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Education Is The Knowledge Of How To Use The Whole Of Oneself. Many Men Use But One Or Two Faculties Out Of The Score With Which They Are Endowed. A Man Is Educated Who Knows How To Make A Tool Of Every Faculty, How To Open It, How To Keep It Sharp, And How To Apply It To All Practical Purposes.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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Education Is The Knowledge

Henry Ward Beecher

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Education Is The Knowledge Of How To Use The Whole Of Oneself. Many Men Use But One Or Two Faculties Out Of The Score With Which They Are Endowed. A Man Is Educated Who Knows How To Make A Tool Of Every Faculty, How To Open It, How To Keep It Sharp, And How To Apply It To All Practical Purposes.

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There Are Joys Which Long To Be Ours.

The Little Troubles And Worries Of Life May Be As Stumbling Blocks In Our Way, Or We May Make Them Stepping-stones To A Nobler Character And To Heaven. Troubles Are Often The Tools By Which God Fashions Us For Better Things.

Customs Represent The Experience Of Mankind.

No Man Is Such A Conqueror, As The One That Has Defeated Himself.

There Is An Ugly Kind Of Forgiveness In This World,--a Kind Of Hedgehog Forgiveness, Shot Out Like Quills. Men Take One Who Has Offended, And Set Him Down Before The Blowpipe Of Their Indignation, And Scorch Him, And Burn His Fault Into Him; And When They Have Kneaded Him Sufficiently With Their Fiery Fists, Then--they Forgive Him.

At The Bottom Of Every Leaf-stem Is A Cradle, And In It Is An Infant Germ; The Winds Will Rock It, The Birds Will Sing To It All Summer Long, But The Next Season It Will Unfold And Go Alone.

The Sun Does Not Shine For A Few Trees And Flowers, But For The Wide World's Joy.

Truths Are First Clouds; Then Rain, Then Harvest And Food.

Every Green Thing Loves To Die In Bright Colors. The Vegetable Cohorts March Glowing Out Of The Year In Flaming Dresses, As If To Leave This Earth Were A Triumph And Not A Sadness. It Is Never Nature That Is Sad, But Only We, That Dare Not Look Back On The Past, And That Have Not Its Prophecy Of The Future In Our Bosoms.

Pain Is God's Midwife, That Helps Some Virtue Into Existence.

True Politeness Is The Spirit Of Benevolence Showing Itself In A Refined Way. It Is The Expression Of Good-will And Kindness. It Promotes Both Beauty In The Man Who Possesses It, And Happiness In Those Who Are About Him. It Is A Religious Duty, And Should Be A Part Of Religious Training.

I Used To Think The Lord's Prayer Was A Short Prayer; But As I Live Longer, And See More Of Life, I Begin To Believe There Is No Such Thing As Getting Through It. If A Man, In Praying That Prayer, Were To Be Stopped By Every Word Until He Had Thoroughly Prayed It, It Would Take Him A Lifetime.

Evil Men Of Every Degree Will Use You, Flatter You, Lead You On Until You Are Useless; Then, If The Virtuous Do Not Pity You, Or God Compassionate, You Are Without A Friend In The Universe.

There Is Nothing That A New-englander So Nearly Worships As An Argument.

Some Of God's Noblest Sons, I Think, Will Be Selected From Those That Know How To Take Wealth, With All Its Temptations, And Maintain Godliness Therewith. It Is Hard To Be A Saint Standing In A Golden Niche.

Boys Have Their Soft And Gentle Moods Too. You Would Suppose By The Morning Racket That Nothing Could Be More Foreign To Their Nature Than Romance And Vague Sadness. . . . But Boys Have Hours Of Great Sinking And Sadness, When Kindness And Fondness Are Peculiarly Needful To Them.

The Tree Is But A Huge Boquet.

The Meanest Thing In The World Is The Devil.

Mountains Of Gold Would Not Seduce Some Men, Yet Flattery Would Break Them Down.

Pride 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.

Our Sweetest Experiences Of Affection Are Meant To Be Suggestions Of That Realm Which Is The Home Of The Heart.

Law Represents The Effort Of Man To Organize Society; Governments, The Efforts Of Selfishness To Overthrow Liberty.

God Plants No Yearning In The Human Soul That He Does Not Intend To Satisfy.

A 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.

A 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.

Laws Are Not Masters But Servants, And He Rules Them Who Obey Them.

It Usually Takes A Hundred Years To Make A Law, And Then, After It Has Done Its Work; It Usually Takes A Hundred Years To Get Rid Of It.

Little Lies Are Very Dangerous, Because There Are So Many Of Them, And Because Each One Of Them Scours Upon The Character As Diamond-pointed.

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.

Happiness Is Not The End Of Life: Character Is.

Indifference In Religion Is More Fatal Than Skepticism. There Is No Pulse In Indifference; Skepticism May Have Warm Blood.

It Takes Longer For Man To Find Out Man Than Any Other Creature That Is Made.

Mirth Is God's Medicine. Everybody Ought To Bathe In It. Grim Care, Moroseness, Anxiety,--all This Rust Of Life, Ought To Be Scoured Off By The Oil Of Mirth. It Is Better Than Emery. Every Man Ought To Rub Himself With It. A Man Without Mirth Is Like A Wagon Without Springs, In Which One Is Caused Disagreeably To Jolt By Every Pebble Over Which It Runs.

God Has Intended The Great To Be Great And The Little To Be Little ... The Trade Unions, Under The European System, Destroy Liberty ... I Do Not Mean To Say That A Dollar A Day Is Enough To Support A Workingman ... Not Enough To Support A Man And Five Children If He Insists On Smoking And Drinking Beer. But The Man Who Cannot Live On Bread And Water Is Not Fit To Live! A Family May Live On Good Bread And Water In The Morning, Water And Bread At Midday, And Good Bread And Water At Night!

Religion Is Only Another Word For The Right Use Of A Man's Whole Self, Instead Of A Wrong Use Of Himself.

A Man's Ledger Does Not Tell What He Is, Or What He Is Worth. Count What Is In Man, Not What Is On Him, If You Would Know What He Is Worth-whether Rich Or Poor.

A Week Filled Up With Selfishness, And The Sabbath Stuffed Full Of Religious Exercises, Will Make A Good Pharisee, But A Poor Christian. There Are Many Persons Who Think Sunday Is A Sponge With Which To Wipe Out The Sins Of The Week. Now, God's Altar Stands From Sunday To Sunday, And The Seventh Day Is No More For Religion Than Any Other. It Is For Rest. The Whole Seven Are For Religion, And One Of Them For Rest.

When The Old Creeds Are Threadbare, And Worn Through, And All Too Narrow For The Broadening Soul, Give Me The Fine, Firm Texture Of The New, Fair, Beautiful And Whole!

He Who Is False To Present Duty Breaks A Thread In The Loom, And Will Find The Flaw When He May Have Forgotten Its Cause.

Many Men Build As Cathedrals Are Built-the Part Nearest The Ground Finished, But That Part Which Soars Toward Heaven, The Turrets And The Spires, Forever Incomplete.

Men Will Let You Abuse Them If Only You Will Make Them Laugh.

The Aster Has Not Wasted Spring And Summer Because It Has Not Blossomed. It Has Been All The Time Preparing For What Is To Follow, And In Autumn It Is The Glory Of The Field, And Only The Frost Lays It Low. So There Are Many People Who Must Live Forty Or Fifty Years, And Have The Crude Sap Of Their Natural Dispositions Changed And Sweetened Before The Blossoming Time Can Come; But Their Lives Have Not Been Wasted.

It's Easier To Go Down A Hill Than Up It But The View Is Much Better At The Top.

There Are Not Anywhere Else So Many Ways Of Trickery, So Many False Lights, So Many Veils, So Many Guises, So Many Illusive Deceits, As Are Practiced In Every Man's Conscience In Respect To His Motives, Thoughts, Feelings, Conduct, And Character.

You Have Come Into A Hard World. I Know Of Only One Easy Place In It, And That Is The Grave.

As Plants Take Hold, Not For The Sake Of Staying, But Only That They May Climb Higher, So It Is With Men. By Every Part Of Our Nature We Clasp Things Above Us, One After Another, Not For The Sake Of Remaining Where We Take Hold, But That We May Go Higher.

If We Are Like Christ, We Shall Seek, Not To Absorb, But To Reflect The Light Which Falls Upon Others, And Thus We Shall Become Pure And Spotless.

The Poor Man With Industry Is Happier Than The Rich Man In Idleness.

