HENRY WARD BEECHER QUOTES VIII

American clergyman (1813-1887)

A man's soul ought to be as the heavens were on the night when the shepherds looked up, and saw them full of angels as well as stars.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Surely, of all things that are, snow is the most beautiful and the most feeble! Born of air-drops, less than the fallen dew, disorganized by a puff of warmth, driven everywhere by the least motion of the winds, each particle light and soft, and falling to the earth with such noiseless gentleness, that the wings of ten million times ten million makes no sound in the air, and the footfall of thrice as many makes no noise.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

attributed, Day's Collacon


A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it, else the hand would cut itself which sought to drive it home upon another. The worst lies, therefore, are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


An ambition which has conscience in it will always be a laborious and faithful engineer, and will build the road, and bridge the chasms between itself and eminent success by the most faithful and minute performances of duty.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


God makes the life fertile by disappointments, as he makes the ground fertile by frosts.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Sin is sweet in the mouth and bitter in digestion. It lies hard on the stomach.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Some sins, like asps, always carry their sting with them.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Life is a plant that grows out of death.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


God's hand, like a sign-board, is pointing toward democracy, and saying to the nations of the earth, "This is the way: walk ye in it."

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


There is in youth a purity of character which, when once touched and defiled, can never be restored; a fringe more delicate than frost-work, and which, when torn and broken, can never be re-embroidered.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Woman began at zero, and has through ages slowly unfolded and risen. Each age has protested against growth as unsexing woman.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


That energy which makes a child hard to manage is the energy which afterward makes him a manager of life.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


It is not well for a man to pray cream, and live skim milk.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


One might as well attempt to calculate mathematically the contingent forms of the tinkling bits of glass in a kaleidoscope as to look through the tube of the future and foretell its pattern.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


One of the affecting features in a life of vice is the longing, wistful outlooks given by the wretches who struggle with unbridled passions, towards virtues which are no longer within their reach. Men in the tide of vice are sometimes like the poor creatures swept down the stream of mighty rivers, who see people safe on shore, and trees, and flowers, as they go quickly past; and all things that are desirable gleam upon them for a moment to heighten their trouble, and to aggravate their swift-coming destruction.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


There is no such thing as preaching patience into people, unless the sermon is so long that they have to practice it while they hear. No man can learn patience except by going out into the hurlyburly world, and taking life just as it blows. Patience is but lying to, and riding out the gale.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


Let every man come to God in his own way.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


It takes a man to make a devil.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit