HENRY WARD BEECHER QUOTES XVIII

American clergyman (1813-1887)

A man in old age is like a sword in a shop window. Men that look upon the perfect blade do not imagine the process by which it was completed.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


Men utter a vast amount of slander against their physical nature, and attempt to repair deficient virtue by maiming their animal passions. These are to be trained, guided, restrained, but never crucified or exterminated, for they are the soil in which we were planted.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


A babe is nothing but a bundle of possibilities.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Religion is only another word for the right use of a man's whole self, instead of a wrong use of himself.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


God gives as the wheat gives: we sow one grain, and reap a hundred.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


There is no harder shield for the devil to pierce with temptation than singing with prayer.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Success is full of promise till men get it; and then it is a last year's nest, from which the bird has flown.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


Loving is like music. Some instruments can go up two octaves, some four, and some all the way from black thunder to sharp lightning. As some of them are susceptible only of melody, so some hearts can sing but one song of love, while others will fun in a full choral harmony.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Troubles come to us like mire and filth; but, when mingled with the soil, they change to flower and fruit.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Temptations are enemies outside the castle seeking entrance. If there be no false retainer within who holds treacherous parley, there can scarcely be even an offer.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Many people are afraid to embrace religion, for fear they shall not succeed in maintaining it.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


When a church is faithless to its duties, the real church is outside its walls, in the community.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


Newspapers are the schoolmasters of the common people.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


That endless book, the newspaper, is our national glory.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


A man never has good luck who has a bad wife.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Our moral faculties must be placed highest, else they can no more flourish than could a plant growing under the shade and drip of trees.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


God puts the excess of hope in one man, in order that it may be a medicine to the man who is despondent.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Suffering is as God's letter. Open it and read it. Many a one will find that he is titled, or that there is an inheritance laid up for him.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit