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I Received A Letter From A Lad Asking Me For An Easy Berth. To This I Replied: You Cannot Be An Editor; Do Not Try The Law; Do Not Think Of The Ministry; Let Alone All Ships And Merchandise; Abhor Politics; Don't Practice Medicine; Be Not A Farmer Or A Soldier Or A Sailor; Don't Study, Don't Think. None Of These Are Easy. O, My Son, You Have Come Into A Hard World. I Know Of Only One Easy Place In It, And That Is The Grave!

-Henry Ward Beecher

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I Received A Letter

Henry Ward Beecher

...

I Received A Letter From A Lad Asking Me For An Easy Berth. To This I Replied: You Cannot Be An Editor; Do Not Try The Law; Do Not Think Of The Ministry; Let Alone All Ships And Merchandise; Abhor Politics; Don't Practice Medicine; Be Not A Farmer Or A Soldier Or A Sailor; Don't Study, Don't Think. None Of These Are Easy. O, My Son, You Have Come Into A Hard World. I Know Of Only One Easy Place In It, And That Is The Grave!

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Affliction Comes To The Believer Not To Make Him Sad, But Sober; Not To Make Him Sorry, But Wise. Even As The Plow Enriches The Field So That The Seed Is Multiplied A Thousandfold, So Affliction Should Magnify Our Joy And Increase Our Spiritual Harvest.

A Grindstone That Had Not Grit In It, How Long Would It Take To Sharpen An Ax? And Affairs That Had Not Grit In Them, How Long Would They Take To Make A Man?

There Is No Friendship, No Love, Like That Of The Parent For The Child.

Flowers . . . Have A Mysterious And Subtle Influence Upon The Feelings, Not Unlike Some Strains Of Music. They Relax The Tenseness Of The Mind. They Dissolve Its Rigor.

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

All Work And No Plagiarism Makes For Dull Sermons!

Books Are The Windows Through Which The Soul Looks Out.

That Is The Best Baptism That Leaves The Man Cleanest Inside.

In America There Is Not One Single Element Of Civilization That Is Not Made To Depend, In The End, Upon Public Opinion.

Downright Admonition, As A Rule, Is Too Blunt For The Recipient.

Remember God's Bounty In The Year. String The Pearls Of His Favor. Hide The Dark Parts, Except So Far As They Are Breaking Out In Light! Give This One Day To Thanks, To Joy, To Gratitude!

There Is Tonic In The Things That Men Do Not Love To Hear. Free Speech Is To A Great People What The Winds Are To Oceans ... And Where Free Speech Is Stopped Miasma Is Bred, And Death Comes Fast.

Not Thine The Sorrow, But Ours, Sainted Soul! Thou Hast Indeed Entered Into The Promised Land, While We Are Yet On The March. To Us Remain The Rocking Of The Deep, The Storm Upon The Land, Days Of Duty And Nights Of Watching; But Thou Are Sphered High Above All Darkness And Fear, Beyond All Sorrow And Weariness. Rest, Oh, Weary Heart!

It Is Not In The Nature Of True Greatness To Be Exclusive And Arrogant.

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

But There Have Been Human Hearts, Constituted Just Like Ours, For Six Thousand Years. The Same Stars Rise And Set Upon This Globe That Rose Upon The Plains Of Shinar Or Along The Egyptian Nile And The Same Sorrows Rise And Set In Every Age.

Don't Look Where You Fall, But Where You Slipped.

Though A Man Declares Himself An Atheist, It In No Way Alters His Obligations.

Some Folks Think That Christianity Means A Kind Of Insurance Policy, And That It Has Little To Do With This Life, But That It Is A Very Good Thing When A Man Dies.

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

Music Cleanses The Understanding; Inspires It, And Lifts It Into A Realm Which It Would Not Reach If It Were Left To Itself.

Refinement That Carries Us Away From Our Fellow-men Is Not God's Refinement.

Intelligence Increases Mere Physical Ability One Half. The Use Of The Head Abridges The Labor Of The Hands.

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.

