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There Have Been Many Men Who Left Behind Them That Which Hundreds Of Years Have Not Worn Out. The Earth Has Socrates And Plato To This Day. The World Is Richer Yet By Moses And The Old Prophets Than By The Wisest Statesmen. We Are Indebted To The Past. We Stand In The Greatness Of Ages That Are Gone Rather Than In That Of Our Own. But Of How Many Of Us Shall It Be Said That, Being Dead, We Yet Speak?

-Henry Ward Beecher

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There Have Been Many

Henry Ward Beecher

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There Have Been Many Men Who Left Behind Them That Which Hundreds Of Years Have Not Worn Out. The Earth Has Socrates And Plato To This Day. The World Is Richer Yet By Moses And The Old Prophets Than By The Wisest Statesmen. We Are Indebted To The Past. We Stand In The Greatness Of Ages That Are Gone Rather Than In That Of Our Own. But Of How Many Of Us Shall It Be Said That, Being Dead, We Yet Speak?

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We May Cover A Multitude Of Sins With The White Robe Of Charity.

Nature Is A Vast Repository Of Manly Enjoyments.

A Dull Ax Never Loves Grindstones.

The Great Lever By Which To Raise And Save The World Is The Unbounded Love And Mercy Of God.

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

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

In The Sacred Precinct Of That Dwelling Where The Despotic Woman Wields The Sceptre Of Fierce Neatness, One Treads As If He Carried His Life In His Hands.

Some People Think Black Is The Color Of Heaven, And That The More They Can Make Their Faces Look Like Midnight, The More Evidence They Have Of Grace. But God, Who Made The Sun And The Flowers, Never Sent Me To Proclaim To You Such A Lie As That.

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

A Traitor Is Good Fruit To Hang From The Boughs Of The Tree Of Liberty.

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

God Wishes To Exhaust All Means Of Kindness Before His Hand Takes Hold On Justice.

Our Life Is But A New Form Of The Way Men Have Lived From The Beginning.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

Every Young Man Would Do Well To Remember That All Successful Business Stands On The Foundation Of Morality.

The Art Of Being Happy Lies In The Power Of Extracting Happiness From Common Things.

Men Are Like Trees: Each One Must Put Forth The Leaf That Is Created In Him.

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.

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

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!

A Man That Is Afraid Is Never A Man.

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

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.

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

Fear Secretes Acids; But Love And Trust Are Sweet Juices.

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

Men Do Not Avail Themselves Of The Riches Of God's Grace. They Love To Nurse Their Cares, And Seem As Uneasy Without Some Fret As An Old Friar Would Be Without His Hair Girdle. They Are Commanded To Cast Their Cares Upon The Lord, But Even When They Attempt It, They Do Not Fail To Catch Them Up Again, And Think It Meritorious To Walk Burdened.

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.

Ignorance Is The Womb Of Monsters.

There Was Never A Person Who Did Anything Worth Doing That He Did Not Receive More Than He Gave.

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

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.

A Man's True Estate Of Power And Riches Is To Be In Himself; Not In His Dwelling Or Position Or External Relations, But In His Own Essential Character.

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

To Do Good Work A Man Should No Doubt Be Industrious. To Do Great Work He Must Certainly Be Idle A Well.

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

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

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

Men Judge Of Christians By Taking As Fair Samples Those That Lie Rotten On The Ground.

A Church Debt Is The Devil's Salary.

Hold Yourself Responsible For A Higher Standard Than Anybody Expects Of You. Never Excuse Yourself.

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

Where All Of The Man Is What Property He Owns, It Does Not Take Long To Annihilate Him.

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

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

The Mother's Heart Is The Child's Schoolroom.

It Is Not In The Nature Of True Greatness To Be Exclusive And Arrogant.

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

All True Religion Must Stand On True Morality.

Men's Best Successes Come After Their Disappointments.

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

There Is A Power In The Human Mind ... To See Things As They Are ... But There Is Equally A Power To See Things As They Might Be.

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

Before Men We Stand As Opaque Bee-hives. They Can See The Thoughts Go In And Out Of Us; But What Work They Do Inside Of A Man They Cannot Tell. Before God We Are As Glass Bee-hives, And All That Our Thoughts Are Doing Within Us He Perfectly Sees And Understands.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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

When A Church Is Faithless To Its Duties, The Real Church Is Outside Its Walls, In The Community.

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

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

Ambition Is The Way In Which A Vulgar Man Aspires.

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.

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

A Practical, Matter-of-fact Man Is Like A Wagon Without Springs: Every Single Pebble On The Road Jolts Him; But A Man With Imagination Has Springs That Break The Jar And Jolt.

