Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
Some men are, in regard to ridicule, like tin-roofed buildings in regard to hail: all that hits them bounds rattling off; not a stone goes through.
No man rides so high and in such good company as the man that allies himself to a truth.
It is one of the worst effects of prosperity to make a man a vortex instead of a fountain; so that, instead of throwing out, he learns only to draw in.
Many a man has been dined out of his religion, and his politics, and his manhood, almost.
The most miserable pettifogging in the world is that of a man in the court of his own consciences.
It is defeat that turns bone to flint, gristle to muscle, and makes men invincible.
Men are not put into this world to be everlastingly played on by the harping fingers of joy.
The mere wit is only a human bauble. He is to life what bells are to horses-not expected to draw the load, but only to jingle while the horses draw.
Our life is in the loom; it rolls up and is hidden as fast as it is woven. It is to be taken out of the loom only when we leave this world; then only shall we see the pattern.
No cradle for an emperor's child was ever prepared with so much magnificence as this world has been made for man. But it is only his cradle.
Victories that come cheap are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting.
Conceited men often seem a harmless kind of men, who, by an overweening self-respect, relieve others from the duty of respecting them at all.
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.
A man is a great bundle of tools. He is born into this life without the knowledge of how to use them. Education is the process of learning their use.
A man's true estate of power and riches is to be in himself; not in his dwelling or position or external relations, but in his own essential character.
A man without mirth is like wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it turns.
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.
A man without ambition is like a beautiful worm - it can creep, but it cannot fly.
The commerce of the world is conducted by the strong, and usually it operates against the weak.
And now we beseech of Thee that we may have every day some such sense of God's mercy and of the power of God about us, as we have of the fullness of the light of heaven before us.
He is the happiest man who is engaged in a business which tasks the most faculties of his mind.
The moment an ill can be patiently handled, it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.
Our moral faculties must be placed highest, else they can no more flourish than could a plant growing under the shade and drip of trees.
In the morning, we carry the world like Atlas; at noon, we stoop and bend beneath it; and at night, it crushes us flat to the ground.
Thorough selfishness destroys or paralyzes enjoyment. A heart made selfish by the contest for wealth is like a citadel stormed in war, utterly shattered.
God makes the life fertile by disappointments, as he makes the ground fertile by frosts.
And when no longer we can see Thee, may we reach out our hands, and find Thee leading us through death to immortality and glory.
Man is at the bottom an animal, midway a citizen, and at the top divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top.
Grim care, moroseness, anxiety-all this rust of life ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth. Mirth is God's medicine.
When flowers are full of heaven-descended dews, they always hang their heads; but men hold theirs the higher the more they receive, getting proud as they get full.
A man should fear when he only enjoys what good he does publicly. Is it not the publicity rather than the charity he loves? Is it not vanity, rather than benevolence, that gives such charities?
The humblest individual exerts some influence, either for good or evil, upon others.
A man ought to carry himself in the world as an orange tree would if it could walk up and down in the garden, swinging perfume from every little censer it holds up in the air.
A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it. The worst lies are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.
Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.
There are some men's souls that are so thin, so almost destitute of what is the true idea of soul, that were not the guardian angels so keen-sighted, they would altogether overlook them.