God's Grace Is The Oil That Fills The Lamp Of Love.

Repentance Is Another Name For Aspiration.

Storms Purify The Atmosphere.

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.

Every Man Should Be Born Again On The First Day Of January. Start With A Fresh Page. Take Up One Hole More In The Buckle If Necessary, Or Let Down One, According To Circumstances; But On The First Of January Let Every Man Gird Himself Once More, With His Face To The Front, And Take No Interest In The Things That Were And Are Past.

The Word Of God Tends To Make Large-minded Noble-minded Men.

Conceited Men Often Seem A Harmless Kind Of Men, Who, By An Overweening Self-respect, Relieve Others From The Duty Of Respecting Them At All.

The Most Dangerous People Are The Ignorant.

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

What Place Is So Rugged And So Homely That There Is No Beauty; If You Only Have A Sensibility To Beauty?

Fear Secretes Acids; But Love And Trust Are Sweet Juices.

Of All Formal Things In The World, A Clipped Hedge Is The Most Formal; And Of All The Informal Things In The World, A Forest Tree Is The Most Informal.

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.

No Man Can Tell Another His Faults So As To Benefit Him, Unless He Loves Him.

He That Lives By The Sight Of The Eye May Grow Blind.

There Is No Liberty To Men Who Know Not How To Govern Themselves.

In A Great Affliction There Is No Light Either In The Stars Or In The Sun; For When The Inward Light Is Fed With Fragrant Oil; There Can Be No Darkness Though The Sun Should Go Out. But When, Like A Sacred Lamp In The Temple, The Inward Light Is Quenched, There Is No Light Outwardly, Though A Thousand Suns Should Preside In The Heavens.

What Could Make Me Love My Fellow Christian Better Than To See That God Loves Us All As We Were All One Soul?

Pushing Any Truth Out Very Far, You Are Met By A Counter-truth.

A Tool Is But The Extension Of A Man's Hand, And A Machine Is But A Complex Tool. And He That Invents A Machine Augments The Power Of A Man And The Well-being Of Mankind.

There Can Be No Barrenness In Full Summer. The Very Sand Will Yield Something. Rocks Will Have Mosses, And Every Rift Will Have Its Wind-flower, And Every Crevice A Leaf; While From The Fertile Soil Will Be Reared A Gorgeous Troop Of Growths, That Will Carry Their Life In Ten Thousand Forms, But All With Praise To God. And So It Is When The Soul Knows Its Summer. Love Redeems Its Weakness, Clothes Its Barrenness, Enriches Its Poverty, And Makes Its Very Desert To Bud And Blossom As The Rose.

Faith Is Spiritualized Imagination.

Religion Is Using Everything For God.

Some People Are Proud Of Their Humility.

Oh, 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.

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.

Nature Is A Vast Repository Of Manly Enjoyments.

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

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.

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Everyone Has Influence, For Good Or Bad, Upon Others.

We Are Always On The Anvil; By Trials God Is Shaping Us For Higher Things.

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.

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.

There Is An Ugly Kind Of Forgiveness In This World--a Kind Of Hedgehog Forgiveness, Shot Out Like Quills.

The Highest Order That Was Ever Instituted On Earth Is The Order Of Faith.

To Be A Christian Is To Obey Christ No Matter How You Feel.

No Town Can Fail Of Beauty, Though Its Walks Were Gutters And Its Houses Hovels, If Venerable Trees Make Magnificent Colonnades Along Its Streets.

Laughter Is Day, And Sobriety Is Night; A Smile Is The Twilight That Hovers Gently Between Both, More Bewitching Than Either.

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.

The First Hour Of The Morning Is The Rudder Of The Day.

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.

Men Will Imitate And Admire His Unmoved Firmness, His Inflexible Conscience For The Right; And Yet His Gentleness, As Tender As A Woman's, His Moderation Of Spirit, Which Not All The Heat Of Party Could Inflame, Nor All The Jars And Disturbances Of This Country Shake Out Of Its Place: I Swear You To An Emulation Of His Justice, His Moderation, And His Mercy.

