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The True Secret Of Giving Advice Is, After You Have Honestly Given It, To Be Perfectly Indifferent Whether It Is Taken Or Not, And Never Persist In Trying To Set People Right.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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The True Secret Of

Henry Ward Beecher

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The True Secret Of Giving Advice Is, After You Have Honestly Given It, To Be Perfectly Indifferent Whether It Is Taken Or Not, And Never Persist In Trying To Set People Right.

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

Affliction Comes To Us All ...not To Impoverish, But To Enrich Us, As The Plough Enriches The Field; To Multiply Our Joy, As The Seed, By Planting, Is Multiplied A Thousand-fold.

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

Difficulties Are God's Errands; And When We Are Sent Upon Them, We Should Esteem It A Proof Of God's Confidence.

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.

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.

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

A Law Is Valuable Not Because It Is Law, But Because There Is Right In It.

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

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

Love Is More Just Than Justice.

Like The Cellar-growing Vine Is The Christian Who Lives In The Darkness And Bondage Of Fear. But Let Him Go Forth, With The Liberty Of God, Into The Light Of Love, And He Will Be Like The Plant In The Field, Healthy, Robust, And Joyful.

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

Men Think God Is Destroying Them Because He Is Tuning Them. The Violinist Screws Up The Key Till The Tense Cord Sounds The Concert Pitch; But It Is Not To Break It, But To Use It Tunefully, That He Stretches The String Upon The Musical Rack.

The True Secret Of Giving Advice Is, After You Have Honestly Given It, To Be Perfectly Indifferent Whether It Is Taken Or Not, And Never Persist In Trying To Set People Right.

Men Are Not Put Into This World To Be Everlastingly Played On By The Harping Fingers Of Joy.

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

Life Is A Plant That Grows Out Of Death.

God's Glory Is His Goodness.

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.

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.

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.

A Man Without Mirth Is Like Wagon Without Springs, In Which One Is Caused Disagreeably To Jolt By Every Pebble Over Which It Turns.

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.

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

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

It Is The Very Wantonness Of Folly For A Man To Search Out The Frets And Burdens Of His Calling And Give His Mind Every Day To A Consideration Of Them. They Belong To Human Life. They Are Inevitable. Brooding Only Gives Them Strength.

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

No Emotion, Any More Than A Wave, Can Long Retain Its Own Individual Form.

True Obedience Is True Freedom.

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.

Love Is The Wine Of Existence.

Today Is A Goblet Day. The Whole Heavens Have Been Mingled With Exquisite Skill To A Delicious Flavor, And The Crystal Cup Put To Every Lip. Breathing Is Like Ethereal Drinking. It Is A Luxury Simply To Exist.

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

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

There Is No Liberty To Men Who Know Not How To Govern Themselves.

The Prouder A Man Is, The More He Thinks He Deserves, And The More He Thinks He Deserves, The Less He Really Does Deserve.

Women Are A New Race, Recreated Since The World Received Christianity.

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 Mystery Of History Is An Insoluble Problem.

Compassion Will Cure More Sins Than Condemnation.

Men Who Stand On Any Other Foundation Than The Rock Christ Jesus Are Like Birds That Build In Trees By The Side Of Rivers. The Bird Sings In The Branches, And The River Sings Below, But All The While The Waters Are Undermining The Soil About The Roots, Till, In Some Unsuspected Hour, The Tree Falls With A Crash Into The Stream; And Then Its Nest Is Sunk, Its Home Is Gone, And The Bird Is A Wanderer.

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.

A Good Digestion Is As Truly Obligatory As A Good Conscience; Pure Blood Is As Truly A Part Of Mankind As A Pure Faith; And A Well Ordered Skin Is The First Condition Of That Cleanliness Which Is Next To Godliness.

Death Is The Christian's Vacation Morning. School Is Out. It Is Time To Go Home.

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.

The Test Of Christian Character Should Be That A Man Is A Joy-bearing Agent To The World.

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

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

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

There Is Nothing Which Vanity Does Not Desecrate.

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.

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.

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.

True Elegance Becomes The More So As It Approaches Simplicity.

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

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.

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.

Half The Spiritual Difficulties That Men And Women Suffer Arise From A Morbid State Of Health.

We Steal If We Touch Tomorrow. It Is God's.

Live In The Moment

Every City Should Make The Common School So Rich, So Large, So Ample, So Beautiful In Its Endowments, And So Fruitful In Its Results, That A Private School Will Not Be Able To Live Under The Drip Of It.

Now, Men Think, With Regard To Their Conduct, That, If They Were To Lift Themselves Up Gigantically And Commit Some Crashing Sin, They Should Never Be Able To Hold Up Their Heads; But They Will Harbor In Their Souls Little Sins, Which Are Piercing And Eating Them Away To Inevitable Ruin.

