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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.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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There Can Be No

Henry Ward Beecher

...

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.

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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.

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

Not That Which Men Do Worthily, But That Which They Do Successfully, Is What History Makes Haste To Record.

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.

Mirthfulness Is In The Mind And You Cannot Get It Out. It Is Just As Good In Its Place As Conscience Or Veneration.

Going Out Into Life--that Is Dying. Christ Is The Door Out Of Life.

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

Good Nature Is Often A Mere Matter Of Health.

Theology Is But Our Ideas Of Truth Classified And Arranged.

A Man That Is Afraid Is Never A Man.

We Never Know How Much One Loves Till We Know How Much He Is Willing To Endure And Suffer For Us; And It Is The Suffering Element That Measures Love. The Characters That Are Great Must, Of Necessity, Be Characters That Shall Be Willing, Patient And Strong To Endure For Others. To Hold Our Nature In The Willing Service Of Another Is The Divine Idea Of Manhood, Of The Human Character.

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.

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

The Unthankful Heart... 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!

The Superfluous Blossoms On A Fruit Tree Are Meant To Symbolize The Large Way God Loves To Do Pleasant Things.

The World's Battlefields Have Been In The Heart Chiefly; More Heroism Has Been Displayed In The Household And The Closet, Than On The Most Memorable Battlefields In History.

Religion, In One Sense, Is A Life Of Self-denial, Just As Husbandry, In One Sense, Is A Work Of Death.

Sorrows Are Gardeners: They Plant Flowers Along Waste Places, And Teach Vines To Cover Barren Heaps.

The Ignorant Classes Are The Dangerous Classes.

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

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

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.

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

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

It Is Not Desirable That We Should Live As In The Constant Atmosphere And Presence Of Death; That Would Unfit Us For Life; But It Is Well For Us, Now And Then, To Talk With Death As Friend Talketh With Friend, And To Bathe In The Strange Seas, And To Anticipate The Experiences Of That Land To Which It Will Lead Us. These Forethinkings Are Meant, Not To Make Us Discontented With Life, But To Bring Us Back With More Strength, And A Nobler Purpose In Living.

That Endless Book, The Newspaper, Is Our National Glory.

To Know That One Has A Secret Is To Know Half The Secret Itself.

Keeping Secrets

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

The Beginning Is The Promise Of The End.

“i Can Forgive, But I Cannot Forget,” Is Only Another Way Of Saying, “i Will Not Forgive.”

Suffering Is Part Of The Divine Idea.

Trouble Teaches Men How Much There Is In Manhood.

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

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

Sink The Bible To The Bottom Of The Ocean, And Man's Obligations To God Would Be Unchanged. He Would Have The Same Path To Tread, Only His Lamp And His Guide Would Be Gone; He Would Have The Same Voyage To Make, But His Chart And Compass Would Be Overboard!

Laugh At Your Friends, And If Your Friends Are Sore; So Much The Better, You May Laugh The More.

As For Marigolds, Poppies, Hollyhocks, And Valorous Sunflowers, We Shall Never Have A Garden Without Them, Both For Their Own Sake, And For The Sake Of Old-fashioned Folks, Who Used To Love Them.

God Made Every Man To Have Power To Be Mightier Than The Events Round About Him; To Hold By His Firm Will The Reigns By Which All Things Are Guided.

A Mother's Prayers, Silent And Gentle, Can Never Miss The Road To The Throne Of All Bounty.

God Puts The Excess Of Hope In One Man, In Order That It May Be A Medicine To The Man Who Is Despondent.

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

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.

Do Not Be Afraid Because The, Community Teems With Excitement. Silence And Death Are Dreadful. The Rush Of Life, The Vigor Of Earnest Men, The Conflict Of Realities, Invigorate, Cleanse, And Establish The Truth.

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

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.

Cant Is The Twin Sister Of Hypocrisy.

Books Are Not Men And Yet They Stay Alive.