The Things Required For Prosperous Labor, Prosperous Manufactures, And Prosperous Commerce Are Three. First, Liberty; Second, Liberty; Third, Liberty.

Nothing Goes Far Which Has Not The Wings Of Love To Make It Buoyant, So That It Can Fly.

Next To Ingratitude The Most Painful Thing To Bear Is Gratitude.

If One Should Give Me A Dish Of Sand, And Tell Me There Were Particles Of Iron In It, I Might Look For Them With My Eyes, And Search For Them With My Clumsy Fingers, And Be Unable To Detect Them; But Let Me Take A Magnet And Sweep Through It, And How Would It Draw To Itself The Almost Invisible Particles By The Mere Power Of Attraction. The Unthankful Heart, Like My Finger In The Sand, Discovers No Mercies; But Let The Thankful Heart Sweep Through The Day, And As The Magnet Finds The Iron, So It Will Find, In Every Hour, Some Heavenly Blessings.

The Moment An Ill Can Be Patiently Handled, It Is Disarmed Of Its Poison, Though Not Of Its Pain.

A House Built On Sand Is, In Fair Weather, Just As Good As If Builded On A Rock. A Cobweb Is As Good As The Mightiest Chain Cable When There Is No Strain On It. It Is Trial That Proves One Thing Weak And Another Strong.

The Monkey Is An Organized Sarcasm Upon The Human Race.

Liberty Is The Soul's Right To Breathe.

God's Sovereignty Is Not In His Right Hand; God's Sovereignty Is Not In His Intellect; God's Sovereignty Is In His Love.

The Advertisements In A Newspaper Are More Full Knowledge In Respect To What Is Going On In A State Or Community Than The Editorial Columns Are.

Every Boy Wants Someone Older Than Himself To Whom He May Go In Moods Of Confidence And Yearning. The Neglect Of This Child's Want By Grown People . . . Is A Fertile Source Of Suffering.

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.

When A Man Can Look Upon The Simple Wild-rose, And Feel No Pleasure, His Taste Has Been Corrupted.

Nothing Marks The Change From The City To The Country So Much As The Absence Of Grinding Noises. The Country Is Never Silent. But Its Sounds Are Separate, Distinct, And As It Were, Articulate.

No Church Can Be Prospered In Which All The Ministration Comes From The Pulpit.

Why Is Not A Rat As Good As A Rabbit? Why Should Men Eat Shrimps And Neglect Cockroaches?

In The Family, Happiness Is In The Ratio In Which Each Is Serving The Others, Seeking One Another's Good, And Bearing One Another's Burdens.

Religion Is Using Everything For God.

When Our Cup Runs Over, We Let Others Drink The Drops That Fall, But Not A Drop From Within The Rim, And Call It Charity; When The Crumbs Are Swept From Our Table, We Think It Generous To Let The Dogs Eat Them; As If That Were Charity Which Permits Others To Have What We Cannot Keep.

Watch Lest Prosperity Destroy Generosity.

Laugh At Your Friends, And If Your Friends Are Sore; So Much The Better, You May Laugh The More.

In Friendship Your Heart Is Like A Bell Struck Every Time Your Friend Is In Trouble.

The Last Person One Wants To Be Is Themselves. Sadly, That Is The Best Person To Be.

No Man Is Good For Anything Who Has Not Some Particle Of Obstinacy To Use Upon Occasion.

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.

It Is A Very Good World For The Purposes For Which It Was Built; And That Is All Anything Is Good For.

A Man Is A Fool Who Sits Looking Backward From Himself In The Past. Ah, What Shallow, Vain Conceit There Is In Man! Forget The Things That Are Behind. That Is Not Where You Live. Your Roots Are Not There. They Are In The Present; And You Should Reach Up Into The Other Life.

Joy Is More Divine Than Sorrow, For Joy Is Bread And Sorrow Is Medicine.

A Boy Is A Piece Of Existence Quite Separate From All Things Else, And Deserves Separate Chapters In The Natural History Of Men.

His Nature Is Such That Our Often Coming Does Not Tire Him. The Whole Burden Of The Whole Life Of Every Man May Be Rolled On To God And Not Weary Him, Though It Has Wearied Man.

A Babe Is Nothing But A Bundle Of Possibilities.

