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

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

Understanding the Quote: "no man is good for anything who has not some particle of..."

This quote by Henry Ward Beecher reflects deeply on the theme of men. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Men, Use, Obstinacy, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Henry Ward Beecher interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher is celebrated for insightful thoughts on men and use. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Men
Use
Obstinacy
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The Soul Is Often Hungrier Than The Body And No Shop Can Sell It Food.
Soul
Body
Shops
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.
Tree
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When Leisure Is A Selfish Luxury, Its Very Activity, When It Stirs, Is Apt To Be Only A Kind Of Indolence Taking Exercise, That It May The Better Digest Its Selfishness.
Selfish
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There Is No Right More Universal And More Sacred, Because Lying So Near The Root Of Existence, Than The Right Of Men To Their Own Labor.
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Sometimes Fear Is Wholesome And Rational; It Is Well To Swing Fear As A Mighty Battle-axe Over Men's Heads When No Other Motive Will Move Them.
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A Man's Character Is The Reality Of Himself; His Reputation, The Opinion Others Have Formed About Him; Character Resides In Him, Reputation In Other People; That Is The Substance, This Is The Shadow.
War
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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.
Girl
Growing Up
Children
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?
Dream
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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.
Country
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Troubles Loom Up Big When They're Ahead, And Joys Seem Always Sweeter When They're Past.
Past
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What A Mother Sings To The Cradle Goes All The Way Down To The Coffin.
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War
Being A Mom
Our Sweetest Experiences Of Affection Are Meant To Be Suggestions Of That Realm Which Is The Home Of The Heart.
Home
Heart
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Well-married, A Man Is Winged: Ill-matched, He Is Shackled.
Marriage
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Men Can Make An Idol Of The Bible.
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Morality Is Good, And Is Accepted Of God, As Far As It Goes; But The Difficulty Is, It Does Not Go Far Enough.
Doe
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Any Man Can Work When Every Stroke Of His Hands Brings Down The Fruit Rattling From The Tree ... But To Labor In Season And Out Of Season, Under Every Discouragement... That Requires A Heroism Which Is Transcendent.
Truth
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In This World It Is Not What We Take Up, But What We Give Up, That Makes Us Rich.
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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
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There Is Nothing Which Vanity Does Not Desecrate.
Vanity
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There Is No Such Thing As White Lies; A Lie Is As Black As A Coalpit, And Twice As Foul.
Lying
White
Black
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.
Fashion
Block
Character
It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint, Gristle To Muscle, And Makes Men Invincible.
Men
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Weak Minds May Be Injured By Novel-reading; But Sensible People Find Both Amusement And Instruction Therein.
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All Higher Motives, Ideals, Conceptions, Sentiments In A Man Are Of No Account If They Do Not Come Forward To Strengthen Him For The Better Discharge Of The Duties Which Devolve Upon Him In The Ordinary Affairs Of Life.
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No Man Ever Learned To Love God With All His Heart, And His Neighbour As Himself, In A Day.
Heart
Men
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When A Church Is Faithless To Its Duties, The Real Church Is Outside Its Walls, In The Community.
Wall
Real
Community
Many Men Are Mere Warehouses Full Of Merchandise--the Head, The Heart, Are Stuffed With Goods. . . . There Are Apartments In Their Souls Which Were Once Tenanted By Taste, And Love, And Joy, And Worship, But They Are All Deserted Now, And The Rooms Are Filled With Earthy And Material Things.
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If You Attempt To Beat A Man Down And To Get His Goods For Less Than A Fair Price, You Are Attempting To Commit Burglary, As Much As Though You Broke Into His Shop To Take The Things Without Paying For Them.
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Men
Down And
Refinement That Carries Us Away From Our Fellow-men Is Not God's Refinement.
Men
Fellow Man
Fellows
Walking Humbly, You Are More Of A Man Than You Were When You Walked Proudly.
Men
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A Traitor Is Good Fruit To Hang From The Boughs Of The Tree Of Liberty.
Tree
Liberty
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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.
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God Never Made Anything Else So Beautiful As Man.
Beautiful
Men
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Every Fresh Act Of Benevolence Is The Herald Of Deeper Satisfaction; Every Charitable Act A Stepping-stone Towards Heaven.
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Love Without Faith Is As Bad As Faith Without Love.
Love
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The Cynic Puts All Human Actions Into Two Classes - Openly Bad And Secretly Bad.
Class
Two
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It Is The End Of Art To Inoculate Men With The Love Of Nature.
Art
Men
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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.
Forgiveness
Men
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The Human Soul Is God's Treasury, Out Of Which He Coins Unspeakable Riches.
Soul
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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.
Life
Men
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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.
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Saint
It Is Often Said It Is No Matter What A Man Believes If He Is Only Sincere. This Is True Of All Minor Truths, And False Of All Truths Whose Nature It Is To Fashion A Man's Life. It Will Make No Difference In A Man's Harvest Whether He Thinks Turnips Have More Saccharine Matter Than Potatoes--whether Corn Is Better Than Wheat. But Let The Man Sincerely Believe That Seed Planted Without Ploughing Is As Good As With, That January Is As Favorable For Seed Sowing As April, And That Cockle Seed Will Produce As Good A Harvest As Wheat, And Will It Make No Difference?
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That Was A Judicious Mother Who Said, "i Obey My Children For The First Year Of Their Lives, But Ever After I Expect Them To Obey Me.
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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.
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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!
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A Man That Has Lost Moral Sense Is Like A Man In Battle With Both Of His Legs Shot Off: He Has Nothing To Stand On.
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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.
Running
Men
Light
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.
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Thinking
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It Takes A Man To Make A Devil.
Men
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The Indolent Mind Is Not Empty, But Full Of Vermin.
Mind
Empty
Vermin
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.
Government
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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.
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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.
Children
Wonder
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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.
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The First Hour Of The Morning Is The Rudder Of The Day. It Is A Blessed Baptism Which Gives The First Waking Thoughts Into The Bosom Of God.
Morning
Blessed
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I Pray On The Principle That Wine Knocks The Cork Out Of A Bottle. There Is An Inward Fermentation, And There Must Be A Vent.
Prayer
Wine
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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.
Music
Men
Thinking
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.
Summer
Fall
Autumn
In The Early Ages Men Ruled By Strength; Now They Rule By Brain, And So Long As There Is Only One Man In The World Who Can Think And Plan, He Will Stand Head And Shoulders Above Him Who Cannot.
Men
Thinking
Long
Take All The Robes Of All The Good Judges That Have Ever Lived On The Face Of The Earth, And They Would Not Be Large Enough To Cover The Iniquity Of One Corrupt Judge.
Law
Judging
Earth
The Monkey Is An Organized Sarcasm Upon The Human Race.
Sarcasm
Science
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A Mother Has, Perhaps, The Hardest Earthly Lot; And Yet No Mother Worthy Of The Name Ever Gave Herself Thoroughly For Her Child Who Did Not Feel That, After All, She Reaped What She Had Sown.
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Names
Trouble Teaches Men How Much There Is In Manhood.
Men
Trouble
Teach
Our Earthly Loves Are But So Many Silver Steps Leading Us Up To The Great Golden Love Of God.
Love
Golden
Steps
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.
Temptation
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Castles
Gratitude Is The Fairest Blossom Which Springs From The Soul.
Inspirational
Life
Thankful
Though Cares And Sorrows E'er Must Come, Though Heart Be Rent, I Know That God Will Give Me Strength, When Mine Is Spent.
God
Heart
Giving
Christians Should Be Like A Flower Store: The Odor Of Sanctity Should Betray Them Wherever They Are.
Christian
Flower
Odor
That Is True Culture Which Helps Us To Work For The Social Betterment Of All.
Culture
Helping
Social Justice
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.
Sea
Land
Atmosphere
Some Men Think That The Globe Is A Sponge That God Puts Into Their Hands To Squeeze For Their Own Garden Or Flower-pot.
Flower
Men
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The Power Of Hiding Ourselves From One Another Is Mercifully Given, For Men Are Wild Beasts, And Would Devour One Another But For This Protection.
Men
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Half The Spiritual Difficulties That Men And Women Suffer Arise From A Morbid State Of Health.
Spiritual
Men
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Character, Like Porcelain-ware, Must Be Painted Before It Is Glazed. There Can Be No Change Of Color After It Is Burned In.
Character
Color
Porcelain
It Is Not Work That Kills Men; It Is Worry. Work Is Healthy; You Can Hard Put More Upon A Man Than He Can Bear. Worry Is Rust Upon The Blade. It Is Not The Revolution That Destroys The Machinery, But The Friction.
Fear
Health
Men
No Matter What Looms Ahead, If You Can Eat Today, Enjoy Today, Mix Good Cheer With Friends Today Enjoy It And Bless God For It.
