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The Natural Term Of An Apple-pie Is But Twelve Hours. It Reaches Its Highest State About One Hour After It Comes From The Oven, And Just Before Its Natural Heat Has Quite Departed. But Every Hour Afterward Is A Declension. And After It Is One Day Old, It Is Thence-forward But The Ghastly Corpse Of Apple-pie.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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The Natural Term Of

Henry Ward Beecher

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The Natural Term Of An Apple-pie Is But Twelve Hours. It Reaches Its Highest State About One Hour After It Comes From The Oven, And Just Before Its Natural Heat Has Quite Departed. But Every Hour Afterward Is A Declension. And After It Is One Day Old, It Is Thence-forward But The Ghastly Corpse Of Apple-pie.

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There Is Nothing That Makes More Cowards And Feeble Men Than Public Opinion.

It Gives One A Sudden Start In Going Down A Barren, Stoney Street, To See Upon A Narrow Strip Of Grass, Just Within The Iron Fence, The Radiant Dandelion, Shining In The Grass, Like A Spark Dropped From The Sun.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Selfishness At The Expense Of Others Happiness Is Demonism.

Others Happiness

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

No Man Is Sane Who Does Not Know How To Be Insane On Proper Occasions.

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

It Is Necessary, If One Would Read Aright, That He Should Read At Least Two Newspapers, Representing Both Sides Of Important Subjects.

Never Be Grandiloquent When You Want To Drive Home A Searching Truth. Don't Whip With A Switch That Has The Leaves On, If You Want It To Tingle.

Public Speaking

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

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

Involved Sentences, Crooked, Circuitous, And Parenthetical, No Matter How Musically They May Be Balanced, Are Prejudicial To A Facile Understanding Of The Truth.

No Grief Has A Right To Immortality. That Ground Belongs To Joy, To Hope, To Faith.

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

And When No Longer We Can See Thee, May We Reach Out Our Hands, And Find Thee Leading Us Through Death To Immortality And Glory.

Many Men Want Wealth,--not A Competence Alone, But A Live-story Competence. Everything Subserves This; And Religion They Would Like As A Sort Of Lightning-rod To Their Houses, To Ward Off By And By The Bolts Of Divine Wrath.

Love Without Faith Is As Bad As Faith Without Love.

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.

The Real Man Is One Who Always Finds Excuses For Others, But Never Excuses Himself.

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.

Thorough Selfishness Destroys Or Paralyzes Enjoyment. A Heart Made Selfish By The Contest For Wealth Is Like A Citadel Stormed In War, Utterly Shattered.

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.

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

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

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

A Man That Does Not Know How To Be Angry Does Not Know How To Be Good.

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

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

Go On Your Knees Before God. Bring All Your Idols; Bring Self-will, And Pride, And Every Evil Lust Before Him, And Give Them Up. Devote Yourself, Heart And Soul, To His Will; And See If You Do Not "know Of The Doctrine.

The Things That Hurt Us Teach Us.

At The Bottom Of Every Leaf-stem Is A Cradle, And In It Is An Infant Germ; The Winds Will Rock It, The Birds Will Sing To It All Summer Long, But The Next Season It Will Unfold And Go Alone.

The Ignorant Classes Are The Dangerous Classes.

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.

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

In The Ordinary Business Of Life, Industry Can Do Anything Which Genius Can Do, And Very Many Things Which It Cannot.

What Is The Disposition Which Makes Men Rejoice In Good Bargains? There Are Few People Who Will Not Be Benefited By Pondering Over The Morals Of Shopping.

Poverty Is Very Good In Poems But Very Bad In The House; Very Good In Maxims And Sermons But Very Bad In Practical Life.

I Would Much Rather Fight Pride Than Vanity, Because Pride Has A Stand-up Way Of Fighting. You Know Where It Is. It Throws Its Black Shadow On You, And You Are Not At A Loss Where To Strike. But Vanity Is That Delusive, That Insectiferous, That Multiplied Feeling, And Men That Fight Vanities Are Like Men That Fight Midges And Butterflies. It Is Easier To Chase Them Than To Hit Them.

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!

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

Death Is Not An End. It Is A New Impulse.

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.

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.

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.

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.

God Sends Experience To Paint Men's Portraits.

I Think You Might Dispense With Half Your Doctors If You Would Only Consult Dr. Sun More.

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.

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

The Advertisements In A Newspaper Are More Full Knowledge In Respect To What Is Going On In A State Or Community Than The Editorial Columns Are.

Some People Are Proud Of Their Humility.

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

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

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.

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.

