Henry ward beecher quotes

If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost.

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

There is no man that lives who does not need to be drilled, disciplined, and developed into something higher and nobler and better than he is by nature. Life is one prolonged birth.

No man can tell if he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.

“I can forgive, but I cannot forget,” is only another way of saying, “I will not forgive.”

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

Men's best successes come after their disappointments.

The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences.

The most dangerous people are the ignorant.

Do not give, as many rich men do, like a hen that lays her eggs ...and then cackles.

The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, then he sees worlds beyond; but, if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that.

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.

Blessed are they who know how to shine on one's gloom with their cheer.

There is not a person we employ who does not, like ourselves, desire recognition, praise, gentleness, forbearance, patience.

Laws are not masters but servants, and he rules them who obey them.

Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.

There are persons so radiant, so genial, so kind, so pleasure-bearin g, that you instinctively feel in their presence that they do you good; whose coming into a room is like bringing a lamp there.

Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.

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.

The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.

Do not be afraid of defeat. You are never so near victory as when you are defeated in a good cause.

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

Defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong.

To do good work a man should no doubt be industrious. To do great work he must certainly be idle a well.

As flowers always wear their own colors and give forth their own fragrance every day alike, so should Christians maintain their character at all times and under all circumstances.

Some people are proud of their humility.

There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.

There is a power in the human mind ... to see things as they are ... but there is equally a power to see things as they might be.

People may talk about the equality of the sexes! They are not equal. The silent smile of a sensible, loving woman will vanquish ten men.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

A little library, growing every year, is an honorable part of a man’s history. It is a man’s duty to have books.

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.

Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.

Too much looking backward ... is bad for progress.

Even a liar tells a hundred truths to one lie; he has to, to make the lie good for anything.

All higher motives, ideals, conceptions, sentiments in a man are of no account if they do not come forward to strengthen him for the better discharge of the duties which devolve upon him in the ordinary affairs of life.

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hard put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction.

The things that hurt us teach us.

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

That energy which makes a child hard to manage is the energy which afterwards makes him a manager of life.

I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest who complained of bad luck.

The blossom cannot tell what becomes of its odor, and no person can tell what becomes of his or her influence and example.

Affliction comes to us all, not to make us sad, but sober; not to make us sorry, but to make us wise; not to make us despondent, but by its darkness to refresh us as the night refreshes the day; not to impoverish, but to enrich us

A man that has lost moral sense is like a man in battle with both of his legs shot off: he has nothing to stand on.

Everyone has influence, for good or bad, upon others.

True elegance becomes the more so as it approaches simplicity.

Death is the Christian's vacation morning. School is out. It is time to go home.

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.

To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice.

I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more.

Some men will not shave on Sunday, and yet they spend all the week in shaving their fellow-men; and many folks think it very wicked to black their boots on Sunday morning, yet they do not hesitate to black their neighbor's reputation on week-days.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself, and a mean man, by one lower than himself.

In the early ages men ruled by strength; now they rule by brain, and so long as there is only one man in the world who can think and plan, he will stand head and shoulders above him who cannot.

God has made sleep to be a sponge by which to rub out fatigue. A man's roots are planted in night as in a soil.

No one thing does human life more need than a kind consideration of the faults of others. Every one sins; everyone needs forbearance. Our own imperfections should teach us to be merciful.

There was never a person who did anything worth doing that he did not receive more than he gave.

It is not in the nature of true greatness to be exclusive and arrogant.

We never know how much one loves till we know how much he is willing to endure and suffer for us; and it is the suffering element that measures love. The characters that are great must, of necessity, be characters that shall be willing, patient and strong to endure for others. To hold our nature in the willing service of another is the divine idea of manhood, of the human character.

God sends experience to paint men's portraits.

What I spent, I had; What I kept, I lost; What I gave, I have.

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.

The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.

A cunning man overreaches no one half as much as himself.

A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.

The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.

A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.

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.

Men think God is destroying them because he is tuning them. The violinist screws up the key till the tense cord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the string upon the musical rack.

This world is magnificent for strangers and pilgrims, but miserable for residents.

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

Ignorance is the womb of monsters.

We need not fear shipwreck when God is the pilot.

Adversity, if for no other reason, is of benefit, since it is sure to bring a season of sober reflection. People see clearer at such times. Storms purify the atmosphere.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

A house built on sand is, in fair weather, just as good as if builded on a rock. A cobweb is as good as the mightiest chain cable when there is no strain on it. It is trial that proves one thing weak and another strong.

We never know the love of the parent for the child till we become parents.

Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.

A man in the right, with God on his side, is in the majority, though he be alone, for God is multitudinous above all populations of the earth.

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.

No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy the sunlight today, mix good cheer with friends today, enjoy it and bless God for it. Do not look back on happiness -- or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not let yourself be cheated out of it.

Find out what your temptations are, and you will find out largely what you are yourself.

The greatest architect and the one most needed is hope.

The diameter of each day is measured by the stretch of thought - not by the rising and setting of the sun.

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.

If one, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him, It means just what Concord and Lexington meant, what Bunker Hill meant; it means the whole glorious Revolutionary War, which was, in short, the rising up of a valiant young people against an old tyranny, to establish the most momentous doctrine that the world had ever known - the right of men to their own selves and to their liberties.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

If you want your neighbor to know what Christ will do for him, let the neighbor see what Christ has done for you.

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.

Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.

Your greatest pleasure is that which rebounds from hearts that you have made glad.

That was a judicious mother who said, "I obey my children for the first year of their lives, but ever after I expect them to obey me.

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.

A man who does not know how to be angry, does not know how to be good. Now and then a man should be shaken to the core with indignation over things evil.

Poverty is very good in poems but very bad in the house; very good in maxims and sermons but very bad in practical life.

Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable.

Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years.

All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.

The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.

A man that does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good.

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.

Well married a person has wings, poorly married shackles.

True obedience is true freedom.

Beauty may be said to be God's trademark in creation.

A conservative young man has wound up his life before it was unreeled. We expect old men to be conservative but when a nation's young men are so, its funeral bell is already rung.

The thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.

There is tonic in the things that men do not love to hear. Free speech is to a great people what the winds are to oceans ... and where free speech is stopped miasma is bred, and death comes fast.

There are more quarrels smothered by just shutting your mouth, and holding it shut, than by all the wisdom in the world.

The Bible is God's chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars.

Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped.

A dull axe never loves grindstones, but a keen workman does; and he puts his tool on them in order that it may be sharp. And men do not like grinding; but they are dull for the purposes which God designs to work out with them, and therefore He is grinding them.

The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never excuses himself.

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they are going to catch you in next.

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.

No town can fail of beauty, though its walks were gutters and its houses hovels, if venerable trees make magnificent colonnades along its streets.

When a man sells eleven ounces for twelve, he makes a compact with the devil, and sells himself for the value of an ounce.

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.

Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

There are many persons of combative tendencies, who read for ammunition, and dig out of the Bible iron for balls. They read, and they find nitre and charcoal and sulphur for powder. They read, and they find cannon. They read, and they make portholes and embrasures. And if a man does not believe as they do, they look upon him as an enemy, and let fly the Bible at him to demolish him. So men turn the word of God into a vast arsenal, filled with all manner of weapons, offensive and defensive.