Cheer
Matter
Today
I Beseech You To Correct One Fault - Severe Speech Of Others; Never Speak Evil Of Any Man, No Matter What The Facts May Be.
Men
Evil
May
Religion Would Save A Man; Christ Would Make Him Worth Saving.
Jesus
Men
Saving
Age And Youth Look Upon Life From The Opposite Ends Of The Telescope; It Is Exceedingly Long,--it Is Exceedingly Short.
Opposites
Long
Age
A Library Is Not A Luxury But One Of The Necessities Of Life.
Educational
Book
Reading
Sorrows Are Gardeners: They Plant Flowers Along Waste Places, And Teach Vines To Cover Barren Heaps.
Flower
Sorrow
Vines
There Is A Patience That Cackles. There Are A Great Many Virtues That Are Hen-like. They Are Virtue, To Be Sure; But Everybody In The Neighborhood Has To Know About Them.
Hens
Virtue
Great Men
If Christ Is The Wisdom Of God And The Power Of God In The Experience Of Those Who Trust And Love Him, There Needs No Further Argument Of His Divinity.
And Love
Needs
Divinity
A Man's Religion Is Himself. If He Is Right-minded Toward God, He Is Religious; If The Lord Jesus Christ Is His Schoolmaster, Then He Is Christianly Religious.
Religious
Jesus
Men
Do Not Be Afraid Because The, Community Teems With Excitement. Silence And Death Are Dreadful. The Rush Of Life, The Vigor Of Earnest Men, The Conflict Of Realities, Invigorate, Cleanse, And Establish The Truth.
Reality
Men
Silence
The Superfluous Blossoms On A Fruit Tree Are Meant To Symbolize The Large Way God Loves To Do Pleasant Things.
Tree
Way
Fruit
Life Is Full Of Amusement To An Amusing Man.
Life
Men
Amusing
In This World, Full Often, Our Joys Are Only The Tender Shadows Which Our Sorrows Cast.
Happiness
War
Joy
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.
Children
Thinking
Hands
That Which Men Suppose The Imagination To Be, And To Do, Is Often Frivolous Enough And Mischievous Enough; But That Which God Meant It To Be In The Mental Economy Is Not Merely Noble, But Supereminent. It Is The Distinguishing Element In All Refinement. It Is The Secret And Marrow Of Civilization. It Is The Very Eye Of Faith. The Soul Without Imagination Is What An Observatory Would Be Without A Telescope.
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Men
Civilization
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.
Men
Trying
May
Victories Are Easy And Cheap. The Only Victories Worth Anything Are Those Achieved Through Hard Work And Dedication.
Hard Work
Dedication
Victory
There Is Not A Person We Employ Who Does Not, Like Ourselves, Desire Recognition, Praise, Gentleness, Forbearance, Patience.
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Doe
Recognition
Where All Of The Man Is What Property He Owns, It Does Not Take Long To Annihilate Him.
Destiny
Men
Long
Suffering Is Part Of The Divine Idea.
Ideas
Suffering
Divine
The God Of The Bible Is A Moral Monstrosity.
Bible
Religious
Religion
We Are But A Point, A Single Comma, And God Is The Literature Of Eternity.
Literature
Eternity
Good Nature Is Often A Mere Matter Of Health.
Matter
Goodness
Good Nature
Nothing Goes Far Which Has Not The Wings Of Love To Make It Buoyant, So That It Can Fly.
Love
Wings
Wings Of Love
God Bless The Good-natured, For They Bless Everybody Else.
God Bless
Bless
Good Nature
In The Sacred Precinct Of That Dwelling Where The Despotic Woman Wields The Sceptre Of Fierce Neatness, One Treads As If He Carried His Life In His Hands.
Life
Women
Hands
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.
Writing
Men
Names
It's Not Work That Kills [people], It Is Worry.
Happiness
People
Worry
There Was Never A Person Who Did Anything Worth Doing That He Did Not Receive More Than He Gave.
Motivational
Famous Inspirational
Anything Worth Doing
God Puts The Excess Of Hope In One Man, In Order That It May Be A Medicine To The Man Who Is Despondent.
Hope
Men
Order
The Tree Is But A Huge Boquet.
Flower
Tree
Huge
Conscience Is The Frame Of Character, And Love Is The Covering For It.
Character
Love Is
Personality
A Lie Always Needs A Truth For A Handle To It. The Worst Lies Are Those Whose Blade Is False, But Whose Handle Is True.