Do Not Be Troubled Because You Have Not Great Virtues. God Made A Million Spears Of Grass Where He Made One Tree. The Earth Is Fringed And Carpeted, Not With Forests, But With Grasses. Only Have Enough Of Little Virtues And Common Fidelities, And You Need Not Mourn Because You Are Neither A Hero Or A Saint.

Heaven Is A Place Of Restless Activity, The Abode Of Never-tiring Thought.

I Never Know How To Worship Until I Know How To Love.

The Soul Is Often Hungrier Than The Body And No Shop Can Sell It Food.

Ambition Is The Way In Which A Vulgar Man Aspires.

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.

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.

If Men Had Wings And Bore Black Feathers, Few Of Them Would Be Clever Enough To Be Crows.

Never Forget What A Man Has Said To You When He Was Angry. If He Has Charged You With Anything, You Had Better Look It Up.

Coming To The Bible Through Commentaries Is Much Like Looking At A Landscape Through Garret Windows, Over Which Generations Of Unmolested Spiders Have Spun Their Webs.

Christians Should Be Like A Flower Store: The Odor Of Sanctity Should Betray Them Wherever They Are.

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.

Love Is The Medicine Of All Moral Evil. By It The World Is To Be Cured Of Sin.

It 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.

God Bless The Good-natured, For They Bless Everybody Else.

A Thoughtful Mind, When It Sees A Nation's Flag, Sees Not The Flag Only, But The Nation Itself; And Whatever May Be Its Symbols, Its Insignia, He Reads Chiefly In The Flag The Government, The Principles, The Truths, The History Which Belongs To The Nation That Sets It Forth.

If You Have Only Two Or Three Things That You Can Enjoy And They Are Things Which Time And Decay May Remove From You, What Are You Going To Do In Old Age?

The Thistle Is A Prince. Let Any Man That Has An Eye For Beauty Take A View Of The Whole Plant, And Where Will He See A More Expressive Grace And Symmetry; And Where Is There A More Kingly Flower?

Education Will Not Come Of Itself; It Will Never Come Unless You Seek It; It Will Not Come Unless You Take The First Steps Which Lead To It; But, Taking These Steps, Every Man Can Acquire It.

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

Compassion Will Cure More Sins Than Condemnation.

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.

The Best Stock A Man Can Invest In, Is The Stock Of A Farm; The Best Shares Are Plow Shares; And The Best Banks Are The Fertile Banks Of A Rural Stream; The More These Are Broken The Better Dividends They Pay.

God's Providence Is On The Side Of Clear Heads.

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?

Religion Would Save A Man; Christ Would Make Him Worth Saving.

Selfishness Is That Detestable Vice Which No One Will Forgive In Others, And No One Is Without Himself.

They Hover As A Cloud Of Witnesses Above This Nation.

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

Love, In This World, Is Like A Seed Taken From The Tropics, And Planted Where The Winter Comes Too Soon; And It Cannot Spread Itself In Flower-clusters And Wide-twining Vines, So That The Whole Air Is Filled With The Perfume Thereof. But There Is To Be Another Summer For It Yet. Care For The Root Now, And God Will Care For The Top By And By.

Our 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If Christ Is Not Divine, Every Impulse Of The Christian World Falls To A Lower Octave, And Light And Love And Hope Decline.

What If The Leaves Were To Fall A-weeping, And Say, "it Will Be So Painful For Us To Be Pulled From Our Stalks, When Autumn Comes?" Foolish Fear! Summer Goes, And Autumn Succeeds. The Glory Of Death Is Upon The Leaves; And The Gentlest Breeze That Blows Takes Them Softly And Silently From The Bough, And They Float Slowly Down, Like Fiery Sparks, Upon The Moss.

Every Artist Dips His Brush In His Own Soul, And Paints His Own Nature Into His Pictures.

As The Cream Abandons The Milk From Which It Took Its Life, And Rises To The Top And Rides There, So Men, Because They Are Richer Than Those Around About Them, Separate Themselves, And All Mankind Below Them They Regard As Skim Milk.

