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Men Who Neglect Christ, And Try To Win Heaven Through Moralities, Are Like Sailors At Sea In A Storm, Who Pull, Some At The Bowsprit And Some At The Mainmast, But Never Touch The Helm.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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Men Who Neglect Christ,

Henry Ward Beecher

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Men Who Neglect Christ, And Try To Win Heaven Through Moralities, Are Like Sailors At Sea In A Storm, Who Pull, Some At The Bowsprit And Some At The Mainmast, But Never Touch The Helm.

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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.

Every Man Carries A Menagerie In Himself; And, By Stirring Him Up All Around, You Will Find Every Sort Of Animal Represented There.

Many A Man Has Been Dined Out Of His Religion, And His Politics, And His Manhood, Almost.

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.

We Let Our Blessings Get Mouldy, And Then Call Them Curses.

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.

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

Debt Rolls A Man Over And Over, Binding Him Hand And Foot, And Letting Him Hang Upon The Fatal Mesh Until The Long-legged Interest Devours Him.

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

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

Hope Is Sweet-minded And Sweet-eyed. It Draws Pictures; It Weaves Fancies; It Fills The Future With Delight.

Providence 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.

The Diameter Of Each Day Is Measured By The Stretch Of Thought - Not By The Rising And Setting Of The Sun.

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

Every Charitable Act Is A Stepping Stone Toward Heaven.

Genius Is A Steed Too Fiery For The Plow Or The Cart.

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

There Are Joys Which Long To Be Ours. God Sends Ten Thousands Truths, Which Come About Us Like Birds Seeking Inlet; But We Are Shut Up To Them, And So They Bring Us Nothing, But Sit And Sing Awhile Upon The Roof, And Then Fly Away.

Nothing Is Orderly Till Man Takes Hold Of It. Everything In Creation Lies Around Loose.

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

Rain! Whose Soft Architectural Hands Have Power To Cut Stones, And Chisel To Shapes Of Grandeur The Very Mountains.

The Cynic Puts All Human Actions Into Two Classes - Openly Bad And Secretly Bad.

When A Nation's Young Men Are Conservative, Its Funeral Bell Is Already Rung.

There Is An Equator That Runs Just Under The Nose: All That Live Below The Equator Are Animals; All That Live Above It Are Men.

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 A Man Has No Longer Any Conception Of Excellence Above His Own, His Voyage Is Done, He Is Dead,--dead In Trespasses And Sin Of Blear-eyed Vanity.

Precise Knowledge Is The Only True Knowledge, And He Who Does Not Teach Exactly, Does Not Teach At All.

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

Every Man Should Be Born Again On The First Day Of January. Start With A Fresh Page

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

Though Cares And Sorrows E'er Must Come, Though Heart Be Rent, I Know That God Will Give Me Strength, When Mine Is Spent.

There Are Many Persons Who Look On Sunday As A Sponge To Wipe Out The Sins Of The Week

Memory Can Glean, But Can Never Renew. It Brings Us Joys Faint As Is The Perfume Of The Flowers, Faded And Dried, Of The Summer That Is Gone.

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.

The Cynic Is One Who Never Sees A Good Quality In A Man, And Never Fails To See A Bad One. He Is The Human Owl, Vigilant In Darkness And Blind To Light, Mousing For Vermin, And Never Seeing Noble Game.

He That Does Not Know How Wisely To Meddle With Public Affairs In Preaching The Gospel, Does Not Know How To Preach The Gospel.

Preaching The Gospel

A Man Has No More Religion Than He Acts Out In His Life.

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

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

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.

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

Astronomers Have Built Telescopes Which Can Show Myriads Of Stars Unseen Before; But When A Man Looks Through A Tear In His Own Eye, That Is A Lens Which Opens Reaches Into The Unknown, And Reveals Orbs Which No Telescope, However Skilfully Constructed, Could Do.

Never Excuse Yourself.