Lying
Needs
Blades
The Strength Of A Man Consists In Finding Out The Way God Is Going, And Going That Way.
Strength
War
Men
Going Out Into Life--that Is Dying. Christ Is The Door Out Of Life.
Death
Doors
Dying
The Glory Of Christianity Is To Conquer By Forgiveness. It Is Easier To Forgive An Enemy Than To Forgive A Friend.
Forgiveness
Forgiving
Enemy
No Town Can Fail Of Beauty, Though Its Walks Were Gutters And Its Houses Hovels, If Venerable Trees Make Magnificent Colonnades Along Its Streets.
House
Tree
Towns
The Way To Avoid Evil Is Not By Maiming Our Passions, But By Compelling Them To Yield Their Vigor To Our Moral Nature.
Passion
Yield
Evil
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.
Flower
Generosity
Giving
Selfishness At The Expense Of Others Happiness Is Demonism.
Others Happiness
Selfishness
Expenses
Christ Is Risen! There Is Life, Therefore, After Death! His Resurrection Is The Symbol And Pledge Of Universal Resurrection!
Life
Resurrection
Christ
No Man Can Tell If He Is Rich Or Poor By Turning To His Ledger. It Is The Heart That Makes A Man Rich. He Is Rich According To What He Is, Not According To What He Has.
Heart
Men
Rich Or Poor
Troubles Are Often The Tools By Which God Fashions Us For Better Things.
Inspirational
Fashion
War
Earthly Love Is A Brief And Penurious Stream, Which Only Flows In Spring, With A Long Summer Drought. The Change From A Burning Desert, Treeless, Springless, Drear, To Green Fields And Blooming Orchards In June, Is Slight In Comparison With That From The Desert Of This World's Affection To The Garden Of God, Where There Is Perpetual, Tropical Luxuriance Of Blessed Love.
Love
Summer
Spring
If A Man Harbors Any Sort Of Fear, It Percolates Through All His Thinking, Damages His Personality, Makes Him Landlord To A Ghost.
Fear
Men
Thinking
Badgered, Snubbed And Scolded On The One Hand; Petted, Flattered And Indulged On The Other-it Is Astonishing How Many Children Work Their Way Up To An Honest Manhood In Spite Of Parents And Friends. Human Nature Has An Element Of Great Toughness In It.
Children
Hands
Parent
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.
Truth
Lying
Men
There Is No Greater Crime Than To Stand Between A Man And His Development; To Take Any Law Or Institution And Put It Around Him Like A Collar, And Fasten It There, So That As He Grows And Enlarges, He Presses Against It Till He Suffocates And Dies.
Education
Men
Law
If A Man Has Come To That Point Where He Is No Content That He Says; I Do Not Want To Know Any More, Or Do Any More Or Be Any More, He Is In A State In Which He Ought To Be Changed Into A Mummy.
Men
Want
States
No Man Knows What He Will Do Till The Right Temptation Comes.
Men
Temptation
Knows
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.
Stars
Heart
Past
We Never Know How Much One Loves Till We Know How Much He Is Willing To Endure And Suffer For Us; And It Is The Suffering Element That Measures Love. The Characters That Are Great Must, Of Necessity, Be Characters That Shall Be Willing, Patient And Strong To Endure For Others. To Hold Our Nature In The Willing Service Of Another Is The Divine Idea Of Manhood, Of The Human Character.
Christian
Strong
Character
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!
Summer
Nature
Stars
Affliction Comes To Us All, Not To Make Us Sad, But Sober; Not To Make Us Sorry, But To Make Us Wise; Not To Make Us Despondent, But By Its Darkness To Refresh Us As The Night Refreshes The Day; Not To Impoverish, But To Enrich Us
Wise
Sorry
Failure
Liberty Is The Soul's Right To Breathe And, When It Cannot Take A Long Breath, Laws Are Girdled Too Tight.
Law
Long
Soul
Refinement Is The Lifting Of One's Self Upwards From The Merely Sensual; The Effort Of The Soul To Etherealize The Common Wants And Uses Of Life.
Self
Effort
Soul
The One Great Poem Of New England Is Her Sunday.
War
Sunday
England
Money In The Hands Of One Or Two Men Is Like A Dungheap In A Barnyard. So Long As It Lies In A Mass, It Does No Good; But, If It Is Only Spread Out Evenly On The Land, Everything Will Grow.
Money
Lying
Men
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.