When There Is Love In The Heart, There Are Rainbows In The Eyes, Which Cover Every Black Cloud With Gorgeous Hues.

While A Man Is Stringing A Harp, He Tries The Strings, Not For Music, But For Construction. When It Is Finished It Shall Be Played For Melodies. God Is Fashioning The Human Heart For Future Joy. He Only Sounds A String Here And There To See How Far His Work Has Progressed.

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

There Is No Greater Crime Than To Stand Between A Man And His Development; To Take Any Law Or Institution And Put It Around Him Like A Collar, And Fasten It There, So That As He Grows And Enlarges, He Presses Against It Till He Suffocates And Dies.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

It Is One Of The Worst Effects Of Prosperity To Make A Man A Vortex Instead Of A Fountain; So That, Instead Of Throwing Out, He Learns Only To Draw In.

When A Man Has No Longer Any Conception Of Excellence Above His Own, His Voyage Is Done, He Is Dead,--dead In Trespasses And Sin Of Blear-eyed Vanity.

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

Grim Care, Moroseness, Anxiety-all This Rust Of Life Ought To Be Scoured Off By The Oil Of Mirth. Mirth Is God's Medicine.

The Slave Labors, But With No Cheer - It Is Not The Road To Respectability, It Will Honor Him With No Citizens' Trust, It Brings No Bread To His Family, No Grain To His Garner, No Leisure In After-days, No Books Or Papers To His Children. It Opens No School-house Door, Builds No Church, Rears For Him No Factory, Lays No Keel, Fills No Bank, Earns No Acres. With Sweat And Toil And Ignorance He Consumes His Life, To Pour The Earnings Into Channels From Which He Does No Drink, Into Hands That Never Honor Him. But Perpetually Rob And Often Torment.

Discover What You Are.

If A Boy Is Not Trained To Endure And To Bear Trouble, He Will Grow Up A Girl; And A Boy That Is A Girl Has All A Girl's Weakness Without Any Of Her Regal Qualities. A Woman Made Out Of A Woman Is God's Noblest Work; A Woman Made Out Of A Man Is His Meanest.

If You Have Only Two Or Three Things That You Can Enjoy And They Are Things Which Time And Decay May Remove From You, What Are You Going To Do In Old Age?

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.

Repentance May Begin Instantly, But Reformation Often Requires A Sphere Of Years.

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

There Are Many Troubles Which You Cannot Cure By The Bible And The Hymn-book, But Which You Can Cure By A Good Perspiration And A Breath Of Fresh Air.

Be A Hard Master To Yourself - And Be Lenient To Everybody Else.

Miracles Are Like Candles Lit Up Until The Sun Rises, And Then Blown Out. Therefore, I Am Amused When I Hear Sects And Churches Talk About Having Evidence Of Divine Authority Because They Have Miracles. Miracles In Our Time Are Like Candles In The Street At Midday. We Do Not Want Miracles. They Are To Teach Men How To Find Out Truths Themselves; And After They Have Learned This, They No More Need Them Than A Well Man Needs A Staff, Or A Grown-up Child Needs A Walking-stool.

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.

Children Learn To Read By Being In The Presence Of Books. The Love Of Knowledge Comes With Reading And Grows Upon It. And The Love Of Knowledge, In A Young Mind, Is Almost A Warrant Against The Inferior Excitement Of Passions And Vices.

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

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

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

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

God Sends Experience To Paint Men's Portraits.

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.

Men Of Dissolute Lives Have Little Incentive To Look Forward To The Hopes And Glories Of Immortality. A Due Conception Of These Would Be Incompatible With Such A Life.

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.

When A Man Sells Eleven Ounces For Twelve, He Makes A Compact With The Devil, And Sells Himself For The Value Of An Ounce.

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

There Are Many Persons Who Look On Sunday As A Sponge To Wipe Out The Sins Of The Week

There Is Always Work, And Tools To Work Withal, For Those, Who Will.

Never Forget What A Person Says To You When They Are Angry.

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

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.

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.

