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Prayer Is Often An Argument Of Laziness: "lord, My Temper Gives Me A Vast Deal Of Inconvenience, And It Would Be A Great Task For Me To Correct It; And Wilt Thou Be Pleased To Correct It For Me, That I May Get Along Easier?" If Prayer Was Answered Under Such Circumstances, Independent Of Action Of Natural Laws, It Would Be Paying A Premium On Indolence.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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Prayer Is Often An

Henry Ward Beecher

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Prayer Is Often An Argument Of Laziness: "lord, My Temper Gives Me A Vast Deal Of Inconvenience, And It Would Be A Great Task For Me To Correct It; And Wilt Thou Be Pleased To Correct It For Me, That I May Get Along Easier?" If Prayer Was Answered Under Such Circumstances, Independent Of Action Of Natural Laws, It Would Be Paying A Premium On Indolence.

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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.'

True Obedience Is True Freedom.

I Think Half The Troubles For Which Men Go Slouching In Prayer To God Are Caused By Their Intolerable Pride. Many Of Our Cares Are But A Morbid Way Of Looking At Our Privileges. We Let Our Blessings Get Mouldy, And Then Call Them Curses.

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.

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!

Rich Men Are To Bear The Infirmities Of The Poor. Wise Men Are To Bear The Mistakes Of The Ignorant. Strong Men Are To Bear With The Feeble. Cultured People Are To Bear With The Rude And Vulgar. If A Rough And Coarse Man Meets An Ecstatically Fine Man, The Man That Is Highest Up Is To Be The Servant Of The Man That Is Lowest Down.

The Soul Is A Temple; And God Is Silently Building It By Night And By Day. Precious Thoughts Are Building It; Disinterested Love Is Building It; All-penetrating Faith Is Building It.

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.

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.

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.

The Reason That Men Are So Slow To Confess Their Vices Is Because They Have Not Yet Abandoned Them.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Philosophy Of One Century Is The Common Sense Of The Next.

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

A Dull Ax Never Loves Grindstones.

Take From The Bible The Godship Of Christ, And It Would Be But A Heap Of Dust.

There Are Joys Which Long To Be Ours.

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.

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

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

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.

Too Much Looking Backward ... Is Bad For Progress.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Dog Was Created Specially For Children. He Is A God Of Frolic.

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

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.

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

Your Honors Here May Serve You For A Time, As It Were For An Hour, But They Will Be Of No Use To You Beyond This World. Nobody Will Have Heard A Word Of Your Honors In The Other Life. Your Glory, Your Shame, Your Ambitions, And All The Treasures For Which You Push Hard And Sacrifice Much Will Be Like Wreaths Of Smoke. For These Things, Which You Mostly Seek, And For Which You Spend Your Life Only Tarry With You While You Are On This Side Of The Flood.

That Is True Culture Which Helps Us To Work For The Social Betterment Of All.

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.

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

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.

We Are But A Point, A Single Comma, And God Is The Literature Of Eternity.

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

Nobody Ever Sees Truth Except In Fragments.

He That Would Look With Contempt On The Pursuits Of The Farmer, Is Not Worthy The Name Of A Man.

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

Every Fresh Act Of Benevolence Is The Herald Of Deeper Satisfaction; Every Charitable Act A Stepping-stone Towards Heaven.

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.

If You Are Idle, You Are On The Road To Ruin; And There Are Few Stopping-places Upon It. It Is Rather A Precipice Than A Road

Success Is Full Of Promise Till One Gets It, And Then It Seems Like A Nest From Which The Bird Has Flown.

Prayer Is Often An Argument Of Laziness: "lord, My Temper Gives Me A Vast Deal Of Inconvenience, And It Would Be A Great Task For Me To Correct It; And Wilt Thou Be Pleased To Correct It For Me, That I May Get Along Easier?" If Prayer Was Answered Under Such Circumstances, Independent Of Action Of Natural Laws, It Would Be Paying A Premium On Indolence.

Mirth Is God's Medicine.

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

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

Adversity, If For No Other Reason, Is Of Benefit, Since It Is Sure To Bring A Season Of Sober Reflection. People See Clearer At Such Times. Storms Purify The Atmosphere.

All Our Other Faculties Seem To Have The Brown Touch Of Earth Upon Them, But The Imagination Carries The Very Livery Of Heaven, And Is God's Self In The Soul.

There Is An Army Of Waiters In This World.

