Henry Ward Beecher

Quotes

Besides anarchy, the worst thing in this world is government.
Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.
It usually takes 100 years to make a law, and then, after it's done its work, it usually takes 100 years to be rid of it.
The dog was created especially for children. He is the god of frolic.
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will; and the other from a strong won't.
Do not be afraid of defeat. you are never so near victory as when defeated in a good cause
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry.
You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door.
Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.
A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.
Troubles are often the tools God fashions us for better things.
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.
Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life.
We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning.
To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice.
Our days are a kaleidoscope. Every instant a change takes place in the contents. New harmonies, new contrasts, new combinations of every sort. Nothing ever happens twice alike. The most familiar people stand each moment in some new relation to each other, to their work, to surrounding objects. The most tranquil house, with the most serene inhabitants, living upon the utmost regularity of system, is yet exemplifying infinite diversities.
The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is a human owl, vigilant in darkness, and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.
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.
Now comes the mystery.
Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest who complained of bad luck.
It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship.
Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.
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.
The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a "but".
Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years.
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!
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.
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage.
I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.
The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.