Henry Ward Beecher Quotes - Page 34

• Wealth held by a class and used ambitiously becomes as despotic as an absolute monarchy, and has in its hands manners, customs, laws, institutions, and governments themselves.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Government, Hands, Law

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

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• The common schools are the stomachs of the country in which all people that come to us are assimilated within a generation. When a lion eats an ox, the lion does not become an ox but the ox becomes a lion.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Country, School, People

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• There have been many men who left behind them that which hundreds of years have not worn out. The earth has Socrates and Plato to this day. The world is richer yet by Moses and the old prophets than by the wisest statesmen. We are indebted to the past. We stand in the greatness of ages that are gone rather than in that of our own. But of how many of us shall it be said that, being dead, we yet speak?

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Plato, Greatness, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal Truths”, p.87

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• True politeness is the spirit of benevolence showing itself in a refined way. It is the expression of good-will and kindness. It promotes both beauty in the man who possesses it, and happiness in those who are about him. It is a religious duty, and should be a part of religious training.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Religious, Kindness, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher (1873). “The Original Plymouth Pulpit: Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”

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• 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.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Flower, Pride, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.73

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• Reason can tell how love affects us, but cannot tell what love is.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Love Is, Reason

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.117

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• By religion I mean perfected manhood,--the quickening of the soul by the influence of the Divine Spirit.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Mean, Soul, Religion

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• 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.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Son, Thinking, Temptation

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal truths”, p.135

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• We know much of a writer by his style. An open and imperious disposition is shown in short sentences, direct and energetic. A secretive and proud mind is cold and obscure in style. An affectionate and imaginative nature pours out luxuriantly, and blossoms all over with ornament.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Style, Mind, Ornaments

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• Not that which men do worthily, but that which they do successfully, is what history makes haste to record.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Success, Men, Haste

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.53

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• It is a view of God that compensates every thing else, and enables the soul to rest in His bosom. How, when the child in the night screams with terror, hearing sounds that it knows not of, is that child comforted and put to rest? Is it by a philosophical explanation that the sounds were made by the rats in the partition? Is it by imparting entomological knowledge? No; it is by the mother taking the child in her lap, and singing sweetly to it, and rocking it. And the child thinks nothing of the explanation, but only of the mother.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Trust, Mother, Children

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• Give us that calm certainty of truth, that nearness to Thee, that conviction of the reality of the life to come, which we shall need to bear us through the troubles of this.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Truth, Reality, Giving

  Henry Ward Beecher (1873). “Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit”, p.22

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• I would much rather fight pride than vanity, because pride has a stand-up way of fighting. You know where it is. It throws its black shadow on you, and you are not at a loss where to strike. But vanity is that delusive, that insectiferous, that multiplied feeling, and men that fight vanities are like men that fight midges and butterflies. It is easier to chase them than to hit them.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Butterfly, Fighting, Pride

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal truths”, p.145

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• When a man has no longer any conception of excellence above his own, his voyage is done, he is dead,--dead in trespasses and sin of blear-eyed vanity.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Vanity, Excellence

  Henry Ward Beecher (1855). “Star papers; or, Experiences of art and nature”, p.295

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• The superfluous blossoms on a fruit tree are meant to symbolize the large way God loves to do pleasant things.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Tree, Way, Fruit

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.19

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• I have known men who thought the object of conversion was to cleanse them as a garment is cleansed, and that when they are converted they were to be hung up in the Lord's wardrobe, the door of which was to be shut, so that no dust could get at them. A coat that is not used the moths eat; and a Christian who is hung up so that he shall not be tempted, the moths eat him; and they have poor food at that.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Christian, Men, Dust

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• Thou, Everlasting Strength, hast set Thyself forth to bear our burdens. May we bear Thy cross, and bearing that; find there is nothing else to bear; and touching that cross, find that instead of taking away our strength, it adds thereto. Give us faith for darkness, for trouble, for sorrow, for bereavement, for disappointment; give us a faith that will abide though the earth itself should pass away--a faith for living, a faith for dying.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Disappointment, Giving, Touching

  Henry Ward Beecher (1868). “Prayers in the Congregation”, p.88

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• Heaven is a place of restless activity, the abode of never-tiring thought.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Heaven, Tire, Restless

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• 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.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Crush, Morning, Night

  Henry Ward Beecher (1860). “Life thoughts”, p.43

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• His nature is such that our often coming does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole life of every man may be rolled on to God and not weary him, though it has wearied man.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Prayer, Men, Doe

  Henry Ward Beecher, Augusta Moore (1859). “Notes from Plymouth Pulpit: A Collection of Memorable Passages from the Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher, with a Sketch of Mr. Beecher and the Lecture Room”, p.67

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• Sometimes fear is wholesome and rational; it is well to swing fear as a mighty battle-axe over men's heads when no other motive will move them.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Fear, Moving, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

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• What could make me love my fellow Christian better than to see that God loves us all as we were all one soul?

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Christian, Soul, God Love

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• Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not God's refinement.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Fellow Man, Fellows

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.119

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• Nothing is orderly till man takes hold of it. Everything in creation lies around loose.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Lying, Men, Order

  Henry Ward Beecher (1862). “Eyes and ears”, p.389

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• A dull ax never loves grindstones.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Boredom, Dull, Grindstone

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal truths”, p.195

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