Next To Victory, There Is Nothing So Sweet As Defeat, If Only The Right Adversary Overcomes You.

The Whole Of The Saviour's Ministerial Life, At Least The Part Of It That Stands On Record, Was Passed In What We May Call Substantially A Revival Work.

The Fear Of Doing Right Is The Grand Treason In Times Of Danger.

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

Good Nature Is Often A Mere Matter Of Health.

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

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

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.

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.

Public Sentiment Is To Public Officers What Water Is To The Wheel Of The Mill.

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.

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 Strength Of A Man Consists In Finding Out The Way God Is Going, And Going That Way.

His Nature Is Such That Our Often Coming Does Not Tire Him. The Whole Burden Of The Whole Life Of Every Man May Be Rolled On To God And Not Weary Him, Though It Has Wearied Man.

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

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.

There Are Joys Which Long To Be Ours.

Every Tomorrow Has Two Handles. We Can Take Hold Of It With The Handle Of Anxiety Or The Handle Of Faith. We Should Live For The Future, And Yet Should Find Our Life In The Fidelities Of The Present; The Last Is Only The Method Of The First.

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

A Man Ought To Carry Himself In The World As An Orange Tree Would If It Could Walk Up And Down In The Garden, Swinging Perfume From Every Little Censer It Holds Up In The Air.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Meanest Thing In The World Is The Devil.

The Last Person One Wants To Be Is Themselves. Sadly, That Is The Best Person To Be.

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.

The Law Is A Battery, Which Protects All That Is Behind It, But Sweeps With Destruction All That Is Outside.

One Might As Well Attempt To Calculate Mathematically The Contingent Forms Of The Tinkling Bits Of Glass In A Kaleidoscope As To Look Through The Tube Of The Future And Foretell Its Pattern.

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

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

Defeat Is A School In Which Truth Always Grows Strong.

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.

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.

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.

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

No Man Ever Learned To Love God With All His Heart, And His Neighbour As Himself, In A Day.

Children Are The Hands By Which We Take Hold Of Heaven.

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.

The Commerce Of The World Is Conducted By The Strong, And Usually It Operates Against The Weak.

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.

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.

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

Many Men Are Stored Full Of Unused Knowledge. Like Loaded Guns That Are Never Fired Off, Or Military Magazines In Times Of Peace, They Are Stuffed With Useless Ammunition.

When Our Cup Runs Over, We Let Others Drink The Drops That Fall, But Not A Drop From Within The Rim, And Call It Charity; When The Crumbs Are Swept From Our Table, We Think It Generous To Let The Dogs Eat Them; As If That Were Charity Which Permits Others To Have What We Cannot Keep.

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

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.

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

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!

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. If We Receive News, That A Hundred Thousand Dollars Had Been Left Them By Some One Dying, We Should Be Thrown Into An Ecstasy Of Rejoicing; But When They Have Gone Home To God, We Stand, And Mourn, And Pine, And Wonder At The Mystery Of Providence.

Self-government By The Whole People Is The Teleologic Idea. The Republican Form Of Government Is The Noblest And The Best, As It Is The Latest.

Business Men Are To Be Pitied Who Do Not Recognize The Fact That The Largest Side Of Their Secular Business Is Benevolence. ... No Man Ever Manages A Legitimate Business In This Life Without Doing Indirectly Far More For Other Men Than He Is Trying To Do For Himself.

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

It Is One Of The Severest Tests Of Friendship To Tell Your Friend His Faults. So To Love A Man That You Cannot Bear To See A Stain Upon Him, And To Speak Painful Truth Through Loving Words, That Is Friendship.

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

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

The Things Required For Prosperous Labor, Prosperous Manufactures, And Prosperous Commerce Are Three. First, Liberty; Second, Liberty; Third, Liberty.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Happiness Is Not The End Of Life: Character Is.

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

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.

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

Never Excuse Yourself.

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.

God's Glory Is His Goodness.

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

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.

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

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

This World Is Not A Platform Where You Will Hear Thalberg-piano-playing. It Is A Piano Manufactory, Where Are Dust And Shavings And Boards, And Saws And Files And Rasps And Sandpapers. The Perfect Instrument And The Music Will Be Hereafter.

Of All Joyful, Smiling, Ever-laughing Experiences, There Are None Like Those Which Spring From True Religion.

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

It Usually Takes A Hundred Years To Make A Law, And Then, After It Has Done Its Work; It Usually Takes A Hundred Years To Get Rid Of It.

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

Ones Best Success Comes After Their Greatest Disappointments.

Titles Are Too "thin" For The Nineteenth Century.

