Love is the river of life in this world. Think not that ye know it who stand at the little tinkling rill, the first small fountain. Not until you have gone through the rocky gorges, and not lost the stream; not until you nave gone through the meadow, and the stream has widened and deepened until fleets could ride on its bosom; not until beyond the meadow you have come to the unfathomable ocean, and poured your treasures into its depths--not until then can you know what love is.
Henry Ward BeecherMany men are mere warehouses full of merchandise--the head, the heart, are stuffed with goods. . . . There are apartments in their souls which were once tenanted by taste, and love, and joy, and worship, but they are all deserted now, and the rooms are filled with earthy and material things.
Henry Ward BeecherWhen 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 BeecherIt is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hard put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction.
Henry Ward BeecherThe Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope, then he sees worlds beyond; but, if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that.
Henry Ward BeecherThe humblest individual exerts some influence, either for good or evil, upon others.
Henry Ward BeecherThere 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.
Henry Ward BeecherA man that has lost moral sense is like a man in battle with both of his legs shot off: he has nothing to stand on.
Henry Ward BeecherOur days are a kaleidoscope. Every instant a change takes place in the contents. New harmonies, new contrasts, new combinations of every sort. Nothing ever happens twice alike. The most familiar people stand each moment in some new relation to each other, to their work, to surrounding objects. The most tranquil house, with the most serene inhabitants, living upon the utmost regularity of system, is yet exemplifying infinite diversities.
Henry Ward BeecherIt is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.
Henry Ward BeecherLove is not a possession but a growth. The heart is a lamp with just oil enough to burn for an hour, and if there be no oil to put in again its light will go out. God's grace is the oil that fills the lamp of love.
Henry Ward BeecherAll human affairs follow nature's great analogue, the growth of vegetation. There are three periods of growth in every plant. The first, and slowest, is the invisible growth by the root; the second and much accelerated is the visible growth by the stem; but when root and stem have gathered their forces, there comes the third period, in which the plant quickly flashes into blossom and rushes into fruit.
Henry Ward BeecherIf 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.
Henry Ward BeecherThere is a patience that cackles. There are a great many virtues that are hen-like. They are virtue, to be sure; but everybody in the neighborhood has to know about them.
Henry Ward BeecherThere is no faculty of the human soul so persistent and universal as that of hatred.
Henry Ward BeecherIf one asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him: It means all that the Constitution of our people, organizing for justice, for liberty, and for happiness, meant. Our flag carries American ideas, American history and American feelings. This American flag was the safeguard of liberty. It was an ordinance of liberty by the people, for the people. That it meant, that it means, and, by the blessing of God, that it shall mean to the end of time!
Henry Ward BeecherThe reason that men are so slow to confess their vices is because they have not yet abandoned them.
Henry Ward BeecherIf you attempt to beat a man down and to get his goods for less than a fair price, you are attempting to commit burglary, as much as though you broke into his shop to take the things without paying for them.
Henry Ward BeecherThe power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.
Henry Ward BeecherA boy is a piece of existence quite separate from all things else, and deserves separate chapters in the natural history of men.
Henry Ward BeecherThere are more quarrels smothered by just shutting your mouth, and holding it shut, than by all the wisdom in the world.
Henry Ward BeecherIf any man is rich and powerful he comes under the law of God by which the higher branches must take the burnings of the sun, and shade those that are lower; by which the tall trees must protect the weak plants beneath them.
Henry Ward BeecherLaughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either.
Henry Ward BeecherIn friendship your heart is like a bell struck every time your friend is in trouble.
Henry Ward BeecherPride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
Henry Ward BeecherSelfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself.
Henry Ward BeecherUndoubtedly we render our consciences callous by evil indulgences; but we cannot entirely subdue that still, small voice.
Henry Ward BeecherWhen God thought of mother, He must have laughed with satisfaction, and framed it quickly - so rich, so deep, so divine, so full of soul, power, and beauty, was the conception.
Henry Ward BeecherA man that puts himself on the ground of moral principle, if the whole world be against him, is mightier than all of them.
Henry Ward BeecherA 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 counselor; it is a multitude of counselors.
Henry Ward BeecherA person can no more make money suddenly and largely, and be unharmed by it, than one could suddenly grow from a child's stature to an adult's without harm.
Henry Ward BeecherInvolved sentences, crooked, circuitous, and parenthetical, no matter how musically they may be balanced, are prejudicial to a facile understanding of the truth.
Henry Ward Beecher