This World Is Magnificent For Strangers And Pilgrims, But Miserable For Residents.

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.

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.

Each Book Has A Secret History Of Ways And Means.

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

Never Excuse Yourself.

God Made Man To Go By Motives, And He Will Not Go Without Them, Any More Than A Boat Without Steam Or A Balloon Without Gas.

They Hover As A Cloud Of Witnesses Above This Nation.

American Veterans

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

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.

In The Early Ages Men Ruled By Strength; Now They Rule By Brain, And So Long As There Is Only One Man In The World Who Can Think And Plan, He Will Stand Head And Shoulders Above Him Who Cannot.

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

Downright Admonition, As A Rule, Is Too Blunt For The Recipient.

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

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?

Joy Is More Divine Than Sorrow, For Joy Is Bread And Sorrow Is Medicine.

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.

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.

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.

Pushing Any Truth Out Very Far, You Are Met By A Counter-truth.

Children Are Unpredictable. You Never Know What Inconsistency They Are Going To Catch You In Next.

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.

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

The Mystery Of History Is An Insoluble Problem.

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

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

Heaven Is A Place Of Restless Activity, The Abode Of Never-tiring Thought.

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.

Not Another Flag Has Such An Errand, Carrying Everywhere, The World Around, Such Hope For Freedom Such Glorious Tidings.

Gratitude Is The Fairest Blossom Which Springs From The Soul.

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

Refinement Is The Lifting Of One's Self Upwards From The Merely Sensual; The Effort Of The Soul To Etherealize The Common Wants And Uses Of Life.

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

An Ambition Which Has Conscience In It Will Always Be A Laborious And Faithful Engineer, And Will Build The Road, And Bridge The Chasms Between Itself And Eminent Success By The Most Faithful And Minute Performances Of Duty.

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.

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

We Never Know The Love Of The Parent For The Child Till We Become Parents.

Conceited Men Often Seem A Harmless Kind Of Men, Who, By An Overweening Self-respect, Relieve Others From The Duty Of Respecting Them At All.

Nowhere Else Can One Find So Miscellaneous, So Various, An Amount Of Knowledge As Is Contained In A Good Newspaper.

Riches Without Law Are More Dangerous Than Is Poverty Without Law

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

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

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.

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.

Oftentimes Great And Open Temptations Are The Most Harmless Because They Come With Banners Flying And Bands Playing And All The Munitions Of War In Full View, So That We Know We Are In The Midst Of Enemies That Mean Us Damage, And We Get Ready To Meet And Resist Them. Our Peculiar Dangers Are Those That Surprise Us And Work Treachery In Our Fort.

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

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

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.

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.

Reason Can Tell How Love Affects Us, But Cannot Tell What Love Is.

In The Morning, We Carry The World Like Atlas; At Noon, We Stoop And Bend Beneath It; And At Night, It Crushes Us Flat To The Ground.

The Aster Has Not Wasted Spring And Summer Because It Has Not Blossomed. It Has Been All The Time Preparing For What Is To Follow, And In Autumn It Is The Glory Of The Field, And Only The Frost Lays It Low. So There Are Many People Who Must Live Forty Or Fifty Years, And Have The Crude Sap Of Their Natural Dispositions Changed And Sweetened Before The Blossoming Time Can Come; But Their Lives Have Not Been Wasted.

The Worst Prison Is Not Of Stone. It Is Of A Throbbing Heart, Outraged By An Infamous Life.

We Are Not To Make The Ideas Of Contentment And Aspiration Quarrel, For God Made Them Fast Friends. A Man May Aspire, And Yet Be Quite Content Until It Is Time To Raise; And Both Flying And Resting Are But Parts Of One Contentment. The Very Fruit Of The Gospel Is Aspiration. It Is To The Heart What Spring Is To The Earth, Making Every Root, And Bud, And Bough Desire To Be More.

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

It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint; It Is Defeat That Turns Gristle To Muscle; It Is Defeat That Makes Men Invincible. Do Not Then Be Afraid Of Defeat. You Are Never So Near To Victory As When Defeated In A Good Cause.

