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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.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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We Never Know How

Henry Ward Beecher

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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.

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Let The Grateful Heart Sweep Through The Day That It May Recognize In Every Hour Some Sweet Blessing.

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

All Things In The Natural World Symbolize God, Yet None Of Them Speak Of Him But In Broken And Imperfect Words.

To Be A Christian Is To Obey Christ No Matter How You Feel.

Whenever Education And Refinement Carry Us Away From The Common People, They Are Growing Towards Selfishness, Which Is The Monster Evil Of The World. That Is True Cultivation Which Gives Us Sympathy With Every Form Of Human Life, And Enables Us To Work Most Successfully For Its Advancement. Refinement That Carries Us Away From Our Fellow People Is Not God's Refinement.

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.

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.

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.

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

We Should Not Judge People By Their Peak Of Excellence; But By The Distance They Have Traveled From The Point Where They Started.

Nature Is A Vast Repository Of Manly Enjoyments.

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

The First Hour Of The Morning Is The Rudder Of The Day.

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.

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.

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

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.

Men Go Shopping Just As Men Go Out Fishing Or Hunting, To See How Large A Fish May Be Caught With The Smallest Hook.

Gambling With Cards Or Dice Or Stocks Is All One Thing. It's Getting Money Without Giving An Equivalent For It.

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

Good Nature Is Often A Mere Matter Of Health.

Give Us That Calm Certainty Of Truth, That Nearness To Thee, That Conviction Of The Reality Of The Life To Come, Which We Shall Need To Bear Us Through The Troubles Of This.

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.

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.

God Pardons Like A Mother, Who Kisses The Offense Into Everlasting Forgiveness.

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

Books Are The Windows Through Which The Soul Looks Out.

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

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.

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

When Flowers Are Full Of Heaven-descended Dews, They Always Hang Their Heads; But Men Hold Theirs The Higher The More They Receive, Getting Proud As They Get Full.

Nothing Can Be Further Apart Than True Humility And Servility.

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.

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.

Our Government Is Built Upon The Vote. But Votes That Are Purchasable Are Quicksands, And A Government Built On Them Stands Upon Corruption And Revolution.

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.

What A Mother Sings To The Cradle Goes All The Way Down To The Coffin.

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

I Read For Three Things; First, To Know What The World Has Done The Last Twenty-four Hours, And Is About To Do Today; Second, For The Knowledge That I Specially Want In My Work; And Third, For What Will Bring My Mind Into A Proper Mood.

Truthfulness Is Godliness.

God Has Made Sleep To Be A Sponge By Which To Rub Out Fatigue. A Man's Roots Are Planted In Night As In A Soil.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

What If The Leaves Were To Fall A-weeping, And Say, "it Will Be So Painful For Us To Be Pulled From Our Stalks, When Autumn Comes?" Foolish Fear! Summer Goes, And Autumn Succeeds. The Glory Of Death Is Upon The Leaves; And The Gentlest Breeze That Blows Takes Them Softly And Silently From The Bough, And They Float Slowly Down, Like Fiery Sparks, Upon The Moss.

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

If Christ Is The Wisdom Of God And The Power Of God In The Experience Of Those Who Trust And Love Him, There Needs No Further Argument Of His Divinity.

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.

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.

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

Good-humor Makes All Things Tolerable

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 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.

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 That Is So Wonderfully Created As The Human Soul. There Is Something Of God In It. We Are Infinite In The Future, Though We Are Finite In The Past.

A Library Is But The Soul's Burial Ground; It Is The Land Of Shadows. Yet One Is Impressed With The Thought, The Labor, And The Struggle, Represented In This Vast Catacomb Of Books. Who Could Dream, By The Placid Waters That Issue From The Level Mouths Of Brooks Into The Lake, All The Plunges, The Whirls, The Divisions, And Foaming Rushes That Had Brought Them Down To The Tranquil Exit? And Who Can Guess Through What Channels Of Disturbance, And Experiences Of Sorrow, The Heart Passed That Has Emptied Into This Dead Sea Of Books?