Spreading Christianity Abroad Is Sometimes An Excuse For Not Having It At Home.

Not Another Flag Has Such An Errand, Carrying Everywhere, The World Around, Such Hope For Freedom Such Glorious Tidings.

The Things That Hurt Us Teach Us.

Men Think God Is Destroying Them Because He Is Tuning Them. The Violinist Screws Up The Key Till The Tense Cord Sounds The Concert Pitch; But It Is Not To Break It, But To Use It Tunefully, That He Stretches The String Upon The Musical Rack.

Vigilance Is Not Only The Price Of Liberty, But Of Success Of Any Sort.

Eternal Vigilance

There Is No Part Of Government Which Cannot Better Suffer Derangement Than The Ballot. If You Strike The Ballot With Disease, It Is Heart Disease.

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.

Nature Would Be Scarcely Worth A Puff Of The Empty Wind If It Were Not That All Nature Is But A Temple, Of Which God Is The Brightness And The Glory.

The More Sincere We Are In Our Belief, As A Rule, The Less Demonstrative We Are.

Wherever You Have Seen God Pass, Mark That Spot, And Go And Sit In That Window Again.

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?

A Man That Puts Himself On The Ground Of Moral Principle, If The Whole World Be Against Him, Is Mightier Than All Of Them.

Everyone Has Conscience Enough To Hate; Few Have Religion Enough To Love.

When A Man's Pride Is Subdued It's Like The Sides Of Mount Aetna. It Was Terrible During The Eruption, But When That Is Over And The Lava Is Turned Into Soil, There Are Vineyards And Olive Trees Which Grow Up To The Top.

Leaves Die, But Trees Do Not. They Only Undress.

The Way To Avoid Evil Is Not By Maiming Our Passions, But By Compelling Them To Yield Their Vigor To Our Moral Nature.

There 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?

An Oyster, That Marvel Of Delicacy, That Concentration Of Sapid Excellence, That Mouthful Bwefore All Other Mouthfuls, Who First Had Faith To Believe It, And Courage To Execute? The Exterior Is Not Persuasive.

To Become An Able And Successful Man In Any Profession, Three Things Are Necessary, Nature, Study And Practice.

Walking Humbly, You Are More Of A Man Than You Were When You Walked Proudly.

There Is A Great Deal More Correctness Of Thought Respecting Manhood In Bodily Things Than In Moral Things. For Men's Ideas Of Manhood Shape Themselves As The Tower And Spire Of Cathedrals Do, That Stand Broad At The Bottom, But Grow Tapering As They Rise, And End, Far Up, In The Finest Lines, And In An Evanishing Point. Where They Touch The Ground They Are Most, And Where They Reach To The Heaven They Are Least.

While A Man Is Stringing A Harp, He Tries The Strings, Not For Music, But For Construction. When It Is Finished It Shall Be Played For Melodies. God Is Fashioning The Human Heart For Future Joy. He Only Sounds A String Here And There To See How Far His Work Has Progressed.

There Are Many Trials In Life Which Do Not Seem To Come From Unwisdom Or Folly; They Are Silver Arrows Shot From The Bow Of God, And Fixed Inextricably In The Quivering Heart - They Are Meant To Be Borne - They Were Not Meant, Like Snow Or Water, To Melt As Soon As They Strike; But The Moment An Ill Can Be Patiently Borne It Is Disarmed Of Its Poison, Though Not Of Its Pain.

Reason Can Tell How Love Affects Us, But Cannot Tell What Love Is.

The Conditions Of City Life May Be Made Healthy, So Far As The Physical Constitution Is Concerned; But There Is Connected With The Business Of The City So Much Competition, So Much Rivalry, So Much Necessity For Industry, That I Think It Is A Perpetual, Chronic, Wholesale Violation Of Natural Law. There Are Ten Men That Can Succeed In The Country, Where There Is One That Can Succeed In The City.

God Is The One Great Employer, Thinker, Planner, Supervisor.

Next To Victory, There Is Nothing So Sweet As Defeat, If Only The Right Adversary Overcomes You.

There Is So Much That Is Deaf And Dumb In Man, And So Much That Is Paralyzed, So Much That Is Shrunken, That Nothing Short Of A Miraculous Touch Of Re-creation Can Make Them At Death Perfect Beings.