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.

It Is For Men To Choose Whether They Will Govern Themselves Or Be Governed.

God Appoints Our Graces To Be Nurses To Other Men's Weaknesses.

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

The Newspaper Is A Greater Treasure To The People Than Uncounted Millions Of Gold.

There Is No Man That Lives Who Does Not Need To Be Drilled, Disciplined, And Developed Into Something Higher And Nobler And Better Than He Is By Nature. Life Is One Prolonged Birth.

As Warmth Makes Even Glaciers Trickle, And Opens Streams In The Ribs Of Frozen Mountains, So The Heart Knows The Full Flow And Life Of Its Grief Only When It Begins To Melt And Pass Away.

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!

Doctrine Is Nothing But The Skin Of Truth Set Up And Stuffed.

We 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.

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.

Customs Represent The Experience Of Mankind.

If There's A Job To Be Done, I Always Ask The Busiest Man In My Parish To Take It On And It Gets Done.

A Woman's Pity Often Opens The Door To Love.

One Should Go To Sleep As Homesick Passengers Do, Saying, "perhaps In The Morning We Shall See The Shore.

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

The Mother's Heart Is The Child's Schoolroom.

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

Mirth Is God's Medicine. Everybody Ought To Bathe In It.

To Do Good Work A Man Should No Doubt Be Industrious. To Do Great Work He Must Certainly Be Idle A Well.

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!

Find Out What Your Temptations Are, And You Will Find Out Largely What You Are Yourself.

He Is Greatest Whose Strength Carries Up The Most Hearts By The Attraction Of His Own.

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

Beauty May Be Said To Be God's Trademark In Creation.

Good Nature Is Worth More Than Knowledge, More Than Money, More Than Honor, To The Persons Who Possess It.

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.

Let Parents Who Hate Their Offspring Rear Them To Hate Labor, And To Inherit Riches; And Before Long They Will Be Stung By Every Vice, Racked By Its Poison, And Damned By Its Penalty.

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

Where Is Human Nature So Weak As In The Bookstore?

Men Do Not Avail Themselves Of The Riches Of God's Grace. They Love To Nurse Their Cares, And Seem As Uneasy Without Some Fret As An Old Friar Would Be Without His Hair Girdle. They Are Commanded To Cast Their Cares Upon The Lord, But Even When They Attempt It, They Do Not Fail To Catch Them Up Again, And Think It Meritorious To Walk Burdened.

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.

They Hover As A Cloud Of Witnesses Above This Nation.

American Veterans

A Practical, Matter-of-fact Man Is Like A Wagon Without Springs: Every Single Pebble On The Road Jolts Him; But A Man With Imagination Has Springs That Break The Jar And Jolt.

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

Many Of Our Troubles Are God Dragging Us, And They Would End If We Would Stand Upon Our Feet And Go Whither He Would Have Us Go.

Love Is God's Loaf; And This Is That Feeding For Which We Are Taught To Pray, "give Us This Day Our Daily Bread."

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

We Not Only Live Among Men, But There Are Airy Hosts, Blessed Spectators, Sympathetic Lookers-on, That See And Know And Appreciate Our Thoughts And Feelings And Acts.

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.

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

It Is A View Of God That Compensates Every Thing Else, And Enables The Soul To Rest In His Bosom. How, When The Child In The Night Screams With Terror, Hearing Sounds That It Knows Not Of, Is That Child Comforted And Put To Rest? Is It By A Philosophical Explanation That The Sounds Were Made By The Rats In The Partition? Is It By Imparting Entomological Knowledge? No; It Is By The Mother Taking The Child In Her Lap, And Singing Sweetly To It, And Rocking It. And The Child Thinks Nothing Of The Explanation, But Only Of The Mother.

Give Us That Calm Certainty Of Truth, That Nearness To Thee, That Conviction Of The Reality Of The Life To Come, Which We Shall Need To Bear Us Through The Troubles Of This.

