Quotes By Henry Ward Beecher

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.

Of all escape mechanisms, death is the most efficient.

Love is the river of life in the world.

God appoints our graces to be nurses to other men's weaknesses.

Now comes the mystery.

Mirth is the sweet wine of human life. It should be offered sparkling with zestful life unto God.

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

Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.

Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty.

The dog was created specially for children. He is a god of frolic.

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

The world's battlefields have been in the heart chiefly; more heroism has been displayed in the household and the closet, than on the most memorable battlefields in history.

It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk.

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one.

We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.

To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.

Gambling with cards or dice or stocks is all one thing. It's getting money without giving an equivalent for it.

Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life.

The babe at first feeds upon the mother's bosom, but it is always on her heart.

A book is good company. It is full of conversation without loquacity. It comes to your longing with full instruction, but pursues you never.

We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's.

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.

Well married a person has wings, poorly married shackles.

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

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

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

Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude.

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