The Man Who Perceives Life Only With His Eye, His Ear, His Hand, And His Tongue, Is But Little Higher Than The Ox Or An Intelligent Dog; But He Who Has Imagination Sees Things Around And Above Him, As The Angels See Them.

It 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.

It Is Not Merely Cruelty That Leads Men To Love War, It Is Excitement.

Next 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.

Love Is The Wine Of Existence. When You Have Taken That, You Have Taken The Most Precious Drop That There Is In The Cluster.

Home Should Be An Oratorio Of The Memory, Singing To All Our After Life Melodies And Harmonies Of Old-remembered Joy.

When Our Children Die, We Drop Them Into The Unknown, Shuddering With Fear. We Know That They Go Out From Us, And We Stand, And Pity, And Wonder.

Ignorance Is The Womb Of Monsters.

Where All Of The Man Is What Property He Owns, It Does Not Take Long To Annihilate Him.

Troubles Loom Up Big When They're Ahead, And Joys Seem Always Sweeter When They're Past.

Religion Is The Fruit Of The Spirit, A Christian Character, A True Life.

Morality Is Character And Conduct Such As Is Required By The Circle Or Community In Which The Man's Life Happens To Be Placed. It Shows How Much Good Men Require Of Us.

May We Feel After Thee; Still Calling Out In The Darkness, As Children Waking In The Night Call "father," So May We Call Out For God; And, At Times, Even If We Do Not Hear Thy Voice, May There Be The Form Of A Hand Resting Upon Us, And That Shall Be Enough; For We Shall Take Hold Of It, Though It Be In The Dark, And It Shall Guide Us To The Growing Light; For The Day Shall Come, And The Release And Triumph.

Never Be Grandiloquent When You Want To Drive Home A Searching Truth. Don't Whip With A Switch That Has The Leaves On, If You Want It To Tingle.

Public Speaking

It Is One Of The Severest Tests Of Friendship To Tell Your Friend His Faults. So To Love A Man That You Cannot Bear To See A Stain Upon Him, And To Speak Painful Truth Through Loving Words, That Is Friendship.

The Bibliophile Is The Master Of His Books, The Bibliomaniac Their Slave.

The Law Is A Battery, Which Protects All That Is Behind It, But Sweeps With Destruction All That Is Outside.

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.

The Meanest, Most Contemptible Kind Of Praise Is That Which First Speaks Well Of A Man, And Then Qualifies It With A But.

“i Can Forgive, But I Cannot Forget,” Is Only Another Way Of Saying, “i Will Not Forgive.”

Flowers Are Sent To Do God's Work In Unrevealed Paths, And To Diffuse Influence By Channels That We Hardly Suspect.

Brethren, We Are All Sailing Home; And By And By, When We Are Not Thinking Of It, Some Shadowy Thing (men Call It Death), At Midnight, Will Pass By, And Will Call Us By Name, And Will Say, "i Have A Message For You From Home; God Wants You; Heaven Waits For You.

Despondency Is Ingratitude; Hope Is God's Worship.

A Thoughtful Mind, When It Sees A Nation's Flag, Sees Not The Flag, But The Nation Itself.

When 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.

The Mystery Of History Is An Insoluble Problem.

The Real Man Is One Who Always Finds Excuses For Others, But Never Excuses Himself.

Conscience Is The Frame Of Character, And Love Is The Covering For It.

Home Should Be The Center Of Joy, Equatorial And Tropical.

A Man's True State Of Power And Riches Is To Be In Himself.

As For Marigolds, Poppies, Hollyhocks, And Valorous Sunflowers, We Shall Never Have A Garden Without Them, Both For Their Own Sake, And For The Sake Of Old-fashioned Folks, Who Used To Love Them.

Newspapers Are The Schoolmasters Of The Common People.

This World Is Magnificent For Strangers And Pilgrims, But Miserable For Residents.

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.

So We Fall Asleep In Jesus. We Have Played Long Enough At The Games Of Life, And At Last We Feel The Approach Of Death. We Are Tired Out, And We Lay Our Heads Back On The Bosom Of Christ, And Quietly Fall Asleep.

There Is No Harder Shield For The Devil To Pierce With Temptation Than Singing With Prayer.

When A Man Sells Eleven Ounces For Twelve, He Makes A Compact With The Devil, And Sells Himself For The Value Of An Ounce.