None Love To Speak So Much, When The Mood Of Speaking Comes, As They Who Are Naturally Taciturn.

Some Men Think That The Globe Is A Sponge That God Puts Into Their Hands To Squeeze For Their Own Garden Or Flower-pot.

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.

God Asks No Man Whether He Will Accept Life. That Is Not The Choice. You Must Take It. The Only Choice Is How.

Love Is The World's River Of Life

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.

Reason Is A Permanent Blessing Of God To The Soul. Without It There Can Be No Large Religion.

A Babe Is Nothing But A Bundle Of Possibilities.

There Are Materials Enough In Every Man's Mind To Make A Hell There.

We Are Apt To Believe In Providence So Long As We Have Our Own Way; But If Things Go Awry, Then We Think, If There Is A God, He Is In Heaven, And Not On Earth.

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

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

What We Call Wisdom Is The Result Of All The Wisdom Of Past Ages.

Men Judge Of Christians By Taking As Fair Samples Those That Lie Rotten On The Ground.

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.

The World Is To Be Cleaned By Somebody, And You Are Not Called Of God If You Are Ashamed To Scrub.

A Book Is A Garden, An Orchard, A Storehouse, A Party, A Mentor, A Teacher, A Guidepost, A Counsellor.

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.

Faith Is A Recognition Of Those Things Which Are Above The Senses.

I Have Known Men Who Thought The Object Of Conversion Was To Cleanse Them As A Garment Is Cleansed, And That When They Are Converted They Were To Be Hung Up In The Lord's Wardrobe, The Door Of Which Was To Be Shut, So That No Dust Could Get At Them. 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.

The Religion Of Jesus Christ Is Not Ascetic, Nor Sour, Nor Gloomy, Nor Circumscribing. It Is Full Of Sweetness In The Present And In Promise.

The Great Lever By Which To Raise And Save The World Is The Unbounded Love And Mercy Of God.

Christianity Works While Infidelity Talks. She Feeds The Hungry, Clothes The Naked, Visits And Cheers The Sick, And Seeks The Lost, While Infidelity Abuses Her And Babbles Nonsense And Profanity. 'by Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them.'

Nothing Can Compare In Beauty, And Wonder, And Admirableness, And Divinity Itself, To The Silent Work In Obscure Dwellings Of Faithful Women Bringing Their Children To Honor And Virtue And Piety.

O Never Harm The Dreaming World, The World Of Green, The World Of Leaves, But Let Its Million Palms Unfold The Adoration Of The Trees Of All Man's Works Of Art, A Cathedral Is Greatest. A Vast And Majestic Tree Is Greater Than That.

The Divine Mind Does Not Think For Us, Or Inspite Of Us, But Works In Us To Think, And To Will, And To Do.

What I Spent, I Had; What I Kept, I Lost; What I Gave, I Have.

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Were One To Ask Me In Which Direction I Think Man Strongest, I Should Say, His Capacity To Hate.

Sorrows, As Storms, Bring Down The Clouds Close To The Earth; Sorrows Bring Heaven Down Close; And They Are Instruments Of Cleansing And Purifying.

Our Flag Means All That Our Fathers Meant In The Revolutionary War. It Means All That The Declaration Of Independence Meant. It Means Justice. It Means Liberty. It Means Happiness.... Every Color Means Liberty. Every Thread Means Liberty. Every Star And Stripe Means Liberty.

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.

He Is Rich Or Poor According To What He Is, Not According To What He Has.

What Profusion Is There In His Work! When Trees Blossom There Is Not A Single Breastpin, But A Whole Bosom Full Of Gems; And Of Leaves They Have So Many Suits That They Can Throw Them Away To The Winds All Summer Long. What Unnumbered Cathedrals Has He Reared In The Forest Shades, Vast And Grand, Full Of Curious Carvings, And Haunted Evermore By Tremulous Music; And In The Heavens Above, How Do Stars Seem To Have Flown Out Of His Hand Faster Than Sparks Out Of A Mighty Forge!

Good-nature Is One Of The Richest Fruits Of True Christianity.

