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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.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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Thinking Cannot Be Clear

Henry Ward Beecher

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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.

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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

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

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

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

The Sphere That Is Deepest, Most Unexplored, And Most Unfathomable, The Wonder And Glory Of God's Thought And Hand, Is Our Own Soul!

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.

I Know It Is More Agreeable To Walk Upon Carpets Than To Lie Upon Dungeon Floors, I Know It Is Pleasant To Have All The Comforts And Luxuries Of Civilization; But He Who Cares Only For These Things Is Worth No More Than A Butterfly, Contented And Thoughtless, Upon A Morning Flower; And Who Ever Thought Of Rearing A Tombstone To A Last Summer's Butterfly?

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

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

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

It Is Not The Going Out Of Port, But The Coming In, That Determines The Success Of A Voyage.

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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.

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.

There Are Sorrows That Are Not Painful, But Are Of The Nature Of Some Acids, And Give Piquancy And Flavor To Life.

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

A Babe Is A Mother's Anchor.

Our Sweetest Experiences Of Affection Are Meant To Be Suggestions Of That Realm Which Is The Home Of The Heart.

Boys Have Their Soft And Gentle Moods Too. You Would Suppose By The Morning Racket That Nothing Could Be More Foreign To Their Nature Than Romance And Vague Sadness. . . . But Boys Have Hours Of Great Sinking And Sadness, When Kindness And Fondness Are Peculiarly Needful To Them.

Compassion Will Cure More Sins Than Condemnation.

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

Expedients Are For An Hour, But Principles Are For The Ages. Just Because The Rains Descend And Winds Blow, We Cannot Afford To Build On Shifting Sands.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The Strong Are God's Natural Protectors Of The Weak.

Thinking Is Creating With God, As Thinking Is Writing With The Ready Writer; And Worlds Are Only Leaves Turned Over In The Process Of Composition, About His Throne.

Some People Are So Dry That You Might Soak Them In A Joke For A Month And It Would Not Get Through Their Skins.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

You Can Imagine Thistle-down So Light That When You Run After It Your Running Motion Would Drive It Away From You, And That The More You Tried To Catch It The Faster It Would Fly From Your Grasp. And It Should Be With Every Man, That, When He Is Chased By Troubles, They, Chasing, Shall Raise Him Higher And Higher.

There Is Nothing Which Vanity Does Not Desecrate.

Even A Liar Tells A Hundred Truths To One Lie; He Has To, To Make The Lie Good For Anything.

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.

Anger Is A Bow That Will Shoot Sometimes Where Another Feeling Will Not.

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

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

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

No Coffee Can Be Good In The Mouth That Does Not First Send A Sweet Offering Of Odor To The Nostrils.

The One Great Poem Of New England Is Her Sunday.

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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.

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

Titles Are Too "thin" For The Nineteenth Century.

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

You Never Know Till You Try To Reach Them How Accessible Men Are; But You Must Approach Each Man By The Right Door.

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

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.

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

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Leaves Die, But Trees Do Not. They Only Undress.

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

Laws Are Not Masters But Servants, And He Rules Them Who Obey Them.

You Have Come Into A Hard World. I Know Of Only One Easy Place In It, And That Is The Grave.

Every Charitable Act Is A Stepping Stone Toward Heaven.

What Profusion Is There In His Work! When Trees Blossom There Is Not A Single Breastpin, But A Whole Bosom Full Of Gems; And Of Leaves They Have So Many Suits That They Can Throw Them Away To The Winds All Summer Long. What Unnumbered Cathedrals Has He Reared In The Forest Shades, Vast And Grand, Full Of Curious Carvings, And Haunted Evermore By Tremulous Music; And In The Heavens Above, How Do Stars Seem To Have Flown Out Of His Hand Faster Than Sparks Out Of A Mighty Forge!

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Only Have Enough Of Little Virtues And Common Fidelities, And You Need Not Mourn Because You Are Neither A Hero Nor A Saint.

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

Home Should Be An Oratorio Of The Memory, Singing To All Our After Life Melodies And Harmonies Of Old-remembered Joy.

