Henry Ward Beecher Quotes - Page 30

• Miracles are like candles lit up until the sun rises, and then blown out. Therefore, I am amused when I hear sects and churches talk about having evidence of Divine authority because they have miracles. Miracles in our time are like candles in the street at midday. We do not want miracles. They are to teach men how to find out truths themselves; and after they have learned this, they no more need them than a well man needs a staff, or a grown-up child needs a walking-stool.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Children, Men, Miracle

  Henry Ward Beecher (1872). “One Thousand Gems”, p.249

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• 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

  Temptation, Enemy, Castles

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.44

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• No man knows what he will do till the right temptation comes.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Temptation, Knows

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

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• There is no right more universal and more sacred, because lying so near the root of existence, than the right of men to their own labor.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Lying, Men, Roots

  Henry Ward Beecher (1863). “Freedom and War: Discourses on Topics Suggested by the Times”, p.320, Gale Cengage Learning

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• The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  People, Gold, Treasure

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

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• If Christ is not divine, every impulse of the Christian world falls to a lower octave, and light and love and hope decline.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Christian, Fall, Light

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• When leisure is a selfish luxury, its very activity, when it stirs, is apt to be only a kind of indolence taking exercise, that it may the better digest its selfishness.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Selfish, Exercise, Luxury

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.39

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• The first merit of pictures is the effect which they can produce upon the mind; — and the first step of a sensible man should be to receive involuntary effects from them. Pleasure and inspiration first, analysis afterward.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Art, Inspiration, Men

  "Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature".

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• A library is but the soul's burial ground; it is the land of shadows. Yet one is impressed with the thought, the labor, and the struggle, represented in this vast catacomb of books. Who could dream, by the placid waters that issue from the level mouths of brooks into the lake, all the plunges, the whirls, the divisions, and foaming rushes that had brought them down to the tranquil exit? And who can guess through what channels of disturbance, and experiences of sorrow, the heart passed that has emptied into this Dead Sea of books?

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Dream, Struggle, Book

  Henry Ward Beecher (1855). “Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature”, p.54, New York : Boston : J.C. Derby ; Phillips, Sampson & Company

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• Religion would save a man; Christ would make him worth saving.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Jesus, Men, Saving

  Henry Ward Beecher (1871). “The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”, p.236

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• 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, Temptation, Coats

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

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• The mischiefs of anarchy have been equaled by the mischiefs of government.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Government, Anarchy, Mischief

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

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• As the imagination is set to look into the invisible and immaterial, it seems to attract something of their vitality; and though it can give nothing to the body to redeem it from years, it can give to the soul that freshness of youth in old age which is even more beautiful than youth in the young.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Beautiful, Art, Years

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.56

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• It 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 Beecher

  Men, Perfect, Every Man

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

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• Heaven answers with us the same purpose that the tuning-fork does with musicians. Our affections, the whole orchestra of them, are apt to get below the concert-pitch; and we take heaven to tune our hearts by.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Heart, Heaven, Musician

  Henry Ward Beecher (1870). “Familiar Talks on Themes of General Christian Experience”, p.262

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• Amid the discords of this life, it is blessed to think of heaven, where God draws after him an everlasting train of music; for all thoughts are harmonious and all feelings vocal, and so there is round about his feet eternal melody.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Blessed, Thinking, Feet

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.16

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• Yea, though the breath of disappointment should chill the sanguine heart, Speedily gloweth it again, warmed by the live embers of hope.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Hope, Disappointment, Heart

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• All our other faculties seem to have the brown touch of earth upon them, but the imagination carries the very livery of heaven, and is God's self in the soul.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Self, Imagination, Heaven

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

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• That which men suppose the imagination to be, and to do, is often frivolous enough and mischievous enough; but that which God meant it to be in the mental economy is not merely noble, but supereminent. It is the distinguishing element in all refinement. It is the secret and marrow of civilization. It is the very eye of faith. The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Eye, Men, Civilization

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.56

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• Life is full of amusement to an amusing man.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Life, Men, Amusing

  Henry Ward Beecher, Eleanor Kirk (1887). “Beecher as a Humorist: Selections from the Published Works of Henry Ward Beecher”

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• Public sentiment is to public officers what water is to the wheel of the mill.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Water, Wheels, Politician

  Henry Ward Beecher (1863). “Freedom and War: Discourses on Topics Suggested by the Times”, p.302

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• The slave labors, but with no cheer - it is not the road to respectability, it will honor him with no citizens' trust, it brings no bread to his family, no grain to his garner, no leisure in after-days, no books or papers to his children. It opens no school-house door, builds no church, rears for him no factory, lays no keel, fills no bank, earns no acres. With sweat and toil and ignorance he consumes his life, to pour the earnings into channels from which he does no drink, into hands that never honor him. But perpetually rob and often torment.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Cheer, Children, Book

  "Modern Agitators: or, Pen Portraits of Living American Reformers". Book by David W. Bartlett, 1856.

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• The last person one wants to be is themselves. Sadly, that is the best person to be.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Confidence, Want, Lasts

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• 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 cannot touch bottom at all.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Lying, Men, Two

  Henry Ward Beecher (1872). “One Thousand Gems”, p.429

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• A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it. The worst lies are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Lying, Needs, Blades

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

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