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

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

The Beginning Is The Promise Of The End.

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?

Self-denial Does Not Belong To Religion As Characteristic Of It; It Belongs To Human Life; The Lower Nature Must Always Be Denied When You Are Trying To Rise To A Higher Sphere.

Faith Is Spiritualized Imagination.

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

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

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

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

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.

Of All Man's Works Of Art, A Cathedral Is Greatest. A Vast And Majestic Tree Is Greater Than That.

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

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

Christianity Is Simply The Ideal Form Of Manhood Represented To Us By Jesus Christ.

Work Is Not A Curse, But Drudgery Is.

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.

A Man Without Ambition Is Worse Than Dough That Has No Yeast In It To Raise It.

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

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.

Men Have A Thousand Desires To A Bushel Of Choices.

A Man Who Does Not Know How To Be Angry, Does Not Know How To Be Good. Now And Then A Man Should Be Shaken To The Core With Indignation Over Things Evil.

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

What I Spent, I Had; What I Kept, I Lost; What I Gave, I Have.

Motivational Sports

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

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

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?

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

Love Is The World's River Of Life

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

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

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

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

Tyrannies Are Overthrown By Ideas. Armies Are Defeated By Ideas. Nations, And Time Itself, Are Overmatched By Ideas.

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.

Blessed Are The Happiness-makers! Blessed Are They That Take Away Attritions, That Remove Friction, That Make The Courses Of Life Smooth, And The Intercourse Of Men Gentle!

A Person Without A Sense Of Humor Is Like A Wagon Without Springs. It's Jolted By Every Pebble On The Road.

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

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.

Badgered, Snubbed And Scolded On The One Hand; Petted, Flattered And Indulged On The Other-it Is Astonishing How Many Children Work Their Way Up To An Honest Manhood In Spite Of Parents And Friends. Human Nature Has An Element Of Great Toughness In It.

Of All The Music That Reached Farthest Into Heaven, It Is The Beating Of A Loving Heart.

The Religion Of Jesus Christ Is Not Ascetic, Nor Sour, Nor Gloomy, Nor Circumscribing. It Is Full Of Sweetness In The Present And In Promise.

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

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

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

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

An Oyster, That Marvel Of Delicacy, That Concentration Of Sapid Excellence, That Mouthful Bwefore All Other Mouthfuls, Who First Had Faith To Believe It, And Courage To Execute? The Exterior Is Not Persuasive.

But When We Borrow Trouble, And Look Forward Into The Future To See What Storms Are Coming, And Distress Ourselves Before They Come As To How We Shall Avert Them If They Ever Do Come, We Lose Our Proper Trustfulness In God. When We Torment Ourselves With Imaginary Dangers, Or Trials, Or Reverses, We Have Already Parted With That Perfect Love Which Casteth Out Fear.

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

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.

The Little Troubles And Worries Of Life May Be As Stumbling Blocks In Our Way, Or We May Make Them Stepping-stones To A Nobler Character And To Heaven. Troubles Are Often The Tools By Which God Fashions Us For Better Things.

Of All Formal Things In The World, A Clipped Hedge Is The Most Formal; And Of All The Informal Things In The World, A Forest Tree Is The Most Informal.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

There Is Not A Single Heart But Has Its Moments Of Longing.

There's Not Much Practical Christianity In The Man Who Lives On Better Terms With Angels And Seraphs Than With His Children, Servants And Neighbours.

Like Waves, Our Feelings May Continue By Repeating Themselves, By Intermittent Rushes; But No Emotion Any More Than A Wave Can Long Retain Its Own Individual Form.

If Christ Is Not Divine, Every Impulse Of The Christian World Falls To A Lower Octave, And Light And Love And Hope Decline.

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.

Suffering Is Part Of The Divine Idea.