When Young Men Or Women Are Beginning Life, The Most Important Period, It Is Often Said, Is That In Which Their Habits Are Formed. That Is A Very Important Period. But The Period In Which The Ideals Of The Young Are Formed And Adopted Is More Important Still. For The Ideal With Which You Go Forward To Measure Things Determines The Nature, So Far As You Are Concerned, Of Everything You Meet.

Well Married A Person Has Wings, Poorly Married Shackles.

I Would Rather Speak The Truth To Ten Men Than Blandishments And Lying To A Million. Try It, Ye Who Think There Is Nothing In It! Try What It Is To Speak With God Behind You, To Speak So As To Be Only The Arrow In The Bow Which The Almighty Draws.

A Man In The Right, With God On His Side, Is In The Majority, Though He Be Alone, For God Is Multitudinous Above All Populations Of The Earth.

The Babe At First Feeds Upon The Mother's Bosom, But It Is Always On Her Heart.

The Indolent Mind Is Not Empty, But Full Of Vermin.

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.

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.

Truthfulness Is Godliness.

Life Is A Plant That Grows Out Of Death.

It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint; It Is Defeat That Turns Gristle To Muscle; It Is Defeat That Makes Men Invincible. Do Not Then Be Afraid Of Defeat. You Are Never So Near To Victory As When Defeated In A Good Cause.

Cant Is The Twin Sister Of Hypocrisy.

A Man That Is Afraid Is Never A Man.

The Blossom Cannot Tell What Becomes Of Its Odor, And No Person Can Tell What Becomes Of His Or Her Influence And Example.

There Are Some Men's Souls That Are So Thin, So Almost Destitute Of What Is The True Idea Of Soul, That Were Not The Guardian Angels So Keen-sighted, They Would Altogether Overlook Them.

A Noble Man Compares And Estimates Himself By An Idea Which Is Higher Than Himself, And A Mean Man, By One Lower Than Himself.

Every Man Should Keep A Fair-sized Cemetery In Which To Bury The Faults Of His Friends.

Some Men Are, In Regard To Ridicule, Like Tin-roofed Buildings In Regard To Hail: All That Hits Them Bounds Rattling Off; Not A Stone Goes Through.

We Go To The Grave Of A Friend Saying, "a Man Is Dead," But Angels Throng About Him Saying, "a Man Is Born."

Sink The Bible To The Bottom Of The Ocean, And Man's Obligations To God Would Be Unchanged. He Would Have The Same Path To Tread, Only His Lamp And His Guide Would Be Gone; He Would Have The Same Voyage To Make, But His Chart And Compass Would Be Overboard!

The Most Efficacious Secular Book That Ever Was Published In America Is The Newspaper.

The Glory Of Christianity Is To Conquer By Forgiveness. It Is Easier To Forgive An Enemy Than To Forgive A Friend.

Ordinarily Rivers Run Small At The Beginning, Grow Broader And Broader As They Proceed, And Become Widest And Deepest At The Point, Where They Enter The Sea. It Is Such Rivers That The Christian's Life Is Like. But The Life Of The Mere Worldly Man Is Like Those Rivers In Southern Africa, Which, Proceeding From Mountain Freshets, Are Broad And Deep At The Beginning, And Grow Narrower And More Shallow As They Advance. They Waster Themselves By Soaking Into The Sands, And At Last They Die Out Entirely. The Farther They Run The Less There Is Of Them.

When Men Enter Into The State Of Marriage, They Stand Nearest To God.

Tears Are Often The Telescope By Which Men See Far Into Heaven.

Someone Calls Biography The Home Aspect Of History.

Man Is That Name Of Power Which Rises Above Them All, And Gives To Every One The Right To Be That Which God Meant He Should Be.

A Mother Is As Different From Anything Else That God Ever Thought Of, As Can Possibly Be. She Is A Distinct And Individual Creation.

Prayer Covers The Whole Of Man's Life. There Is No Thought, Feeling, Yearning, Or Desire, However Low, Trifling, Or Vulgar We May Deem It, Which If It Affects Our Real Interest Or Happiness, We May Not Lay Before God And Be Sure Of Sympathy.