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

October Is The Opal Month Of The Year. It Is The Month Of Glory, Of Ripeness. It Is The Picture-month.

If A Boy Is Not Trained To Endure And To Bear Trouble, He Will Grow Up A Girl; And A Boy That Is A Girl Has All A Girl's Weakness Without Any Of Her Regal Qualities. A Woman Made Out Of A Woman Is God's Noblest Work; A Woman Made Out Of A Man Is His Meanest.

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

The Most Dangerous People Are The Ignorant.

It Is Not Desirable That We Should Live As In The Constant Atmosphere And Presence Of Death; That Would Unfit Us For Life; But It Is Well For Us, Now And Then, To Talk With Death As Friend Talketh With Friend, And To Bathe In The Strange Seas, And To Anticipate The Experiences Of That Land To Which It Will Lead Us. These Forethinkings Are Meant, Not To Make Us Discontented With Life, But To Bring Us Back With More Strength, And A Nobler Purpose In Living.

A Man Never Has Good Luck Who Has A Bad Wife.

Nowhere Else Can One Find So Miscellaneous, So Various, An Amount Of Knowledge As Is Contained In A Good Newspaper.

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.

No People Are So Easy To Govern As The Intelligent, And None Are So Hard To Govern As The Ignorant.

Beware Of Him Who Hates The Laugh Of A Child.

The Soul Without Imagination Is What An Observatory Would Be Without A Telescope.

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

The Sphere That Is Deepest, Most Unexplored, And Most Unfathomable, The Wonder And Glory Of God's Thought And Hand, Is Our Own Soul!

A Person Without A Sense Of Humor Is Like A Wagon Without Springs. It's Jolted By Every Pebble On The Road.

The Superfluous Blossoms On A Fruit Tree Are Meant To Symbolize The Large Way God Loves To Do Pleasant Things.

Cant Is The Twin Sister Of Hypocrisy.

Religion, In One Sense, Is A Life Of Self-denial, Just As Husbandry, In One Sense, Is A Work Of Death.

Human Life Is God's Outer Church. Its Needs And Urgencies Are Priests And Pastors.

What We Call Wisdom Is The Result Of All The Wisdom Of Past Ages. Our Best Institutions Are Like Young Trees Growing Upon The Roots Of The Old Trunks That Have Crumbled Away.

For Fidelity, Devotion, Love, Many A Two-legged Animal Is Below The Dog And The Horse. Happy Would It Be For Thousands Of People If They Could Stand At Last Before The Judgment Seat And Say, I Have Loved As Truly And Have Lived As Decently As My Dog, And Yet We Call Them Only Brutes.

I 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.

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

God Is Like Us To This Extent, That Whatever In Us Is Good Is Like God.

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

The Elms Of New England! They Are As Much A Part Of Her Beauty As The Columns Of The Parthenon Were The Glory Of Its Architecture.

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.

Theology Is But Our Ideas Of Truth Classified And Arranged.

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

As Flowers Always Wear Their Own Colors And Give Forth Their Own Fragrance Every Day Alike, So Should Christians Maintain Their Character At All Times And Under All Circumstances.

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.

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

Theology Is But A Science Of Applied To God. As Schools Change Theology Must Necessarily Change. Truth Is Everlasting, But Our Ideas Of Truth Are Not. Theology Is But Our Ideas Of Truth Classified And Arranged.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Many Will Say, "i Can Find God Without The Help Of The Bible, Or Church, Or Minister." Very Well. Do So If You Can. The Ferry Company Would Feel No Jealousy Of A Man Who Should Prefer To Swim To New York. Let Him Do So If He Is Able, And We Will Talk About It On The Other Shore; But Probably Trying To Swim Would Be The Thing That Would Bring Him Quickest To The Boat. So God Would Have No Jealousy Of A Man's Going To Heaven Without The Aid Of The Bible, Or Church, Or Minister; But Let Him Try To Do So, And It Will Be The Surest Way To Bring Him Back To Them For Assistance.

