Background Image

...

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.

-Henry Ward Beecher

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

What If The Leaves

Henry Ward Beecher

...

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.

Views: 4983

Topic

More From Henry Ward Beecher

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

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.

There Are Apartments In The Soul Which Have A Glorious Outlook; From Whose Windows You Can See Across The River Of Death, And Into The Shining City Beyond; But How Often Are These Neglected For The Lower Ones, Which Have Earthward-looking Windows.

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

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

We Know That The Gifts Which Men Have Do Not Come From The Schools. If A Man Is A Plain, Literal, Factual Man, You Can Make A Great Deal More Of Him In His Own Line By Education Than Without Education, Just As You Can Make A Great Deal More Of A Potato If You Cultivate It Than If You Do Not; But No Cultivation In This World Will Ever Make An Apple Out Of A Potato.

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

The Real Democratic American Idea Is, Not That Every Man Shall Be On A Level With Every Other Man, But That Every Man Shall Have Liberty To Be What God Made Him, Without Hindrance.

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.

The Most Efficacious Secular Book That Ever Was Published In America Is The Newspaper.

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

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 Library Is But The Soul's Burying Ground. It Is A Land Of Shadows.

He That Would Look With Contempt On The Pursuits Of The Farmer, Is Not Worthy The Name Of A Man.

The Deeper Men Go Into Life, The Deeper Is Their Conviction That This Life Is Not All. It Is An Unfinished Symphony. A Day May Round Out An Insect's Life, And A Bird Or A Beast Needs No Tomorrow. Not So With Him Who Knows That He Is Related To God And Has Felt The Power Of An Endless Life.

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

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

Theology Is A Science Of Mind Applied To God.

Science And Religion

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

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!

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

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

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

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?

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 Dog Is The God Of Frolic.

Success Surely Comes With Conscience In The Long Run, Other Things Being Equal. Capacity And Fidelity Are Commercially Profitable Qualities.

Well Married A Person Has Wings, Poorly Married Shackles.

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

Every Man Should Use His Intellect, Not As He Uses His Lamp In The Study, Only For His Own Seeing, But As The Lighthouse Uses Its Lamps, That Those Afar Off On The Seas May See The Shining, And Learn Their Way.

Take From The Bible The Godship Of Christ, And It Would Be But A Heap Of Dust.

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

Each Book Has A Secret History Of Ways And Means.

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.

Self-contemplation Is Apt To End In Self-conceit.

Precise Knowledge Is The Only True Knowledge, And He Who Does Not Teach Exactly, Does Not Teach At All.

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

The Reason That Men Are So Slow To Confess Their Vices Is Because They Have Not Yet Abandoned Them.

Love Is The World's River Of Life

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

Eternal Vigilance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

A Man Without Ambition Is Like A Beautiful Worm - It Can Creep, But It Cannot Fly.

Nothing Is Orderly Till Man Takes Hold Of It. Everything In Creation Lies Around Loose.

It Is Part And Parcel Of Every Man's Life To Develop Beauty In Himself. All Perfect Things Have In Them An Element Of Beauty.

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

Some Men Will Not Shave On Sunday, And Yet They Spend All The Week In Shaving Their Fellow-men; And Many Folks Think It Very Wicked To Black Their Boots On Sunday Morning, Yet They Do Not Hesitate To Black Their Neighbor's Reputation On Week-days.

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

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.

Every Artist Dips His Brush In His Own Soul, And Paints His Own Nature Into His Pictures.

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

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.

When Our Cup Runs Over, We Let Others Drink The Drops That Fall, But Not A Drop From Within The Rim, And Call It Charity; When The Crumbs Are Swept From Our Table, We Think It Generous To Let The Dogs Eat Them; As If That Were Charity Which Permits Others To Have What We Cannot Keep.

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.

It Is The Triumph Of Civilization That At Last Communities Have Obtained Such A Mastery Over Natural Laws That They Drive And Control Them. The Winds, The Water, Electricity, All Aliens That In Their Wild Form Were Dangerous, Are Now Controlled By Human Will, And Are Made Useful Servants.

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

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.

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

God Is A Being Who Gives Everything But Punishment In Over Measure.

God Asks No Man Whether He Will Accept Life. That Is Not The Choice. You Must Take It. The Only Choice Is How.

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.

A Man's Character Is The Reality Of Himself; His Reputation, The Opinion Others Have Formed About Him; Character Resides In Him, Reputation In Other People; That Is The Substance, This Is The Shadow.

Men Can Make An Idol Of The Bible.

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

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 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.

Sorrows, As Storms, Bring Down The Clouds Close To The Earth; Sorrows Bring Heaven Down Close; And They Are Instruments Of Cleansing And Purifying.

October Is The Opal Month Of The Year. It Is The Month Of Glory, Of Ripeness. It Is The Picture-month.

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

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

Repentance Is Another Name For Aspiration.

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

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

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.

I Never Know How To Worship Until I Know How To Love; And To Love I Must Have Something That I Can Put My Arms Around, — Something That, Touching My Heart, Shall Leave Not The Chill Of Ice, But The Warmth Of Summer.

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.

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.

