Henry Ward Beecher Quotes - Page 34

• 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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• No one can deal with the hearts of men unless he has the sympathy which is given by love.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Sympathy, Heart, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher (1872). “Popular Lectures on Preaching”, p.188

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• We ought to be ten times as hungry for knowledge as for food for the body.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Knowledge, Body, Hungry

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

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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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• Nature would be scarcely worth a puff of the empty wind if it were not that all Nature is but a temple, of which God is the brightness and the glory.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Nature, Wind, Would Be

  Henry Ward Beecher (1873). “The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”, p.153

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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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• Flowers . . . have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its rigor.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Flower, Feelings, Relaxation

  Henry Ward Beecher (1862). “Eyes and ears”, p.270

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• It is a man dying with his harness on that angels love to escort upward.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Love, Angel, Men

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

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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