Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
-
You have seen a ship out on the bay, swinging with the tide, and seeming as if it would follow it; and yet it cannot, for down beneath the water it is anchored. So many a soul sways toward heaven, but cannot ascend thither, because it is anchored to some secret sin.
-
Precise knowledge is the only true knowledge, and he who does not teach exactly, does not teach at all.
-
We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's.
-
Some of God's noblest sons, I think, will be selected from those that know how to take wealth, with all its temptations, and maintain godliness therewith. It is hard to be a saint standing in a golden niche.
-
Today is a goblet day. The whole heavens have been mingled with exquisite skill to a delicious flavor, and the crystal cup put to every lip. Breathing is like ethereal drinking. It is a luxury simply to exist.
-
Truths are first clouds; then rain, then harvest and food.
-
When our cup runs over, we let others drink the drops that fall, but not a drop from within the rim, and call it charity; when the crumbs are swept from our table, we think it generous to let the dogs eat them; as if that were charity which permits others to have what we cannot keep.
-
This world is magnificent for strangers and pilgrims, but miserable for residents.
-
What I spent, I had; What I kept, I lost; What I gave, I have.
-
No man is good for anything who has not some particle of obstinacy to use upon occasion.
-
The truest self-respect is not to think of self.
-
Every boy wants someone older than himself to whom he may go in moods of confidence and yearning. The neglect of this child's want by grown people . . . is a fertile source of suffering.
-
People of too much sentiment are like fountains, whose overflow keeps a disagreeable puddle about them.
-
The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.
-
As flowers carry dewdrops, trembling on the edges of the petals, and ready to fall at the first waft of wind or brush of bird, so the heart should carry its beaded words of thanksgiving; and at the first breath of heavenly flavor, let down the shower, perfumed with the heart's gratitude.
-
What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away.
-
If there's a job to be done, I always ask the busiest man in my parish to take it on and it gets done.
-
Wherever you have seen God pass, mark that spot, and go and sit in that window again.
-
Reason can tell how love affects us, but cannot tell what love is.
-
We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
-
Genius is a steed too fiery for the plow or the cart.
-
There is no such thing as preaching patience into people, unless the sermon is so long that they have to practice it while they hear. No man can learn patience except by going out into the hurlyburly world, and taking life just as it blows. Patience is but lying to, and riding out the gale.
-
We let our blessings get mouldy, and then call them curses.
-
Laugh at your friends, And if your friends are sore; So much the better, You may laugh the more.