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.

All Our Other Faculties Seem To Have The Brown Touch Of Earth Upon Them, But The Imagination Carries The Very Livery Of Heaven, And Is God's Self In The Soul.

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

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.

It Was The German Schoolhouse Which Destroyed Napoleon Iii. France, Since Then, Is Making Monster Cannon And Drilling Soldiers Still, But She Is Also Building Schoolhouses. As Long As War Is Possible, Anything That Makes Better Soldiers People Want.

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

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

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.

A Man Who Does Not Love Praise Is Not A Full Man.

If You Attempt To Beat A Man Down And To Get His Goods For Less Than A Fair Price, You Are Attempting To Commit Burglary, As Much As Though You Broke Into His Shop To Take The Things Without Paying For Them.

Truthfulness Is Godliness.

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

May We Feel After Thee; Still Calling Out In The Darkness, As Children Waking In The Night Call "father," So May We Call Out For God; And, At Times, Even If We Do Not Hear Thy Voice, May There Be The Form Of A Hand Resting Upon Us, And That Shall Be Enough; For We Shall Take Hold Of It, Though It Be In The Dark, And It Shall Guide Us To The Growing Light; For The Day Shall Come, And The Release And Triumph.

Love Is The World's River Of Life

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

There Is No True And Abiding Morality That Is Not Founded In Religion.

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.

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

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.

When Our Children Die, We Drop Them Into The Unknown, Shuddering With Fear. We Know That They Go Out From Us, And We Stand, And Pity, And Wonder. If We Receive News, That A Hundred Thousand Dollars Had Been Left Them By Some One Dying, We Should Be Thrown Into An Ecstasy Of Rejoicing; But When They Have Gone Home To God, We Stand, And Mourn, And Pine, And Wonder At The Mystery Of Providence.

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

Rich Men Are To Bear The Infirmities Of The Poor. Wise Men Are To Bear The Mistakes Of The Ignorant. Strong Men Are To Bear With The Feeble. Cultured People Are To Bear With The Rude And Vulgar. If A Rough And Coarse Man Meets An Ecstatically Fine Man, The Man That Is Highest Up Is To Be The Servant Of The Man That Is Lowest Down.

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

Pride Slays Thanksgiving, But A Humble Mind Is The Soil Out Of Which Thanks Naturally Grow. A Proud Man Is Seldom A Grateful Man, For He Never Thinks He Gets As Much As He Deserves.

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

God Plants No Yearning In The Human Soul That He Does Not Intend To Satisfy.

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.

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

We Cannot Have Right Virtue Without Right Conditions.

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

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

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

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

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

No One Thing Does Human Life More Need Than A Kind Consideration Of The Faults Of Others. Every One Sins; Everyone Needs Forbearance. Our Own Imperfections Should Teach Us To Be Merciful.

Mirth Is God's Medicine.

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

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.

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

Earthly Love Is A Brief And Penurious Stream, Which Only Flows In Spring, With A Long Summer Drought. The Change From A Burning Desert, Treeless, Springless, Drear, To Green Fields And Blooming Orchards In June, Is Slight In Comparison With That From The Desert Of This World's Affection To The Garden Of God, Where There Is Perpetual, Tropical Luxuriance Of Blessed Love.

The 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.

There Is No Such Thing As White Lies; A Lie Is As Black As A Coalpit, And Twice As Foul.

Nothing Marks The Change From The City To The Country So Much As The Absence Of Grinding Noises. The Country Is Never Silent. But Its Sounds Are Separate, Distinct, And As It Were, Articulate.

In America There Is Not One Single Element Of Civilization That Is Not Made To Depend, In The End, Upon Public Opinion.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

People Of Too Much Sentiment Are Like Fountains, Whose Overflow Keeps A Disagreeable Puddle About Them.

If You Want Your Neighbor To Know What Christ Will Do For Him, Let The Neighbor See What Christ Has Done For You.

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

The Things That Hurt Us Teach Us.