You Cannot Play The Hypocrite Before God; And To Obtain Pardon You Must Cease To Sin, As Well As To Be Exercised By A Spirit Of Repentance.

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

Death? Translated Into The Heavenly Tongue, That Word Means Life!

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.

Love Is The Wine Of Existence. When You Have Taken That, You Have Taken The Most Precious Drop That There Is In The Cluster.

The Morbid States Of Health, The Irritableness Of Disposition Arising From Unstrung Nerves, The Impatience, The Crossness, The Fault-finding Of Men, Who, Full Of Morbid Influences, Are Unhappy Themselves, And Throw The Cloud Of Their Troubles Like A Dark Shadow Upon Others, Teach Us What Eminent Duty There Is In Health.

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.

Flowers Are The Sweetest Things God Ever Made And Forgot To Put A Soul Into.

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

There Is A Dew In One Flower And Not In Another, Because One Opens In Cup And Takes It In, While The Other Closes Itself, And The Drops Run Off. God Rains His Goodness And Mercy As Widespread As The Dew, And If We Lack Them, It Is Because We Will Not Open Our Hearts To Receive Them.

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.

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.

When A Man Can Look Upon The Simple Wild-rose, And Feel No Pleasure, His Taste Has Been Corrupted.

A Cunning Man Overreaches No One Half As Much As Himself.

Now Comes The Mystery.

Education Is The Knowledge Of How To Use The Whole Of Oneself. Many Men Use But One Or Two Faculties Out Of The Score With Which They Are Endowed. A Man Is Educated Who Knows How To Make A Tool Of Every Faculty, How To Open It, How To Keep It Sharp, And How To Apply It To All Practical Purposes.

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?

The Grossest, The Cruelest, The Most Selfish, The Most Easily Pervertible And Perverted Thing In This World, Is Government.

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.

A Man That Has Lost Moral Sense Is Like A Man In Battle With Both Of His Legs Shot Off: He Has Nothing To Stand On.

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.

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

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.

No One Can Deal With The Hearts Of Men Unless He Has The Sympathy Which Is Given By Love.

The Beginnings Of Moral Enterprises In This World Are Never To Be Measured By Any Apparent Growth. ... At Length Comes The Sudden Ripeness And The Full Success, And He Who Is Called In At The Final Moment Deems This Success His Own. He Is But The Reaper And Not The Labourer. Other Men Sowed And Tilled And He But Enters Into Their Labours.

Greatness Lies, Not In Being Strong, But In The Right Using Of Strength; And Strength Is Not Used Rightly When It Serves Only To Carry A Man Above His Fellows For His Own Solitary Glory. He Is The Greatest Whose Strength Carries Up The Most Hearts By The Attraction Of His Own.

Books Are Not Made For Furniture, But There Is Nothing Else That So Beautifully Furnishes A House.

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

The Most Miserable Pettifogging In The World Is That Of A Man In The Court Of His Own Consciences.

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

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.

It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint, Gristle To Muscle, And Makes Men Invincible.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

A Babe Is A Mother's Anchor.

No Matter What Looms Ahead, If You Can Eat Today, Enjoy Today, Mix Good Cheer With Friends Today Enjoy It And Bless God For It.

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.

The Church Is No More Religion Than The Masonry Of The Aqueduct Is The Water That Flows Through It.

Good Nature Is Often A Mere Matter Of Health.

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

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.

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.

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.

Heaven Will Be Inherited By Every Man Who Has Heaven In His Soul.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

A Man Is A Fool Who Sits Looking Backward From Himself In The Past. Ah, What Shallow, Vain Conceit There Is In Man! Forget The Things That Are Behind. That Is Not Where You Live. Your Roots Are Not There. They Are In The Present; And You Should Reach Up Into The Other Life.

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

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

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.

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

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 Continuance And Frequent Fits Of Anger Produce In The Soul A Propensity To Be Angry; Which Oftentimes Ends In Choler, Bitterness, And Moronity, When The Mid Becomes Ulcerated, Peevish, And Querulous, And Is Wounded By The Least Occurrence.

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.

A Man Without Self-restraint Is Like A Barrel Without Hoops, And Tumbles To Pieces.

Laughter Is Day, And Sobriety Is Night; A Smile Is The Twilight That Hovers Gently Between Both, More Bewitching Than Either.

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

A Thoughtful Mind, When It Sees A Nation's Flag, Sees Not The Flag Only, But The Nation Itself; And Whatever May Be Its Symbols, Its Insignia, He Reads Chiefly In The Flag The Government, The Principles, The Truths, The History Which Belongs To The Nation That Sets It Forth.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

In This World, Full Often, Our Joys Are Only The Tender Shadows Which Our Sorrows Cast.