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

Too Much Looking Backward ... Is Bad For Progress.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

A House Built On Sand Is, In Fair Weather, Just As Good As If Builded On A Rock. A Cobweb Is As Good As The Mightiest Chain Cable When There Is No Strain On It. It Is Trial That Proves One Thing Weak And Another Strong.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Many Men Are Stored Full Of Unused Knowledge. Like Loaded Guns That Are Never Fired Off, Or Military Magazines In Times Of Peace, They Are Stuffed With Useless Ammunition.

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

Love Is The Wine Of Existence.

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

Think Of A Man In A Chronic State Of Anger!

Victories Are Easy And Cheap. The Only Victories Worth Anything Are Those Achieved Through Hard Work And Dedication.

So We Fall Asleep In Jesus. We Have Played Long Enough At The Games Of Life, And At Last We Feel The Approach Of Death. We Are Tired Out, And We Lay Our Heads Back On The Bosom Of Christ, And Quietly Fall Asleep.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

There Is No Friendship, No Love, Like That Of The Parent For The Child.

No Man Can Tell If He Is Rich Or Poor By Turning To His Ledger. It Is The Heart That Makes A Man Rich. He Is Rich According To What He Is, Not According To What He Has.

The Greatest Architect And The One Most Needed Is Hope.

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

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

The Meanest Thing In The World Is The Devil.

Where Is Human Nature So Weak As In The Bookstore?

Despondency Is Ingratitude; Hope Is God's Worship.

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

A Man Is A Great Bundle Of Tools. He Is Born Into This Life Without The Knowledge Of How To Use Them. Education Is The Process Of Learning Their Use.

Scepticism Is A Barren Coast, Without A Harbor Or Lighthouse.

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.

The Things That Hurt Us Teach Us.

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?

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.

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

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.

There Is No Right More Universal And More Sacred, Because Lying So Near The Root Of Existence, Than The Right Of Men To Their Own Labor.

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.

The Gravest Events Dawn With No More Noise Than The Morning Star Makes In Rising. All Great Developments Complete Themselves In The World And Modestly Wait In Silence, Praising Themselves Never, And Announcing Themselves Not At All. We Must Be Sensitive, And Sensible, If We Would See The Beginnings And Endings Of Great Things. That Is Our Part.

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

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

It Is Not Well For A Man To Pray Cream And Live Skim Milk.

Thou, Everlasting Strength, Hast Set Thyself Forth To Bear Our Burdens. May We Bear Thy Cross, And Bearing That; Find There Is Nothing Else To Bear; And Touching That Cross, Find That Instead Of Taking Away Our Strength, It Adds Thereto. Give Us Faith For Darkness, For Trouble, For Sorrow, For Bereavement, For Disappointment; Give Us A Faith That Will Abide Though The Earth Itself Should Pass Away--a Faith For Living, A Faith For Dying.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

No People Are So Easy To Govern As The Intelligent, And None Are So Hard To Govern As The Ignorant.

The Thistle Is A Prince. Let Any Man That Has An Eye For Beauty Take A View Of The Whole Plant, And Where Will He See A More Expressive Grace And Symmetry; And Where Is There A More Kingly Flower?

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

Ambition Is The Way In Which A Vulgar Man Aspires.

A Book Is A Garden, An Orchard, A Storehouse, A Party, A Mentor, A Teacher, A Guidepost, A Counsellor.

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

Perverted Pride Is A Great Misfortune In Men; But Pride In Its Original Function, For Which God Created It, Is Indispensable To A Proper Manhood.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Religion Would Save A Man; Christ Would Make Him Worth Saving.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

God Never Made Anything Else So Beautiful As Man.

Nobody Ever Sees Truth Except In Fragments.

Indeed, Unless A Man Can Link His Written Thoughts With The Everlasting Wants Of Men, So That They Shall Draw More From Them As Wells, There Is No More Immortality To The Thoughts And Feelings Of The Soul Than To The Muscles And Bones.

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.

By Religion I Mean Perfected Manhood,--the Quickening Of The Soul By The Influence Of The Divine Spirit.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Flattery Is Praise Insincerely Given For An Interested Purpose.

You Cannot Sift Out The Poor From The Community. The Poor Are Indispensable To The Rich.

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

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

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

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

The Highest Order That Was Ever Instituted On Earth Is The Order Of Faith.

Providence Is But Another Name For Natural Law. Natural Law Itself Would Go Out In A Minute If It Were Not For The Divine Thought That Is Behind It.

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.

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

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

A Man Who Cannot Get Angry Is Like A Stream That Cannot Overflow, That Is Always Turbid. Sometimes Indignation Is As Good As A Thunderstorm In Summer, Clearing And Cooling The Air.

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.

Flowers Have An Expression Of Countenance As Much As Men Or Animals. Some Seem To Smile; Some Have A Sad Expression; Some Are Pensive And Diffident; Others Are Plain, Honest And Upright, Like The Broad Faced Sunflower And The Hollyhock.

Astronomers Have Built Telescopes Which Can Show Myriads Of Stars Unseen Before; But When A Man Looks Through A Tear In His Own Eye, That Is A Lens Which Opens Reaches Into The Unknown, And Reveals Orbs Which No Telescope, However Skilfully Constructed, Could Do.

Trending Author

Giacomo Casanova

Category