Power
Men
Hands
Every Man Carries A Menagerie In Himself; And, By Stirring Him Up All Around, You Will Find Every Sort Of Animal Represented There.
Animal
Men
Stirring
Too Much Looking Backward ... Is Bad For Progress.
Progress
Too Much
Looking Back
A Noble Man Compares And Estimates Himself By An Idea Which Is Higher Than Himself, And A Mean Man, By One Lower Than Himself.
Ambition
Mean
Men
All Things In The Natural World Symbolize God, Yet None Of Them Speak Of Him But In Broken And Imperfect Words.
Nature
Broken
World
God's Men Are Better Than The Devil's Men, And They Ought To Act As Though They Thought They Were.
Men
Devil
Ought
If Every Child Might Live The Life Predestined In A Mother's Heart, All The Way From The Cradle To The Coffin, He Would Walk Upon A Beam Of Light, And Shine In Glory.
Mother
Children
Live Life
There Is Nothing That A New-englander So Nearly Worships As An Argument.
Worship
Argument
There Is Not A Single Heart But Has Its Moments Of Longing.
Heart
Longing
Moments
We Go To The Grave Of A Friend Saying, "a Man Is Dead," But Angels Throng About Him Saying, "a Man Is Born."
Inspiring
Angel
Men
To Become An Able And Successful Man In Any Profession, Three Things Are Necessary, Nature, Study And Practice.
Success
Nature
Men
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.
Bible
New York
Men
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.
Men
Thinking
Hair
Vigilance Is Not Only The Price Of Liberty, But Of Success Of Any Sort.
Liberty
Vigilance
Eternal Vigilance
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.
Country
Party
Men
God Pardons Like A Mother, Who Kisses The Offense Into Everlasting Forgiveness.
Forgiveness
Mother
War
We Rejoice In God Since He Has Taught Us That Every Thing Which Is True In Us, Is But A Faint Expression Of What Is In Him. And Thus All Our Joys Become To Us The Echo Of Higher Joys, And Our Very Life Is As A Dream Of That Nobler Life, To Which We Shall Awaken When We Die.
God
Dream
Echoes
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.
Death
Children
Dying
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.
Men
Majority
Population
Blessed Are They Who Know How To Shine On One's Gloom With Their Cheer.
Happiness
Cheer
Blessed
When Flowers Are Full Of Heaven-descended Dews, They Always Hang Their Heads; But Men Hold Theirs The Higher The More They Receive, Getting Proud As They Get Full.
Flower
Pride
Men
Whatever Is Almost True Is Quite False, And Among The Most Dangerous Of Errors, Because Being So Near Truth, It Is More Likely To Lead Astray.
Truth
Errors
Dangerous
God Is A Being Who Gives Everything But Punishment In Over Measure.
God
Punishment
Giving
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.
Truth
Reality
Giving
It Is Part And Parcel Of Every Man's Life To Develop Beauty In Himself. All Perfect Things Have In Them An Element Of Beauty.
Men
Perfect
Every Man
Man Is At The Bottom An Animal, Midway A Citizen, And At The Top Divine. But The Climate Of This World Is Such That Few Ripen At The Top.
Animal
Men
Climate
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.
Sadness
Past
Glowing
Men Who Stand On Any Other Foundation Than The Rock Christ Jesus Are Like Birds That Build In Trees By The Side Of Rivers. The Bird Sings In The Branches, And The River Sings Below, But All The While The Waters Are Undermining The Soil About The Roots, Till, In Some Unsuspected Hour, The Tree Falls With A Crash Into The Stream; And Then Its Nest Is Sunk, Its Home Is Gone, And The Bird Is A Wanderer.
Jesus
Fall
Home
Men Of Dissolute Lives Have Little Incentive To Look Forward To The Hopes And Glories Of Immortality. A Due Conception Of These Would Be Incompatible With Such A Life.
Men
Would Be
Looks
In America There Is Not One Single Element Of Civilization That Is Not Made To Depend, In The End, Upon Public Opinion.
Civilization
America
Public Opinion
The Divine Mind Does Not Think For Us, Or Inspite Of Us, But Works In Us To Think, And To Will, And To Do.
Thinking
Mind
Doe
No Man Is Such A Conqueror, As The One That Has Defeated Himself.
Men
Discipline
Defeated
No Man Can Tell Another His Faults So As To Benefit Him, Unless He Loves Him.
Men
Criticism
Benefits
This World Is Magnificent For Strangers And Pilgrims, But Miserable For Residents.
