Some men will not shave on Sunday, and yet they spend all the week in shaving their fellow-men; and many folks think it very wicked to black their boots on Sunday morning, yet they do not hesitate to black their neighbor's reputation on week-days.
Henry Ward BeecherIt is part and parcel of every man's life to develop beauty in himself. All perfect things have in them an element of beauty.
Henry Ward BeecherHappy is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own shining. Such a one moves on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south.
Henry Ward BeecherA reputation for good judgment, for fair dealing, for truth, and for rectitude, is itself a fortune.
Henry Ward BeecherI will not say it is not Christian to make beads of others faults, and tell them over every day; I say it is infernal. If you want to know how the Devil feels, you do know, if you are such an one.
Henry Ward BeecherOh, ye infidel philosophers, teach me how to find joy in sorrow, strength in weakness, and light in darkest days; how to bear buffeting and scorn; how to welcome death, and to pass through it into the sphere of life, and this not for me only, but for the whole world that groans and travails in pain; and till you can do this, speak not to me of a better revelation than the Bible.
Henry Ward BeecherNext to the pastoral came the agricultural life. When you add to that the manufacturing phase of development, society begins to fill out, and needs but wings to fly, and commerce is its wings.
Henry Ward BeecherWe 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 BeecherA very common flower adds generosity to beauty. It gives joy to the poor, to the rude, and to the multitudes who could have no flowers were nature to charge a price for her blossoms.
Henry Ward BeecherI 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 BeecherWhere all of the man is what property he owns, it does not take long to annihilate him.
Henry Ward BeecherThere 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 BeecherHold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
Henry Ward BeecherEvery man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page
Henry Ward BeecherThere is nothing that is so wonderfully created as the human soul. There is something of God in it. We are infinite in the future, though we are finite in the past.
Henry Ward BeecherIt is not what we read, but what we remember, that makes us learned. It is not what we intend, but what we do that makes us useful. It is not a few faint wishes, but a life long struggle, that makes us valiant.
Henry Ward BeecherIf you want your neighbor to know what Christ will do for him, let the neighbor see what Christ has done for you.
Henry Ward BeecherIt was the German schoolhouse which destroyed Napoleon III. France, since then, is making monster cannon and drilling soldiers still, but she is also building schoolhouses. As long as war is possible, anything that makes better soldiers people want.
Henry Ward BeecherOur 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 BeecherProvidence is but another name for natural law. Natural law itself would go out in a minute if it were not for the divine thought that is behind it.
Henry Ward BeecherA republican government in a hundred points is weaker than an autocratic government; but in this one point it is the strongest that ever existed — it has educated a race of men that are men.
Henry Ward BeecherIt is not when the cable lies coiled up on the deck that you know how strong or how weak it is; it is when it is put to the test.
Henry Ward BeecherA gamester, as such, is the cool, calculating, essential spirit of concentrated, avaricious selfishness.
Henry Ward BeecherThe rarest feeling that ever lights a human face is the contentment of a loving soul.
Henry Ward BeecherIf there be any one whose power is in beauty, in purity, in goodness, it is a woman.
Henry Ward BeecherThe true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.
Henry Ward BeecherIf Christ is not divine, every impulse of the Christian world falls to a lower octave, and light and love and hope decline.
Henry Ward BeecherWhoever makes home seem to the young dearer and more happy, is a public benefactor.
Henry Ward BeecherIn engineering, that only is great which achieves. It matters not what the intention is, he who in the day of battle is not victorious is not saved by his intention.
Henry Ward BeecherEvery tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. We should live for the future, and yet should find our life in the fidelities of the present; the last is only the method of the first.
Henry Ward Beecher