Of All Escape Mechanisms, Death Is The Most Efficient.

All 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.

There Is No Such Thing As White Lies; A Lie Is As Black As A Coalpit, And Twice As Foul.

There Are Persons So Radiant, So Genial, So Kind, So Pleasure-bearin G, That You Instinctively Feel In Their Presence That They Do You Good; Whose Coming Into A Room Is Like Bringing A Lamp There.

Suffering Is Part Of The Divine Idea.

Our Earthly Loves Are But So Many Silver Steps Leading Us Up To The Great Golden Love Of God.

No Man Knows What He Will Do Till The Right Temptation Comes.

Now, Men Think, With Regard To Their Conduct, That, If They Were To Lift Themselves Up Gigantically And Commit Some Crashing Sin, They Should Never Be Able To Hold Up Their Heads; But They Will Harbor In Their Souls Little Sins, Which Are Piercing And Eating Them Away To Inevitable Ruin.

All Men Are Tempted. There Is No Man That Lives That Can't Be Broken Down, Provided It Is The Right Temptation, Put In The Right Spot.

Men Strengthen Each Other In Their Faults. Those Who Are Alike Associate Together, Repeat The Things Which All Believe, Defend And Stimulate Their Common Faults Of Disposition, And Each One Receives From The Others A Reflection Of His Own Egotism.

There Are Multitudes Of Persons Whose Idea Of Liberty Is The Right To Do What They Please, Instead Of The Right Of Doing That Which Is Lawful And Best.

It Takes A Man To Make A Devil; And The Fittest Man For Such A Purpose Is A Snarling, Waspish, Red-hot, Fiery Creditor.

There's Not Much Practical Christianity In The Man Who Lives On Better Terms With Angels And Seraphs Than With His Children, Servants And Neighbours.

You Have Seen A Ship Out On The Bay, Swinging With The Tide, And Seeming As If It Would Follow It; And Yet It Cannot, For Down Beneath The Water It Is Anchored. So Many A Soul Sways Toward Heaven, But Cannot Ascend Thither, Because It Is Anchored To Some Secret Sin.

The Worst Prison Is Not Of Stone. It Is Of A Throbbing Heart, Outraged By An Infamous Life.

Wealth In Activity--capital With All Its Friction--is Far Safer Than Invested Wealth Lying Dead.

Men Are Like Trees: Each One Must Put Forth The Leaf That Is Created In Him.

Nowhere On The Globe Do Men Live So Well As In America, Or Grumble So Much.

A Man's True Estate Of Power And Riches Is To Be In Himself; Not In His Dwelling Or Position Or External Relations, But In His Own Essential Character.

Only Have Enough Of Little Virtues And Common Fidelities, And You Need Not Mourn Because You Are Neither A Hero Nor A Saint.

There Are Many Persons Of Combative Tendencies, Who Read For Ammunition, And Dig Out Of The Bible Iron For Balls. They Read, And They Find Nitre And Charcoal And Sulphur For Powder. They Read, And They Find Cannon. They Read, And They Make Portholes And Embrasures. And If A Man Does Not Believe As They Do, They Look Upon Him As An Enemy, And Let Fly The Bible At Him To Demolish Him. So Men Turn The Word Of God Into A Vast Arsenal, Filled With All Manner Of Weapons, Offensive And Defensive.

Well Married A Person Has Wings, Poorly Married Shackles.

If One, Then, Asks Me The Meaning Of Our Flag, I Say To Him, It Means Just What Concord And Lexington Meant, What Bunker Hill Meant; It Means The Whole Glorious Revolutionary War, Which Was, In Short, The Rising Up Of A Valiant Young People Against An Old Tyranny, To Establish The Most Momentous Doctrine That The World Had Ever Known - The Right Of Men To Their Own Selves And To Their Liberties.

Life Would Be A Perpetual Flea Hunt If A Man Were Obliged To Run Down All The Innuendoes, Inveracities, And Insinuations And Misrepresentations Which Are Uttered Against Him.

I Don't Like These Cold, Precise, Perfect People, Who, In Order Not To Speak Wrong, Never Speak At All, And In Order Not To Do Wrong, Never Do Anything.

All The Wide World Is But The Husbandry Of God For The Development Of The One Fruit-man.