Any Law That Takes Hold Of A Mans Daily Life Cannot Prevail In A Community, Unless The Vast Majority Of The Community Are Actively In Favor Of It. The Laws That Are The Most Operative Are The Laws Which Protect Life.

Thinking Cannot Be Clear Until It Has Had Expression-we Must Write, Or Speak, Or Act Our Thoughts, Or They Will Remain In Half Torpid Form. Our Feelings Must Have Expression, Or They Will Be As Clouds, Which, Till They Descend In Rain, Will Never Bring Up Fruit Or Flowers. So It Is With All The Inward Feelings; Expression Gives Them Development-thought Is The Blossom; Language Is The Opening Bud; Action The Fruit Behind It.

It Is Not Well For A Man To Pray Cream And Live Skim Milk.

The Deeper Men Go Into Life, The Deeper Is Their Conviction That This Life Is Not All. It Is An Unfinished Symphony. A Day May Round Out An Insect's Life, And A Bird Or A Beast Needs No Tomorrow. Not So With Him Who Knows That He Is Related To God And Has Felt The Power Of An Endless Life.

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

Each Book Has A Secret History Of Ways And Means.

A Cunning Man Overreaches No One Half As Much As Himself.

There Can Be No High Civilization Where There Is Not Ample Leisure.

You Never Know Till You Try To Reach Them How Accessible Men Are; But You Must Approach Each Man By The Right Door.

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.

It Is A Higher Exhibition Of Christian Manliness To Be Able To Bear Trouble Than To Get Rid Of It.

Self-contemplation Is Apt To End In Self-conceit.

A Cobweb Is As Good As The Mightiest Cable When There Is Strain Upon It.

Death Is The Dropping Of The Flower, That The Fruit May Swell.

In Regard To The Great Mass Of Men, Anything That Breaks The Realm Of Fear Is Not Salutary, But Dangerous; Because It Takes Off One Of The Hoops That Hold The Barrel Together In Which The Evil Spirits Are Confined.

If There Be Any One Whose Power Is In Beauty, In Purity, In Goodness, It Is A Woman.

All Things In The Natural World Symbolize God, Yet None Of Them Speak Of Him But In Broken And Imperfect Words.

Death? Translated Into The Heavenly Tongue, That Word Means Life!

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

Nobody Ever Sees Truth Except In Fragments.

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

A Man Without Ambition Is Worse Than Dough That Has No Yeast In It To Raise It.

Anxiety In Human Life Is What Squeaking And Grinding Are In Machinery That Is Not Oiled. In Life, Trust Is The Oil.

But When We Borrow Trouble, And Look Forward Into The Future To See What Storms Are Coming, And Distress Ourselves Before They Come As To How We Shall Avert Them If They Ever Do Come, We Lose Our Proper Trustfulness In God. When We Torment Ourselves With Imaginary Dangers, Or Trials, Or Reverses, We Have Already Parted With That Perfect Love Which Casteth Out Fear.

Every Tomorrow Has Two Handles. We Can Take Hold Of It With The Handle Of Anxiety Or The Handle Of Faith.

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.

We Are Not To Make The Ideas Of Contentment And Aspiration Quarrel, For God Made Them Fast Friends. A Man May Aspire, And Yet Be Quite Content Until It Is Time To Raise; And Both Flying And Resting Are But Parts Of One Contentment. The Very Fruit Of The Gospel Is Aspiration. It Is To The Heart What Spring Is To The Earth, Making Every Root, And Bud, And Bough Desire To Be More.

There Is Nothing Which Vanity Does Not Desecrate.

A Man Should Fear When He Only Enjoys What Good He Does Publicly. Is It Not The Publicity Rather Than The Charity He Loves? Is It Not Vanity, Rather Than Benevolence, That Gives Such Charities?

A Traitor Is Good Fruit To Hang From The Boughs Of The Tree Of Liberty.

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Katharine Hepburn

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