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

Loving Is Like Music. Some Instruments Can Go Up Two Octaves, Some Four, And Some All The Way From Black Thunder To Sharp Lightning. As Some Of Them Are Susceptible Only Of Melody, So Some Hearts Can Sing But One Song Of Love, While Others Will Fun In A Full Choral Harmony.

We Cannot Have Right Virtue Without Right Conditions.

The Ignorant Classes Are The Dangerous Classes.

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

I Used To Think The Lord's Prayer Was A Short Prayer; But As I Live Longer, And See More Of Life, I Begin To Believe There Is No Such Thing As Getting Through It. If A Man, In Praying That Prayer, Were To Be Stopped By Every Word Until He Had Thoroughly Prayed It, It Would Take Him A Lifetime.

A Conservative Young Man Has Wound Up His Life Before It Was Unreeled. We Expect Old Men To Be Conservative But When A Nation's Young Men Are So, Its Funeral Bell Is Already Rung.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

If A Man Harbors Any Sort Of Fear, It Percolates Through All His Thinking, Damages His Personality, Makes Him Landlord To A Ghost.

I Have Known Men Who Thought The Object Of Conversion Was To Cleanse Them As A Garment Is Cleansed, And That When They Are Converted They Were To Be Hung Up In The Lord's Wardrobe, The Door Of Which Was To Be Shut, So That No Dust Could Get At Them. A Coat That Is Not Used The Moths Eat; And A Christian Who Is Hung Up So That He Shall Not Be Tempted, The Moths Eat Him; And They Have Poor Food At That.

Some Folks Think That Christianity Means A Kind Of Insurance Policy, And That It Has Little To Do With This Life, But That It Is A Very Good Thing When A Man Dies.

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

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

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

In A Great Affliction There Is No Light Either In The Stars Or In The Sun; For When The Inward Light Is Fed With Fragrant Oil; There Can Be No Darkness Though The Sun Should Go Out. But When, Like A Sacred Lamp In The Temple, The Inward Light Is Quenched, There Is No Light Outwardly, Though A Thousand Suns Should Preside In The Heavens.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Meanest Thing In The World Is The Devil.

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

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

No Matter Who Reigns, The Merchant Reigns.

As The Cream Abandons The Milk From Which It Took Its Life, And Rises To The Top And Rides There, So Men, Because They Are Richer Than Those Around About Them, Separate Themselves, And All Mankind Below Them They Regard As Skim Milk.

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

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

Take All The Robes Of All The Good Judges That Have Ever Lived On The Face Of The Earth, And They Would Not Be Large Enough To Cover The Iniquity Of One Corrupt Judge.

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.

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

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

Everything That Happens In This World Is A Part Of A Great Plan Of God Running Through All Time.

Music Cleanses The Understanding; Inspires It, And Lifts It Into A Realm Which It Would Not Reach If It Were Left To Itself.

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

A Dull Axe Never Loves Grindstones, But A Keen Workman Does; And He Puts His Tool On Them In Order That It May Be Sharp. And Men Do Not Like Grinding; But They Are Dull For The Purposes Which God Designs To Work Out With Them, And Therefore He Is Grinding Them.

It Is The End Of Art To Inoculate Men With The Love Of Nature. But Those Who Have A Psssion For Nature In The Natural Way, Need No Pictures Nor Gallereies. Spring Is Their Designer, And The Whole Year Their Artist.

Any Law That Takes Hold Of A Mans Daily Life Cannot Prevail In A Community, Unless The Vast Majority Of The Community Are Actively In Favor Of It. The Laws That Are The Most Operative Are The Laws Which Protect Life.

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

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.

Experience Is The Mother Of Custom.

The God Of The Bible Is A Moral Monstrosity.

Some Men Are, In Regard To Ridicule, Like Tin-roofed Buildings In Regard To Hail: All That Hits Them Bounds Rattling Off; Not A Stone Goes Through.

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.

Sophistry Is The Fallacy Of Argument.

There Is Not A Heart But Has Its Moments Of Longing, Yearning For Something Better; Nobler; Holier Than It Knows Now.

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.

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

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

Storms Purify The Atmosphere.

Men Have A Thousand Desires To A Bushel Of Choices.

The Word Of God Tends To Make Large-minded Noble-minded Men.

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

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 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.

That Is The Best Baptism That Leaves The Man Cleanest Inside.

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

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.

There Are Some Men's Souls That Are So Thin, So Almost Destitute Of What Is The True Idea Of Soul, That Were Not The Guardian Angels So Keen-sighted, They Would Altogether Overlook Them.