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

Thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God With All Thy Heart, And With All Thy Soul, And With All Thy Mind." I Found The Following Quote By Goethe That Can Serve As A Commentary On These Words. "we Are Shaped And Fashioned By What We Love." "the Most Important Thing A Father Can Do For His Children Is To Love Their Mother.

If We Would Have Anything Of Benefit, We Must Earn It, And Earning It Become Shrewd, Inventive, Ingenious, Active, Enterprising.

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

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

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

Of All The Music That Reached Farthest Into Heaven, It Is The Beating Of A Loving Heart.

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

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

Christ Certainly Did Come To Destroy The Law And The Prophets.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

There Are Three Schoolmasters For Everybody That Will Employ Them - The Senses, Intelligent Companions, And Books.

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

The Elect, Those Who Will; The Non-elect, Those Who Won't.

We Cannot Have Right Virtue Without Right Conditions.

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

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

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.

Men Can Make An Idol Of The Bible.

A Reputation For Good Judgment, For Fair Dealing, For Truth, And For Rectitude, Is Itself A Fortune.

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

Weak Minds May Be Injured By Novel-reading; But Sensible People Find Both Amusement And Instruction Therein.

Suffering Well Borne Is Better Than Suffering Removed.

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

The World Is God's Workshop For Making Men In.

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.

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

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.

Very Few Men Acquire Wealth In Such A Manner As To Receive Pleasure From It.

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

Private Opinion Is Weak, But Public Opinion Is Almost Omnipotent.

I Know It Is More Agreeable To Walk Upon Carpets Than To Lie Upon Dungeon Floors, I Know It Is Pleasant To Have All The Comforts And Luxuries Of Civilization; But He Who Cares Only For These Things Is Worth No More Than A Butterfly, Contented And Thoughtless, Upon A Morning Flower; And Who Ever Thought Of Rearing A Tombstone To A Last Summer's Butterfly?

The Thankful Heart Will Find, In Every Hour, Some Heavenly Blessings.

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

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.

Books Are The Windows Through Which The Soul Looks Out.

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

There Never Was A Liar That Had Not A Spot In Him Where He Could Not Help Admiring Truth.

Truthfulness Is Godliness.

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

Now Comes The Mystery.

God Made The Human Body, And It Is The Most Exquisite And Wonderful Organization Which Has Come To Us From The Divine Hand.

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.

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

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

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.

Think Of A Man In A Chronic State Of Anger!

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

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

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

The Common Schools Are The Stomachs Of The Country In Which All People That Come To Us Are Assimilated Within A Generation. When A Lion Eats An Ox, The Lion Does Not Become An Ox But The Ox Becomes A Lion.

Well-married, A Man Is Winged: Ill-matched, He Is Shackled.

A Gamester, As Such, Is The Cool, Calculating, Essential Spirit Of Concentrated, Avaricious Selfishness.

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

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.

The Hunger Of The Eye Is Not To Be Despised; And They Are To Be Pitied Who Have Starvation Of The Eye.

Our Life Is In The Loom; It Rolls Up And Is Hidden As Fast As It Is Woven. It Is To Be Taken Out Of The Loom Only When We Leave This World; Then Only Shall We See The Pattern.

The Monkey Is An Organized Sarcasm Upon The Human Race.

We Need Not Fear Shipwreck When God Is The Pilot.

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.

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

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

There Ought To Be Such An Atmosphere In Every Christian Church That A Man Going There And Sitting Two Hours Should Take The Contagion Of Heaven, And Carry Home A Fire To Kindle The Altar Whence He Came.

Of All Escape Mechanisms, Death Is The Most Efficient.

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

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

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.

Love Is The River Of Life In This World. Think Not That Ye Know It Who Stand At The Little Tinkling Rill, The First Small Fountain. Not Until You Have Gone Through The Rocky Gorges, And Not Lost The Stream; Not Until You Nave Gone Through The Meadow, And The Stream Has Widened And Deepened Until Fleets Could Ride On Its Bosom; Not Until Beyond The Meadow You Have Come To The Unfathomable Ocean, And Poured Your Treasures Into Its Depths--not Until Then Can You Know What Love Is.

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.

If You Want Your Neighbor To Know What Christ Will Do For Him, Let The Neighbor See What Christ Has Done For You.

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

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.

A Bird In A Cage Is Not Half A Bird.

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

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

Newspapers Are The Schoolmasters Of The Common People.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Compassion Will Cure More Sins Than Condemnation.