Ambition Is The Way In Which A Vulgar Man Aspires.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Customs Represent The Experience Of Mankind.

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

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

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

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.

The Conditions Of City Life May Be Made Healthy, So Far As The Physical Constitution Is Concerned; But There Is Connected With The Business Of The City So Much Competition, So Much Rivalry, So Much Necessity For Industry, That I Think It Is A Perpetual, Chronic, Wholesale Violation Of Natural Law. There Are Ten Men That Can Succeed In The Country, Where There Is One That Can Succeed In The City.

As Flowers Carry Dewdrops, Trembling On The Edges Of The Petals, And Ready To Fall At The First Waft Of Wind Or Brush Of Bird, So The Heart Should Carry Its Beaded Words Of Thanksgiving; And At The First Breath Of Heavenly Flavor, Let Down The Shower, Perfumed With The Heart's Gratitude.

Man Is That Name Of Power Which Rises Above Them All, And Gives To Every One The Right To Be That Which God Meant He Should Be.

That Which Men Suppose The Imagination To Be, And To Do, Is Often Frivolous Enough And Mischievous Enough; But That Which God Meant It To Be In The Mental Economy Is Not Merely Noble, But Supereminent. It Is The Distinguishing Element In All Refinement. It Is The Secret And Marrow Of Civilization. It Is The Very Eye Of Faith. The Soul Without Imagination Is What An Observatory Would Be Without A Telescope.

Our Yearnings Are Homesicknesses For Heaven; Our Sighings Are For God, Just As Children That Cry Themselves Asleep Away From Home, And Sob In Their Slumber, Know Not That They Sob For Their Parents. The Soul's Inarticulate Moanings Are The Affections Yearning For The Infinite, And Having No One To Tell Them What It Is That Ails Them.

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.

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.

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

Do Not Be Afraid Of Defeat. You Are Never So Near Victory As When You Are Defeated In A Good Cause.

The Monkey Is An Organized Sarcasm Upon The Human Race.

Education Will Not Come Of Itself; It Will Never Come Unless You Seek It; It Will Not Come Unless You Take The First Steps Which Lead To It; But, Taking These Steps, Every Man Can Acquire It.

Do Not Give, As Many Rich Men Do, Like A Hen That Lays Her Eggs ...and Then Cackles.

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!

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

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

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

Blessed Are They Who Know How To Shine On One's Gloom With Their Cheer.

The First Hour Of The Morning Is The Rudder Of The Day. It Is A Blessed Baptism Which Gives The First Waking Thoughts Into The Bosom Of God.

It Will Not Do To Be Saints At Meeting And Sinners Everywhere Else.

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

To Become An Able And Successful Man In Any Profession, Three Things Are Necessary, Nature, Study And Practice.

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.

The Church Is Not A Gallery For The Exhibition Of Eminent Christians, But A School For The Education Of Imperfect Ones.

It Is Not Work That Kills Men; It Is Worry. Work Is Healthy; You Can Hard Put More Upon A Man Than He Can Bear. Worry Is Rust Upon The Blade. It Is Not The Revolution That Destroys The Machinery, But The Friction.

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

Education Is Only Like Good Culture,--it Changes The Size, But Not The Sort.

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

Titles Are Too "thin" For The Nineteenth Century.

Nineteenth Century

No Grace Can Save Any Man Unless He Helps Himself.

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

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.

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

When A Man Says That He Is Perfect Already, There Is Only One Of Two Places For Him, And That Is Heaven Or The Lunatic Asylum.

Doctrine Is Nothing But The Skin Of Truth Set Up And Stuffed.

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.

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

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.

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

The Bible Is Like A Telescope. If A Man Looks Through His Telescope, Then He Sees Worlds Beyond; But, If He Looks At His Telescope, Then He Does Not See Anything But That.

It Is The End Of Art To Inoculate Men With The Love Of Nature.

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