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

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.

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

Make Men Large And Strong And Tyranny Will Bankrupt Itself In Making Shackles For Them.

We Know Much Of A Writer By His Style. An Open And Imperious Disposition Is Shown In Short Sentences, Direct And Energetic. A Secretive And Proud Mind Is Cold And Obscure In Style. An Affectionate And Imaginative Nature Pours Out Luxuriantly, And Blossoms All Over With Ornament.

It's Not Work That Kills [people], It Is Worry.

There Is A Patience That Cackles. There Are A Great Many Virtues That Are Hen-like. They Are Virtue, To Be Sure; But Everybody In The Neighborhood Has To Know About Them.

If There's A Job To Be Done, I Always Ask The Busiest Man In My Parish To Take It On And It Gets Done.

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.

I Will Not Say It Is Not Christian To Make Beads Of Others Faults, And Tell Them Over Every Day; I Say It Is Infernal. If You Want To Know How The Devil Feels, You Do Know, If You Are Such An One.

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.

Every Man Is Full Of Music; But It Is Not Every Man That Knows How To Bring It Out.

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.

Mirth Is God's Medicine. Everybody Ought To Bathe In It. Grim Care, Moroseness, Anxiety,--all This Rust Of Life, Ought To Be Scoured Off By The Oil Of Mirth. It Is Better Than Emery. Every Man Ought To Rub Himself With It. A Man Without Mirth Is Like A Wagon Without Springs, In Which One Is Caused Disagreeably To Jolt By Every Pebble Over Which It Runs.

The Sun Does Not Shine For A Few Trees, And Flowers, But For The Wide World's Joy. The Lonely Pine On The Mountain-top Waves Its Sombre Boughs And Cries, 'thou Art My Sun.' And The Little Meadow Violet Lifts Its Cup Of Blue, And Whispers With Its Perfumed Breath, 'thou Art My Sun.' And The Grain In A Thousand Fields Rustles In The Wind, And Makes Answer, 'thou Art My Sun.' So God Sits Effulgent In Heaven, Not For A Favored Few, But For The Universe Of Life; And There Is No Creature So Poor Or So Low That He May Not Look Up With Childish Confidence And Say, 'my Father, Thou Art Mine.

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

Riches Without Law Are More Dangerous Than Is Poverty Without Law

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.

Suffering Well Borne Is Better Than Suffering Removed.

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

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

Live In The Moment

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.

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

A Republican Government In A Hundred Points Is Weaker Than An Autocratic Government; But In This One Point It Is The Strongest That Ever Existed — It Has Educated A Race Of Men That Are Men.

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

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

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

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

The Great Men Of Earth Are The Shadow Men, Who, Having Lived And Died, Now Live Again And Forever Through Their Undying Thoughts. Thus Living, Though Their Footfalls Are Heard No More, Their Voices Are Louder Than The Thunder, And Unceasing As The Flow Of Tides Or Air.

Love Is The World's River Of Life

Hope Is Sweet-minded And Sweet-eyed. It Draws Pictures; It Weaves Fancies; It Fills The Future With Delight.

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.

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.

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.

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

God's Glory Is His Goodness.

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

The Power Of Hiding Ourselves From One Another Is Mercifully Given, For Men Are Wild Beasts, And Would Devour One Another But For This Protection.

Nothing Dies So Hard, Or Rallies So Often As Intolerance.

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.

Some Have Supposed That The Mosquito Is Of A Devout Turn, And Never Will Partake Of A Meal Without First Saying Grace. The Devotions Of Some Men Are But A Preface To Blood-sucking.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Genius Unexerted Is No More Genius Than A Bushel Of Acorns Is A Forest Of Oaks.

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

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.

Pain Is God's Midwife, That Helps Some Virtue Into Existence.

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.

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.

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

Life Is A Plant That Grows Out Of Death.

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

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

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

Very Few Men Acquire Wealth In Such A Manner As To Receive Pleasure From It. Just As Long As There Is The Enthusiasm Of The Chase They Enjoy It; But When They Begin To Look Around, And Think Of Settling Down, They Find That That Part By Which Joy Enters Is Dead In Them. They Have Spent Their Lives In Heaping Up Colossal Piles Of Treasure, Which Stand, At The End, Like The Pyramids In The Desert Sands, Holding Only The Dust Of Kings.

There Is Nothing Which Vanity Does Not Desecrate.

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

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

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

Everyone Has Influence, For Good Or Bad, Upon Others.

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.

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

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

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