Background Image

...

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.

-Henry Ward Beecher

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Aster Has Not

Henry Ward Beecher

...

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.

Views: 82548

Topic

More From Henry Ward Beecher

I Beseech You To Correct One Fault - Severe Speech Of Others; Never Speak Evil Of Any Man, No Matter What The Facts May Be.

To The Great Tree-loving Fraternity We Belong. We Love Trees With Universal And Unfeigned Love, And All Things That Do Grow Under Them Or Around Them - The Whole Leaf And Root Tribe.

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

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.

Learning, To Be Of Much Use, Must Have A Tendency To Spread Itself Among The Common People.

The Bible Stands Alone In Human Literature In Its Elevated Conception Of Manhood, In Character And Conduct.

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

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

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

Work Is Not A Curse, But Drudgery Is.

God Sends Experience To Paint Men's Portraits.

If A Man Meets With Injustice, It Is Not Required That He Shall Not Be Roused To Meet It; But If He Is Angry After He Has Had Time To Think Upon It, That Is Sinful. The Flame Is Not Wrong, But The Coals Are.

No Man Rides So High And In Such Good Company As The Man That Allies Himself To A Truth.

There Are More Quarrels Smothered By Just Shutting Your Mouth, And Holding It Shut, Than By All The Wisdom In The World.

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.

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

There Is A Temperate Zone In The Mind, Between Luxurious Indolence And Exacting Work; And It Is To This Region, Just Between Laziness And Labor, That Summer Reading Belongs.

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 Matter Who Reigns, The Merchant Reigns.

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

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

We Sleep, But The Loom Of Life Never Stops, And The Pattern Which Was Weaving When The Sun Went Down Is Weaving When It Comes Up In The Morning.

God Has Made Sleep To Be A Sponge By Which To Rub Out Fatigue. A Man's Roots Are Planted In Night As In A Soil.

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

Titles Are Too "thin" For The Nineteenth Century.

Nineteenth Century

Many Yet Are The Secret Truths Of God Which Will Be Unfolded As They Are Needed.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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

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

Beware Of Him Who Hates The Laugh Of A Child.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

All The Sobriety Which' Religion Needs Or Requires Is That Which Real Earnestness Produces.

The Methods By Which Men Have Met And Conquered Trouble, Or Been Slain By It, Are The Same In Every Age.

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

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

Motivational Sports

God Pardons Like A Mother, Who Kisses The Offense Into Everlasting Forgiveness.

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.

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

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

Religion Is Using Everything For God.

Trouble Teaches Men How Much There Is In Manhood.

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.

There Is Not A Person We Employ Who Does Not, Like Ourselves, Desire Recognition, Praise, Gentleness, Forbearance, Patience.

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

A Church Debt Is The Devil's Salary.

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

We Ought To Be Ten Times As Hungry For Knowledge As For Food For The Body.

What If You Have Seen It Before, Ten Thousand Times Over? An Apple Tree In Full Blossom Is Like A Message, Sent Fresh From Heaven To Earth, Of Purity And Beauty.

A Dull Ax Never Loves Grindstones.

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

Age And Youth Look Upon Life From The Opposite Ends Of The Telescope; It Is Exceedingly Long,--it Is Exceedingly Short.

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

It Is Not When The Cable Lies Coiled Up On The Deck That You Know How Strong Or How Weak It Is; It Is When It Is Put To The Test.

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

Victories That Come Cheap Are Cheap. Those Only Are Worth Having Which Come As The Result Of Hard Fighting.

Ignorance Is The Womb Of Monsters.

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

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.

What A Mother Sings To The Cradle Goes All The Way Down To The Coffin.

Our Moral Faculties Must Be Placed Highest, Else They Can No More Flourish Than Could A Plant Growing Under The Shade And Drip Of Trees.

God Planted Fear In The Soul As Truly As He Planted Hope Or Courage. Pear Is A Kind Of Bell, Or Gong, Which Rings The Mind Into Quick Life And Avoidance Upon The Approach Of Danger. It Is The Soul's Signal For Rallying.