There Can Be No Barrenness In Full Summer. The Very Sand Will Yield Something. Rocks Will Have Mosses, And Every Rift Will Have Its Wind-flower, And Every Crevice A Leaf; While From The Fertile Soil Will Be Reared A Gorgeous Troop Of Growths, That Will Carry Their Life In Ten Thousand Forms, But All With Praise To God. And So It Is When The Soul Knows Its Summer. Love Redeems Its Weakness, Clothes Its Barrenness, Enriches Its Poverty, And Makes Its Very Desert To Bud And Blossom As The Rose.

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

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

See To It That Each Hour's Feelings, And Thoughts, And Actions Are Pure And True; Then Will Your Life Be Such.

But There Have Been Human Hearts, Constituted Just Like Ours, For Six Thousand Years. The Same Stars Rise And Set Upon This Globe That Rose Upon The Plains Of Shinar Or Along The Egyptian Nile And The Same Sorrows Rise And Set In Every Age.

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.

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.

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.

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

He Is The Happiest Man Who Is Engaged In A Business Which Tasks The Most Faculties Of His Mind.

The Ignorant Classes Are The Dangerous Classes.

Vigilance Is Not Only The Price Of Liberty, But Of Success Of Any Sort.

Eternal Vigilance

God Has Intended The Great To Be Great And The Little To Be Little ... The Trade Unions, Under The European System, Destroy Liberty ... I Do Not Mean To Say That A Dollar A Day Is Enough To Support A Workingman ... Not Enough To Support A Man And Five Children If He Insists On Smoking And Drinking Beer. But The Man Who Cannot Live On Bread And Water Is Not Fit To Live! A Family May Live On Good Bread And Water In The Morning, Water And Bread At Midday, And Good Bread And Water At Night!

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

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.

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

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

Christ Is Risen! There Is Life, Therefore, After Death! His Resurrection Is The Symbol And Pledge Of Universal Resurrection!

The Glory Of Christianity Is To Conquer By Forgiveness. It Is Easier To Forgive An Enemy Than To Forgive A Friend.

Each Book Has A Secret History Of Ways And Means.

The Beginning Is The Promise Of The End.

When Leisure Is A Selfish Luxury, Its Very Activity, When It Stirs, Is Apt To Be Only A Kind Of Indolence Taking Exercise, That It May The Better Digest Its Selfishness.

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.

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

God Makes The Life Fertile By Disappointments, As He Makes The Ground Fertile By Frosts.

It Is Often Said It Is No Matter What A Man Believes If He Is Only Sincere. This Is True Of All Minor Truths, And False Of All Truths Whose Nature It Is To Fashion A Man's Life. It Will Make No Difference In A Man's Harvest Whether He Thinks Turnips Have More Saccharine Matter Than Potatoes--whether Corn Is Better Than Wheat. But Let The Man Sincerely Believe That Seed Planted Without Ploughing Is As Good As With, That January Is As Favorable For Seed Sowing As April, And That Cockle Seed Will Produce As Good A Harvest As Wheat, And Will It Make No Difference?

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

A Man's True State Of Power And Riches Is To Be In Himself.

Young Love Is A Flame; Very Pretty, Often Very Hot And Fierce, But Still Only Light And Flickering. The Love Of The Older And Disciplined Heart Is As Coals, Deep-burning, Unquenchable.

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

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

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.

There Are Materials Enough In Every Man's Mind To Make A Hell There.

Of All Escape Mechanisms, Death Is The Most Efficient.

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.

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

Are They Dead That Yet Speak Louder Than We Can Speak, And A More Universal Language? Are They Dead That Yet Act? Are They Dead That Yet Move Upon Society And Inspire The People With Nobler Motives And More Heroic Patriotism?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Love Is The World's River Of Life

Reading Is A Dissuasion From Immorality. Reading Stands In The Place Of Company.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Work Is Not A Curse, But Drudgery Is.

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

The Way To Avoid Evil Is Not By Maiming Our Passions, But By Compelling Them To Yield Their Vigor To Our Moral Nature.

Sophistry Is The Fallacy Of Argument.

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 The Old Creeds Are Threadbare, And Worn Through, And All Too Narrow For The Broadening Soul, Give Me The Fine, Firm Texture Of The New, Fair, Beautiful And Whole!

Sorrow Makes Men Sincere.

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

There Is Not On Earth So Base A Knave As The Man Who Wins The Love Of A Woman When He Knows That He Cannot Or Ought Not To Requite It.

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

When A Man's Pride Is Subdued It's Like The Sides Of Mount Aetna. It Was Terrible During The Eruption, But When That Is Over And The Lava Is Turned Into Soil, There Are Vineyards And Olive Trees Which Grow Up To The Top.

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.

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Willard Van Orman Quine

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