven into the fabric of society, where every man is like one thread in a piece of cloth. No single thread has a right to say, "I will stay here no longer," and draw out. No man has a right to make a hole in the well-woven fabric of society.
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We pray for those who have ceased to pray. We pray for those that need prayer more than ever, that have fewer and fewer seasons even of thought, that grow hard with years, that are less and less troubled by sin, and that are more and more irreverent of religion. We pray for the children of Christian parents who sometimes weep at the memory of father and mother, but who never have thought of God.
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Many men are stored full of unused knowledge. Like loaded guns that are never fired off, or military magazines in times of peace, they are stuffed with useless ammunition.
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The soul is a temple; and God is silently building it by night and by day. Precious thoughts are building it; disinterested love is building it; all-penetrating faith is building it.
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You are not called to be a canary in a cage. You are called to be an eagle, and to fly sun to sun, over continents.
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In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.
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Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.
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If you are idle, you are on the road to ruin; and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road
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We may cover a multitude of sins with the white robe of charity.
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There are apartments in the soul which have a glorious outlook; from whose windows you can see across the river of death, and into the shining city beyond; but how often are these neglected for the lower ones, which have earthward-looking windows.
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The babe at first feeds upon the mother's bosom, but it is always on her heart.
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A man's true state of power and riches is to be in himself.
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There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men than public opinion.
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Though cares and sorrows e'er must come, Though heart be rent, I know that God will give me strength, When mine is spent.
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I received a letter from a lad asking me for an easy berth. To this I replied: You cannot be an editor; do not try the law; do not think of the ministry; let alone all ships and merchandise; abhor politics; don't practice medicine; be not a farmer or a soldier or a sailor; don't study, don't think. None of these are easy. O, my son, you have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave!
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Anger is a bow that will shoot sometimes where another feeling will not.
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Expedients are for an hour, but principles are for the ages. Just because the rains descend and winds blow, we cannot afford to build on shifting sands.
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The little troubles and worries of life may be as stumbling blocks in our way, or we may make them stepping-stones to a nobler character and to Heaven. Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.
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It is a higher exhibition of Christian manliness to be able to bear trouble than to get rid of it.