As Plants Take Hold, Not For The Sake Of Staying, But Only That They May Climb Higher, So It Is With Men. By Every Part Of Our Nature We Clasp Things Above Us, One After Another, Not For The Sake Of Remaining Where We Take Hold, But That We May Go Higher.

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

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!

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

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.

A Dull Ax Never Loves Grindstones.

What The Heart Has Once Owned And Had, It Shall Never Lose.

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

Theology Is But Our Ideas Of Truth Classified And Arranged.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

God Is The One Great Employer, Thinker, Planner, Supervisor.

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.

Though Cares And Sorrows E'er Must Come, Though Heart Be Rent, I Know That God Will Give Me Strength, When Mine Is Spent.

It Is The Color Which Love Wears, And Cheerfulness, And Joy--these Three. It Is The Light In The Window Of The Face By Which The Heart Signifies To Father, Husband, Or Friend That It Is At Home And Waiting.

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

No Grace Can Save Any Man Unless He Helps Himself.

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

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

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

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.

Love Is Not A Possession But A Growth. The Heart Is A Lamp With Just Oil Enough To Burn For An Hour, And If There Be No Oil To Put In Again Its Light Will Go Out. God's Grace Is The Oil That Fills The Lamp Of Love.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

A Man Without A Vote Is In This Land Like A Man Without A Hand.

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.

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

All The Wide World Is But The Husbandry Of God For The Development Of The One Fruit-man.

No Matter What Looms Ahead, If You Can Eat Today, Enjoy The Sunlight Today, Mix Good Cheer With Friends Today, Enjoy It And Bless God For It. Do Not Look Back On Happiness -- Or Dream Of It In The Future. You Are Only Sure Of Today; Do Not Let Yourself Be Cheated Out Of It.

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 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!

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 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.

I Received A Letter From A Lad Asking Me For An Easy Berth. To This I Replied: You Cannot Be An Editor; Do Not Try The Law; Do Not Think Of The Ministry; Let Alone All Ships And Merchandise; Abhor Politics; Don't Practice Medicine; Be Not A Farmer Or A Soldier Or A Sailor; Don't Study, Don't Think. None Of These Are Easy. O, My Son, You Have Come Into A Hard World. I Know Of Only One Easy Place In It, And That Is The Grave!

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.

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

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

The Best Lessons A Man Ever Learns Are From His Mistakes. It Is Not For Want Of Schoolmasters That We Are Still Ignorant.

The Pie Should Be Eaten "while It Is Yet Florescent, White Or Creamy Yellow, With The Merest Drip Of Candied Juice Along The Edges, (as If The Flavor Were So Good To Itself That Its Own Lips Watered!) Of A Mild And Modest Warmth, The Sugar Suggesting Jelly, Yet Not Jellied, The Morsels Of Apple Neither Dissolved Nor Yet In Original Substance, But Hanging As It Were In A Trance Between The Spirit And The Flesh Of Applehood...then, O Blessed Man, Favored By All The Divinities! Eat, Give Thanks, And Go Forth, 'in Apple-pie Order!'"

The Ability To Convert Ideas To Things Is The Secret Of Outward Success.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

They Hover As A Cloud Of Witnesses Above This Nation.

American Veterans

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.

People May Talk About The Equality Of The Sexes! They Are Not Equal. The Silent Smile Of A Sensible, Loving Woman Will Vanquish Ten Men.

We Let Our Blessings Get Mouldy, And Then Call Them Curses.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Life Is Full Of Amusement To An Amusing Man.

Faith Is A Recognition Of Those Things Which Are Above The Senses.

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

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.

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.

He Is Rich Or Poor According To What He Is, Not According To What He Has.

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

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

Books Are The True Metempsychosis,--they Are The Symbol And Presage Of Immortality. The Dead Men Are Scattered, And None Shall Find Them. Behold They Are Here! They Do But Sleep.

Riches Are Not An End Of Life, But An Instrument Of Life.

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