As Ships Meet At Sea A Moment Together, When Words Of Greeting Must Be Spoken, And Then Away Upon The Deep, So Men Meet In This World; And I Think We Should Cross No Man's Path Without Hailing Him, And If He Needs Giving Him Supplies.

It Is The Triumph Of Civilization That At Last Communities Have Obtained Such A Mastery Over Natural Laws That They Drive And Control Them. The Winds, The Water, Electricity, All Aliens That In Their Wild Form Were Dangerous, Are Now Controlled By Human Will, And Are Made Useful Servants.

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.

By Religion I Mean Perfected Manhood,--the Quickening Of The Soul By The Influence Of The Divine Spirit.

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

A Door That Seems To Stand Open Must Be Of A Man's Size, Or It Is Not The Door That Providence Means For Him.

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

Most Of The Debts Of Europe Represent Condensed Drops Of Blood.

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

Like Waves, Our Feelings May Continue By Repeating Themselves, By Intermittent Rushes; But No Emotion Any More Than A Wave Can Long Retain Its Own Individual Form.

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

A Little Library, Growing Every Year, Is An Honorable Part Of A Man’s History. It Is A Man’s Duty To Have Books.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

God Washes The Eyes By Tears Until They Can Behold The Invisible Land Where Tears Shall Come No More. O Love! O Affliction! Ye Are The Guides That Show Us The Way Through The Great Airy Space Where Our Loved Ones Walked; And, As Hounds Easily Follow The Scent Before The Dew Be Risen, So God Teaches Us, While Yet Our Sorrow Is Wet, To Follow On And Find Our Dear Ones In Heaven.

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.

The Head Learns New Things, But The Heart Forever Practices Old Experiences.

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

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.

They Hover As A Cloud Of Witnesses Above This Nation.

American Veterans

The Beginning Is The Promise Of The End.

Nobody Ever Sees Truth Except In Fragments.

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

The Mystery Of History Is An Insoluble Problem.

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

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

The Pie Should Be Eaten "while It Is Yet Florescent, White Or Creamy Yellow, With The Merest Drip Of Candied Juice Along The Edges, (as If The Flavor Were So Good To Itself That Its Own Lips Watered!) Of A Mild And Modest Warmth, The Sugar Suggesting Jelly, Yet Not Jellied, The Morsels Of Apple Neither Dissolved Nor Yet In Original Substance, But Hanging As It Were In A Trance Between The Spirit And The Flesh Of Applehood...then, O Blessed Man, Favored By All The Divinities! Eat, Give Thanks, And Go Forth, 'in Apple-pie Order!'"

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.

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

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

If God But Cares For Our Inward And Eternal Life, If By All The Experiences Of This Life He Is Reducing It And Preparing For Its Disclosure, Nothing Can Befall Us But Prosperity. Every Sorrow Shall Be But The Setting Of Some Luminous Jewel Of Joy. Our Very Morning Shall Be But The Enamel Around The Diamond; Our Very Hardships But The Metallic Rim That Holds The Opal, Glancing With Strange Interior Fires.

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

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

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

May We Be Satisfied With Nothing That Shall Not Have In It Something Of Immortality.

Never Excuse Yourself.

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

Good Men Are Not Those Who Now And Then Do A Good Act, But Men Who Join One Good Act To Another.

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

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

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.

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.

Expedients Are For The Hour, But Principles Are For The Ages.

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.

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

Someone Calls Biography The Home Aspect Of History.

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.

A Very Common Flower Adds Generosity To Beauty. It Gives Joy To The Poor, To The Rude, And To The Multitudes Who Could Have No Flowers Were Nature To Charge A Price For Her Blossoms.

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

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

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

Your Greatest Pleasure Is That Which Rebounds From Hearts That You Have Made Glad.

Oh, Ye Infidel Philosophers, Teach Me How To Find Joy In Sorrow, Strength In Weakness, And Light In Darkest Days; How To Bear Buffeting And Scorn; How To Welcome Death, And To Pass Through It Into The Sphere Of Life, And This Not For Me Only, But For The Whole World That Groans And Travails In Pain; And Till You Can Do This, Speak Not To Me Of A Better Revelation Than The Bible.