Riches Without Law Are More Dangerous Than Is Poverty Without Law

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

If One Asks Me The Meaning Of Our Flag, I Say To Him: It Means All That The Constitution Of Our People, Organizing For Justice, For Liberty, And For Happiness, Meant. Our Flag Carries American Ideas, American History And American Feelings. This American Flag Was The Safeguard Of Liberty. It Was An Ordinance Of Liberty By The People, For The People. That It Meant, That It Means, And, By The Blessing Of God, That It Shall Mean To The End Of Time!

We Are Never Ripe Till We Have Been Made So By Suffering.

A Helping Word To One In Trouble Is Often Like A Switch On A Railroad Track-an Inch Between Wreck And Smooth-rolling Prosperity.

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

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

Life Is A Plant That Grows Out Of Death.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

People May Excite In Themselves A Glow Of Compassion, Not By Toasting Their Feet At The Fire, And Saying: "lord, Teach Me Compassion," But By Going And Seeking An Object That Requires Compassion.

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.

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.

Theology Is But A Science Of Applied To God. As Schools Change Theology Must Necessarily Change. Truth Is Everlasting, But Our Ideas Of Truth Are Not. Theology Is But Our Ideas Of Truth Classified And Arranged.

Men Will Imitate And Admire His Unmoved Firmness, His Inflexible Conscience For The Right; And Yet His Gentleness, As Tender As A Woman's, His Moderation Of Spirit, Which Not All The Heat Of Party Could Inflame, Nor All The Jars And Disturbances Of This Country Shake Out Of Its Place: I Swear You To An Emulation Of His Justice, His Moderation, And His Mercy.

We Need Not Fear Shipwreck When God Is The Pilot.

Flowers May Beckon Todwards Us, But They Speak Todward Heaven And God.

The Difference Between Perseverance And Obstinacy Is That One Comes From A Strong Will, And The Other From A Strong Won't.

Weak Minds May Be Injured By Novel-reading; But Sensible People Find Both Amusement And Instruction Therein.

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.

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

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

Faith Is Spiritualized Imagination.

A Bird In A Cage Is Not Half A Bird.

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.

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

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

Morality Is Character And Conduct Such As Is Required By The Circle Or Community In Which The Man's Life Happens To Be Placed. It Shows How Much Good Men Require Of Us.

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.

Many Of Our Troubles Are God Dragging Us, And They Would End If We Would Stand Upon Our Feet And Go Whither He Would Have Us Go.

Men's Best Successes Come After Their Disappointments.

A Boy Is A Piece Of Existence Quite Separate From All Things Else, And Deserves Separate Chapters In The Natural History Of Men.

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

Suffering Well Borne Is Better Than Suffering Removed.

Sorrow Is Mount Sinai. If One Will, One May Go Up And Talk With God, Face To Face.

Morality Is Good, And Is Accepted Of God, As Far As It Goes; But The Difficulty Is, It Does Not Go Far Enough.

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

Repentance Is Another Name For Aspiration.

God's Grace Is The Oil That Fills The Lamp Of Love.

Nothing Can Be Further Apart Than True Humility And Servility.

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.

God Sends Experience To Paint Men's Portraits.

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.

Temptations Are Enemies Outside The Castle Seeking Entrance. If There Be No False Retainer Within Who Holds Treacherous Parley, There Can Scarcely Be Even An Offer.

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

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.

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

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

Like A Bird She Seems To Wear Gay Plumage Unconsciously, As If It Grew Upon Her.

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

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 Truest Self-respect Is Not To Think Of Self.

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

O Never Harm The Dreaming World, The World Of Green, The World Of Leaves, But Let Its Million Palms Unfold The Adoration Of The Trees Of All Man's Works Of Art, A Cathedral Is Greatest. A Vast And Majestic Tree Is Greater Than That.

No Grace Can Save Any Man Unless He Helps Himself.

It Takes A Man To Make A Devil.

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

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

To The Covetous Man Life Is A Nightmare, And God Lets Him Wrestle With It As Best He May.

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

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.

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Jamie Lee Curtis

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

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