Henry Ward Beecher
American preacher, reformer and writer, 1813-1887
101 quotes.
Quotes by Henry Ward Beecher
- A book is a garden. A book is an orchard. A book is a storehouse. A book is a party. It is company by the way; it is a counsellor; it is a multitude of counsellors.
- A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school to Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.
- A good character, good habits, and iron industry are impregnable to the assaults of all the ill-luck that fools ever dreamed of.
- A lie is a very short wick in a very small lamp. The oil of reputation is very soon sucked up and gone. And just as soon as a man is known to lie, he is like a two-foot pump in a hundred-foot well. He can not touch bottom at all.
- A man in the right, with God on his side, is in the majority though he be alone.
- A man should first think of his character and then of his condition. Character will draw after it condition.
- A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.
- A man's reputation sometimes is as wide as the horizon, when his character is no bigger than the point of a needle. Character is what a man really is, reputation is what men believe him to be.
- A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself, and a mean man by one which is lower'than himself.
- A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
- A reputation for good judgment, for fair dealing, for truth, and for rectitude, is itself a fortune.
- Anxiety in human life is what squeaking and grinding are in machinery that is not oiled. In life trust is the oil.
- As ships meet at sea a moment together, when words of greeting must be spoken, and then away upon the deep; so men meet in this world; and I think we should cross no man's path without hailing him, and if he needs giving him supplies.
- Books are the windows through which the soul looks out. A house without books is like a room without windows.
- Despondency is ingratitude; hope is God’s worship.
- Difficulties are God's errands; and when we are sent upon them, we should esteem it a proof of God's confidence, — as a compliment from God.
- Do not be afraid of defeat. you are never so near victory as when defeated in a good cause
- Do the best you can where you are; and, when that is accomplished, God will open a door for you, and a voice will call, “Come up hither into a higher sphere.”
- Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
- Every man should use his intellect, not as he uses his lamp in the study, only for his own seeing, but as the lighthouse uses its lamps, that those afar off on the sea may see the shining, and learn their way.
- Everyman is full of music, but it is not everyman that knows how to bring it out.
- Expedients are for the hour; principles for the ages.
- Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.
- Feeling does not become stronger in the religious life by waiting, but by using it.
- Genius unexerted is no more genius than a bushel of acorns is a forest of oaks.
- God makes the life fertile by disappointments, as he makes the ground fertile by frosts.
- God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offence into everlasting forgetfulness.
- God planted fear in the soul as truly as he planted hope or courage. Fear is a kind of bell, or gong, which rings the mind into quick life and avoidance upon the approach of danger. It is the soul's signal for rallying.
- God washes the eyes by tears until they can behold the invisible land where tears shall come no more.
- Good nature is one of the richest fruits of true Christianity.
- Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the using of strength.
- Happiness is not the end of life; character is.
- He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.
- Heart troubles in God’s husbandry are not wounds, but the putting in of the spade before planting the seeds.
- Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
- I can forgive, but I cannot forget," is only another way of saying, "I will not forgive." A forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note, torn in two and burned up, so that it never can be shown against the man.
- I don’t like these cold, precise, perfect people, who, in order not to speak wrong, never speak at all, and in order not to do wrong, never do anything.
- If a man is fit to go higher, he will show it by being faithful where he is.
- If a man meets with injustice, it is not required that he shall not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry after he has had time to think upon it, that is sinful. The flame is not wrong, but the coals are.
- If there is ever a time to be ambitious, it is not when ambition is easy, but when it is hard.