Nineteenth Century

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

The Man Who Perceives Life Only With His Eye, His Ear, His Hand, And His Tongue, Is But Little Higher Than The Ox Or An Intelligent Dog; But He Who Has Imagination Sees Things Around And Above Him, As The Angels See Them.

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

Despondency Is Ingratitude; Hope Is God's Worship.

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

No Man Is More Cheated Than The Selfish Man.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Next To The Pastoral Came The Agricultural Life. When You Add To That The Manufacturing Phase Of Development, Society Begins To Fill Out, And Needs But Wings To Fly, And Commerce Is Its Wings.

Where Is Human Nature So Weak As In The Bookstore?

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 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.

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?

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.

True Politeness Is The Spirit Of Benevolence Showing Itself In A Refined Way. It Is The Expression Of Good-will And Kindness. It Promotes Both Beauty In The Man Who Possesses It, And Happiness In Those Who Are About Him. It Is A Religious Duty, And Should Be A Part Of Religious Training.

Mountains Of Gold Would Not Seduce Some Men, Yet Flattery Would Break Them Down.

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.

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.

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

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

A Christian Is Nothing But A Sinful Man Who Has Put Himself To School For Christ For The Honest Purpose Of Becoming Better.

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

The Gravest Events Dawn With No More Noise Than The Morning Star Makes In Rising. All Great Developments Complete Themselves In The World And Modestly Wait In Silence, Praising Themselves Never, And Announcing Themselves Not At All. We Must Be Sensitive, And Sensible, If We Would See The Beginnings And Endings Of Great Things. That Is Our Part.

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

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

There Is No Such Thing As Preaching Patience Into People, Unless The Sermon Is So Long That They Have To Practice It While They Hear. No Man Can Learn Patience Except By Going Out Into The Hurlyburly World, And Taking Life Just As It Blows. Patience Is But Lying To, And Riding Out The Gale.

I Never Know How To Worship Until I Know How To Love; And To Love I Must Have Something That I Can Put My Arms Around, — Something That, Touching My Heart, Shall Leave Not The Chill Of Ice, But The Warmth Of Summer.

Brethren, We Are All Sailing Home; And By And By, When We Are Not Thinking Of It, Some Shadowy Thing (men Call It Death), At Midnight, Will Pass By, And Will Call Us By Name, And Will Say, "i Have A Message For You From Home; God Wants You; Heaven Waits For You.

Repentance Is Another Name For Aspiration.

Greatness Lies Not In Being Strong, But In The Right Use Of Strength.

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

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

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

Adversity Is The Mint In Which God Stamps Upon Man His Image And Superscription.

As The Imagination Is Set To Look Into The Invisible And Immaterial, It Seems To Attract Something Of Their Vitality; And Though It Can Give Nothing To The Body To Redeem It From Years, It Can Give To The Soul That Freshness Of Youth In Old Age Which Is Even More Beautiful Than Youth In The Young.

Good-humor Makes All Things Tolerable

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.

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?

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

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.

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 Are Many Trials In Life Which Do Not Seem To Come From Unwisdom Or Folly; They Are Silver Arrows Shot From The Bow Of God, And Fixed Inextricably In The Quivering Heart - They Are Meant To Be Borne - They Were Not Meant, Like Snow Or Water, To Melt As Soon As They Strike; But The Moment An Ill Can Be Patiently Borne It Is Disarmed Of Its Poison, Though Not Of Its Pain.

Liberty Is The Soul's Right To Breathe And, When It Cannot Take A Long Breath, Laws Are Girdled Too Tight.

The Worst Thing In This World, Next To Anarchy, Is Government.

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.

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.

Happy Is The Man Who Has That In His Soul Which Acts Upon The Dejected As April Airs Upon Violet Roots. Gifts From The Hand Are Silver And Gold, But The Heart Gives That Which Neither Silver Nor Gold Can Buy. To Be Full Of Goodness, Full Of Cheerfulness, Full Of Sympathy, Full Of Helpful Hope, Causes A Man To Carry Blessings Of Which He Is Himself As Unconscious As A Lamp Is Of Its Own Shining. Such A One Moves On Human Life As Stars Move On Dark Seas To Bewildered Mariners; As The Sun Wheels, Bringing All The Seasons With Him From The South.

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

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

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

Trouble Teaches Men How Much There Is In Manhood.

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

Some Sorrows Are But Footprints In The Snow, Which The Genial Sun Effaces, Or, If It Does Not Wholly Efface, Changes Into Dimples.

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

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

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.

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Robert Browning

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

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