A Love Of Flowers Would Beget Early Rising, Industry, Habits Of Close Observation, And Of Reading. It Would Incline The Mind To Notice Natural Phenomena, And To Reason Upon Them. It Would Occupy The Mind With Pure Thoughts, And Inspire A Sweet And Gentle Enthusiasm; Maintain Simplicity Of Taste; And ... Unfold In The Heart An Enlarged, Unstraightened, Ardent Piety.

I Have Known Many An Instance Of A Man Writing A Letter And Forgetting To Sign His Name, But This Is The Only Instance I Have Ever Known Of A Man Signing His Name And Forgetting To Write The Letter.

Laws And Institutions, Like Clocks, Must Occasionally Be Cleaned, Wound Up, And Set To True Time.

A Lie Always Needs A Truth For A Handle To It.

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

Socially We Are Woven Into The Fabric Of Society, Where Every Man Is Like One Thread In A Piece Of Cloth. No Single Thread Has A Right To Say, "i Will Stay Here No Longer," And Draw Out. No Man Has A Right To Make A Hole In The Well-woven Fabric Of Society.

I Never Knew An Early-rising, Hard-working, Prudent Man, Careful Of His Earnings, And Strictly Honest Who Complained Of Bad Luck.

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.

Faith Is Spiritualized Imagination.

Sorrow Is Mount Sinai. If One Will, One May Go Up And Talk With God, Face To Face.

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

They Who Refuse Education To A Black Man Would Turn The South Into A Vast Poorhouse, And Labor Into A Pendulum, Necessity Vibrating Between Poverty And Indolence.

The Rarest Feeling That Ever Lights A Human Face Is The Contentment Of A Loving Soul.

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.

Flowers Have An Expression Of Countenance As Much As Men Or Animals. Some Seem To Smile; Some Have A Sad Expression; Some Are Pensive And Diffident; Others Are Plain, Honest And Upright, Like The Broad Faced Sunflower And The Hollyhock.

There Are Many Troubles Which You Cannot Cure By The Bible And The Hymn-book, But Which You Can Cure By A Good Perspiration And A Breath Of Fresh Air.

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

Blessed Are The Happiness-makers! Blessed Are They That Take Away Attritions, That Remove Friction, That Make The Courses Of Life Smooth, And The Intercourse Of Men Gentle!

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.

Men Have A Thousand Desires To A Bushel Of Choices.

A Book Is Good Company. It Is Full Of Conversation Without Loquacity. It Comes To Your Longing With Full Instruction, But Pursues You Never.

Children Are The Hands By Which We Take Hold Of Heaven. By These Tendrils We Clasp It And Climb Thitherward. And Why Do We Think That We Are Separated From Them? We Never Half Knew Them, Nor In This World Could.

Nature Holds An Immense Uncollected Debt Over Every Man's Head.

Our Government Is Built Upon The Vote. But Votes That Are Purchasable Are Quicksands, And A Government Built On Them Stands Upon Corruption And Revolution.

Tyrannies Are Overthrown By Ideas. Armies Are Defeated By Ideas. Nations, And Time Itself, Are Overmatched By Ideas.

Now Comes The Mystery.

Living Is Death; Dying Is Life. We Are Not What We Appear To Be. On This Side Of The Grave We Are Exiles, On That Citizens; On This Side Orphans, On That Children.

A Cup Of Coffee - Real Coffee - Home-browned, Home Ground, Home Made, That Comes To You Dark As A Hazel-eye, But Changes To A Golden Bronze As You Temper It With Cream That Never Cheated, But Was Real Cream From Its Birth, Thick, Tenderly Yellow, Perfect!

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.

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.

Do Not Be Afraid Of Defeat. You Are Never So Near Victory As When You Are Defeated In A Good Cause.