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!

All Words Are Pegs To Hang Ideas On.

Success Surely Comes With Conscience In The Long Run, Other Things Being Equal. Capacity And Fidelity Are Commercially Profitable Qualities.

Ignorance Is The Womb Of Monsters.

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.

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

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.

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 Mischiefs Of Anarchy Have Been Equaled By The Mischiefs Of Government.

Theology Is A Science Of Mind Applied To God.

Science And Religion

John Wesley Quaintly Observed That The Road To Heaven Is A Narrow Path, Not Intended For Wheels, And That To Ride In A Coach Here And To Go To Heaven Hereafter, Was A Happiness Too Much For Man.

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

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.

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

Expedients Are For An Hour, But Principles Are For The Ages. Just Because The Rains Descend And Winds Blow, We Cannot Afford To Build On Shifting Sands.

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.

Indeed, Unless A Man Can Link His Written Thoughts With The Everlasting Wants Of Men, So That They Shall Draw More From Them As Wells, There Is No More Immortality To The Thoughts And Feelings Of The Soul Than To The Muscles And Bones.

Clothes And Manners Do Not Make The Man; But When He Is Made, They Greatly Improve His Appearance.

A Person Can No More Make Money Suddenly And Largely, And Be Unharmed By It, Than One Could Suddenly Grow From A Child's Stature To An Adult's Without Harm.

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.

The Mere Wit Is Only A Human Bauble. He Is To Life What Bells Are To Horses-not Expected To Draw The Load, But Only To Jingle While The Horses Draw.

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

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

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.

A Christianity Which Will Not Help Those Who Are Struggling From The Bottom To The Top Of Society, Needs Another Christ To Die For It.

Titles Are Too "thin" For The Nineteenth Century.

Nineteenth Century

Many People Are Afraid To Embrace Religion, For Fear They Shall Not Succeed In Maintaining It.

Even A Liar Tells A Hundred Truths To One Lie; He Has To, To Make The Lie Good For Anything.

Anger Is A Bow That Will Shoot Sometimes Where Another Feeling Will Not.

Defeat Is A School In Which Truth Always Grows Strong.

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.

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.

And Now We Beseech Of Thee That We May Have Every Day Some Such Sense Of God's Mercy And Of The Power Of God About Us, As We Have Of The Fullness Of The Light Of Heaven Before Us.

The Methods By Which Men Have Met And Conquered Trouble, Or Been Slain By It, Are The Same In Every Age. Some Have Floated On The Sea, And Trouble Carried Them On Its Surface As The Sea Carries Cork. Some Have Sunk At Once To The Bottom As Foundering Ships Sink. Some Have Run Away From Their Own Thoughts. Some Have Coiled Themselves Up Into A Stoical Indifference. Some Have Braved The Trouble, And Defied It. Some Have Carried It As A Tree Does A Wound, Until By New Wood It Can Overgrow And Cover The Old Gash.

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

Undoubtedly We Render Our Consciences Callous By Evil Indulgences; But We Cannot Entirely Subdue That Still, Small Voice.

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

Liberty Is The Soul's Right To Breathe.

Men's Best Successes Come After Their Disappointments.

We Have The Promises Of God As Thick As Daisies In Summer Meadows, That Death, Which Men Most Fear, Shall Be To Us The Most Blessed Of Experiences, If We Trust In Him. Death Is Unclasping; Joy, Breaking Out In The Desert; The Heart, Come To Its Blossoming Time! Do We Call It Dying When The Bud Bursts Into Flower?

Pride Slays Thanksgiving, But A Humble Mind Is The Soil Out Of Which Thanks Naturally Grow. A Proud Man Is Seldom A Grateful Man, For He Never Thinks He Gets As Much As He Deserves.

Words Are But The Bannerets Of A Great Army, A Few Bits Of Waving Color Here And There; Thoughts Are The Main Body Of The Footman That March Unseen Below.

Men Must Read For Amusement As Well As For Knowledge.

Sophistry Is The Fallacy Of Argument.

There Is No Faculty Of The Human Soul So Persistent And Universal As That Of Hatred.

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

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

A Babe Is A Mother's Anchor.

He Who Only Does Not Appreciate Floral Beauty Is To Be Pitied Like Any Other Man Who Is Born Imperfect. It Is A Misfortune Not Unlike Blindness.

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Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Cecilia Bartoli

David Coverdale

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