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

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.

The Clearest Window That Ever Was Fashioned If It Is Barred By Spiders' Webs, And Hung Over With Carcasses Of Insects, So That The Sunlight Has Forgotten To Find Its Way Through, Of What Use Can It Be? Now, The Church Is God's Window; And If It Is So Obscured By Errors That Its Light Is Darkness, How Great Is That Darkness!

A Babe Is A Mother's Anchor.

It Is Not Work That Kills Men; It Is Worry. Worry Is Rust Upon The Blade.

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

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

Perverted Pride Is A Great Misfortune In Men; But Pride In Its Original Function, For Which God Created It, Is Indispensable To A Proper Manhood.

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

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.

Troubles Are Often The Tools By Which God Fashions Us For Better Things.

Think Of A Man In A Chronic State Of Anger!

Repentance Is The Turning Of The Soul From The Way Of Midnight To The Point Of The Coming Sun.

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

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.

The Imagination Is The Secret And Marrow Of Civilization. It Is The Very Eye Of Faith.

Wealth Held By A Class And Used Ambitiously Becomes As Despotic As An Absolute Monarchy, And Has In Its Hands Manners, Customs, Laws, Institutions, And Governments Themselves.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Maple-trees Are The Cows Of Trees (spring-milked).

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

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

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.

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

Where Human Life Needs Most Sympathy, Where Usually It Is The Most Barren, There It Is That Christ Is More Likely To Be Found Than Anywhere Else.

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.

Love Is The World's River Of Life

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.

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.

God's Men Are Better Than The Devil's Men, And They Ought To Act As Though They Thought They Were.

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.

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

That State Of Mind In Which A Man Is Impressed With Invisible Things Is Faith.

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.

All Things In The Natural World Symbolize God, Yet None Of Them Speak Of Him But In Broken And Imperfect Words. High Above All He Sits, Sublimer Than Mountains, Grander Than Storms, Sweeter Than Blossoms And Tender Fruits, Nobler Than Lords, Truer Than Parents, More Loving Than Lovers. His Feet Tread The Lowest Places Of The Earth; But His Head Is Above All Glory, And Everywhere He Is Supreme.

Amid The Discords Of This Life, It Is Blessed To Think Of Heaven, Where God Draws After Him An Everlasting Train Of Music; For All Thoughts Are Harmonious And All Feelings Vocal, And So There Is Round About His Feet Eternal Melody.

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

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

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

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

As Long As Society Is Absolutely Divided As Milk Is, The Cream Being At The Top And The Impoverished Milk At The Bottom, So Long Will Society Be Unbalanced, And Liable To Be Thrown Into Convulsions Out Of Which Will Spring Wars. A Circulation Throughout Keeps It In Health.

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.

Mirth Is The Sweet Wine Of Human Life. It Should Be Offered Sparkling With Zestful Life Unto God.

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

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.

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.

You Cannot Sift Out The Poor From The Community. The Poor Are Indispensable To The Rich.

Yea, Though The Breath Of Disappointment Should Chill The Sanguine Heart, Speedily Gloweth It Again, Warmed By The Live Embers Of Hope.

We Know That The Gifts Which Men Have Do Not Come From The Schools. If A Man Is A Plain, Literal, Factual Man, You Can Make A Great Deal More Of Him In His Own Line By Education Than Without Education, Just As You Can Make A Great Deal More Of A Potato If You Cultivate It Than If You Do Not; But No Cultivation In This World Will Ever Make An Apple Out Of A Potato.

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

Our Best Successes Often Come After Our Greatest Disappointments.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

If A Man Can Have Only One Kind Of Sense, Let Him Have Common Sense. If He Has That And Uncommon Sense Too, He Is Not Far From Genius.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Best Lessons A Man Ever Learns Are From His Mistakes. It Is Not For Want Of Schoolmasters That We Are Still Ignorant.

God's Glory Is His Goodness.

Trending Author

Catharine Beecher

Karolina Kurkova

Anne Rivers Siddons

Norman Vincent Peale

Category