Scepticism Is A Barren Coast, Without A Harbor Or Lighthouse.

Do Not Give, As Many Rich Men Do, Like A Hen That Lays Her Eggs ...and Then Cackles.

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.

That Energy Which Makes A Child Hard To Manage Is The Energy Which Afterwards Makes Him A Manager Of Life.

Sophistry Is The Fallacy Of Argument.

O Lord God, We Pray That We May Be Inspired To Nobleness Of Life In The Least Things. May We Dignify All Our Daily Life. May We Set Such A Sacredness Upon Every Part Of Our Life, That Nothing Shall Be Trivial, Nothing Unimportant, And Nothing Dull, In The Daily Round.

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

The Pen Is The Tongue Of The Hand; A Silent Utterer Of Words For The Eye.

A World Without A Sabbath Would Be Like A Man Without A Smile, Like Summer Without Flowers, And Like A Homestead Without A Garden. It Is The Most Joyous Day Of The Week.

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

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.

There Is Not A Heart But Has Its Moments Of Longing, Yearning For Something Better; Nobler; Holier Than It Knows Now.

We Are Never Ripe Till We Have Been Made So By Suffering.

People Of Too Much Sentiment Are Like Fountains, Whose Overflow Keeps A Disagreeable Puddle About Them.

The Greatest Architect And The One Most Needed Is Hope.

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.

A Man Has A Right To Picture God According To His Need, Whatever It Be.

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.

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

Mirthfulness Is In The Mind, And You Cannot Get It Out. It Is The Blessed Spirit That God Has Set In The Mind To Dust It, To Enliven Its Dark Places, And To Drive Asceticism, Like A Foul Fiend, Out At The Back Door. It Is Just As Good, In Its Place, As Conscience Or Veneration. Praying Can No More Be Made A Substitute For Smiling Than Smiling Can For Praying.

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

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

Happiness Is Not The End Of Life: Character Is.

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

Speak Of The Appetite For Drink; Or Of A Bon-vivant's Relish For Dinner! What Are These Mere Animal Throes And Ragings Compared With Those Fantasies Of Taste, Of Those Yearning Of The Imagination, Of Those Insatiable Appetites Of Intellect, Which Bewilder A Student In A Great Bookseller's Temptation-hall.

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?

Gratitude Is The Fairest Blossom Which Springs From The Soul.

You Can Imagine Thistle-down So Light That When You Run After It Your Running Motion Would Drive It Away From You, And That The More You Tried To Catch It The Faster It Would Fly From Your Grasp. And It Should Be With Every Man, That, When He Is Chased By Troubles, They, Chasing, Shall Raise Him Higher And Higher.

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?

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

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

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

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.

I Read For Three Things; First, To Know What The World Has Done The Last Twenty-four Hours, And Is About To Do Today; Second, For The Knowledge That I Specially Want In My Work; And Third, For What Will Bring My Mind Into A Proper Mood.

Some Have Supposed That The Mosquito Is Of A Devout Turn, And Never Will Partake Of A Meal Without First Saying Grace. The Devotions Of Some Men Are But A Preface To Blood-sucking.

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.

No Grace Can Save Any Man Unless He Helps Himself.

Unfruitful Emotion Is To Be Suspected. Feeling Acts As An Impulse, As A Spur, As A Spring, And When Feelings Are Excited, And They Put Nothing Forward, They Are Sometimes Even Dangerous To A Man.

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

Everything That Happens In This World Is A Part Of A Great Plan Of God Running Through All Time.

A Man Who Does Not Know How To Be Angry, Does Not Know How To Be Good. Now And Then A Man Should Be Shaken To The Core With Indignation Over Things Evil.

October Is Nature's Funeral Month. Nature Glories In Death More Than In Life. The Month Of Departure Is More Beautiful Than The Month Of Coming - October Than May. Every Green Thin Loves To Die In Bright Colors.

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.

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!

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Richard Le Gallienne

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