World
Miserable
Stranger
The Great Lever By Which To Raise And Save The World Is The Unbounded Love And Mercy Of God.
Love
Mercy Of God
World
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.
Men
Perfect
Dumb
Ones Best Success Comes After Their Greatest Disappointments.
Inspirational
Motivational
Inspiring
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.
Growing Up
Pride
Men
Morality Must Always Precede And Accompany Religion, And Yet Religion Is Much More Than Morality.
Morality
Accompany
A Person Without A Sense Of Humor Is Like A Wagon Without Springs. It's Jolted By Every Pebble On The Road.
Inspirational
Motivational
Attitude
The Bible Stands Alone In Human Literature In Its Elevated Conception Of Manhood, In Character And Conduct.
Bible
Character
Literature
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.
Spring
Men
Imagination
The Test Of Christian Character Should Be That A Man Is A Joy-bearing Agent To The World.
Christian
War
Character
Caution And Conservatism Are Expected Of Old Age; But When The Young Men Of A Nation Are Possessed Of Such A Spirit, When They Are Afraid Of The Noise And Strife Caused By The Applications Of The Truth, Heaven Save The Land! Its Funeral Bell Has Already Rung.
Men
Land
Heaven
Love Is The Wine Of Existence. When You Have Taken That, You Have Taken The Most Precious Drop That There Is In The Cluster.
Love
Taken
Wine
Women Are A New Race, Recreated Since The World Received Christianity.
Women
Race
World
Adversity Is The Mint In Which God Stamps Upon Man His Image And Superscription.
Adversity
Men
Stamps
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.
School
Ideas
Truth Is
I Can Forgive, But I Cannot Forget, Is Only Another Way Of Saying, I Will Not Forgive. Forgiveness Ought To Be Like A Cancelled Note - Torn In Two, And Burned Up, So That It Never Can Be Shown Against One.
Forgiveness
Spiritual
Two
Our Children That Die Young Are Like Those Spring Bulbs Which Have Their Flowers Prepared Beforehand, And Leave Nothing To Do But To Break Ground, And Blossom, And Pass Away. Thank God For Spring Flowers Among Men, As Well As Among The Grasses Of The Field.
Children
Spring
Flower
No People Are So Easy To Govern As The Intelligent, And None Are So Hard To Govern As The Ignorant.
Intelligent
People
Ignorant
Well Married A Person Has Wings, Poorly Married Shackles.
Marriage
Couple
War
God Made The Human Body, And It Is The Most Exquisite And Wonderful Organization Which Has Come To Us From The Divine Hand.
Exercise
Hands
Organization
Were One To Ask Me In Which Direction I Think Man Strongest, I Should Say, His Capacity To Hate.
Hate
Men
Thinking
Blessed Be The Man Whose Work Drives Him. Something Must Drive Men; And If It Is Wholesome Industry, They Have No Time For A Thousand Torments And Temptations.
Work
Blessed
Men
Everyone Has Conscience Enough To Hate; Few Have Religion Enough To Love.
Hate
Enough
Despise
We Only See In A Lifetime A Dozen Faces Marked With The Peace Of A Contented Spirit.
Contentment
Dozen
Faces
Law Represents The Effort Of Man To Organize Society; Governments, The Efforts Of Selfishness To Overthrow Liberty.
Selfish
Men
Law
The Mischiefs Of Anarchy Have Been Equaled By The Mischiefs Of Government.
Government
Anarchy
Mischief
God Made Every Man To Have Power To Be Mightier Than The Events Round About Him; To Hold By His Firm Will The Reigns By Which All Things Are Guided.
Men
Events
Reign
Music Cleanses The Understanding; Inspires It, And Lifts It Into A Realm Which It Would Not Reach If It Were Left To Itself.
Music
Motivation
Piano
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.
Book
Sleep
Men
No Cradle For An Emperor's Child Was Ever Prepared With So Much Magnificence As This World Has Been Made For Man. But It Is Only His Cradle.
Children
Men
World
Men Judge Of Christians By Taking As Fair Samples Those That Lie Rotten On The Ground.
Christian
Lying
Men
Difficulties Are God's Errands; And When We Are Sent Upon Them, We Should Esteem It A Proof Of God's Confidence.
Errands
Proof
Should
There Is Nothing That Is So Wonderfully Created As The Human Soul. There Is Something Of God In It. We Are Infinite In The Future, Though We Are Finite In The Past.
Past
Soul
Infinite
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.
Art
Inspiration
Men
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