God Does Not Refuse To Make Himself Known To Man. He Only Will Not Do It By The Symbolism Of Matter. He Comes To Us At Once By The Most Natural Course. We Are In A Transient State; Our Bodies Are Accidental, And God Comes To Us By That Which Is Higher And Truer--the Intuitions Of The Soul.

What A Pity Flowers Can Utter No Sound!-a Singing Rose, A Whispering Violet, A Murmuring Honeysuckle ... Oh, What A Rare And Exquisite Miracle Would These Be!

Love Cannot Endure Indifference. It Needs To Be Wanted. Like A Lamp, It Needs To Be Fed Out Of The Oil Of Another's Heart, Or Its Flame Burns Low.

People May Excite In Themselves A Glow Of Compassion, Not By Toasting Their Feet At The Fire, And Saying: "lord, Teach Me Compassion," But By Going And Seeking An Object That Requires Compassion.

Liberty Is The Soul's Right To Breathe And, When It Cannot Take A Long Breath, Laws Are Girdled Too Tight.

A Dull Ax Never Loves Grindstones.

The Most Miserable Pettifogging In The World Is That Of A Man In The Court Of His Own Consciences.

It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint, Gristle To Muscle, And Makes Men Invincible.

Books Are The True Metempsychosis,--they Are The Symbol And Presage Of Immortality. The Dead Men Are Scattered, And None Shall Find Them. Behold They Are Here! They Do But Sleep.

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.

Of All Joyful, Smiling, Ever-laughing Experiences, There Are None Like Those Which Spring From True Religion.

Love Is More Just Than Justice.

Mirthfulness Is In The Mind And You Cannot Get It Out. It Is Just As Good In Its Place As Conscience Or Veneration.

In This World It Is Not What We Take Up, But What We Give Up, That Makes Us Rich.

When A Man Says That He Is Perfect Already, There Is Only One Of Two Places For Him, And That Is Heaven Or The Lunatic Asylum.

A Man Who Cannot Get Angry Is Like A Stream That Cannot Overflow, That Is Always Turbid. Sometimes Indignation Is As Good As A Thunderstorm In Summer, Clearing And Cooling The Air.

We Should Not Judge People By Their Peak Of Excellence; But By The Distance They Have Traveled From The Point Where They Started.

Defeat Is A School In Which Truth Always Grows Strong.

Today Is A Goblet Day. The Whole Heavens Have Been Mingled With Exquisite Skill To A Delicious Flavor, And The Crystal Cup Put To Every Lip. Breathing Is Like Ethereal Drinking. It Is A Luxury Simply To Exist.

Are They Dead That Yet Speak Louder Than We Can Speak, And A More Universal Language? Are They Dead That Yet Act? Are They Dead That Yet Move Upon Society And Inspire The People With Nobler Motives And More Heroic Patriotism?

There Is No Liberty To Men Whose Passions Are Stronger Than Their Religious Feelings; There Is No Liberty To Men In Whom Ignorance Predominates Over Knowledge; There Is No Liberty To Men Who Know Not How To Govern Themselves.

Newspapers Are To The Body Politic What Arteries Are To The Human Body, Their Function Being To Carry Blood And Sustenance And Repair To Every Part Of The Body.

Some Men Are Like Pyramids, Which Are Very Broad Where They Touch The Ground, But Grow Narrow As They Reach The Sky.

When There Is Love In The Heart, There Are Rainbows In The Eyes, Which Cover Every Black Cloud With Gorgeous Hues.

We Should Live And Labor In Our Time That What Came To Us As A Seed May Go To The Next Generation As Blossom, And What Came To Us As Blossom, May Go To Them As Fruit. This Is What We Mean By Progress.

The Humblest Individual Exerts Some Influence, Either For Good Or Evil, Upon Others.

Our Best Successes Often Come After Our Greatest Disappointments.

There Is No Slave Out Of Heaven Like A Loving Woman; And Of All Loving Women, There Is No Such Slave As A Mother.

It Is The Very Wantonness Of Folly For A Man To Search Out The Frets And Burdens Of His Calling And Give His Mind Every Day To A Consideration Of Them. They Belong To Human Life. They Are Inevitable. Brooding Only Gives Them Strength.

Victories Are Easy And Cheap. The Only Victories Worth Anything Are Those Achieved Through Hard Work And Dedication.

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Thomas Kretschmann

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