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Words Are But The Bannerets Of A Great Army, A Few Bits Of Waving Color Here And There; Thoughts Are The Main Body Of The Footman That March Unseen Below.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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Words Are But The

Henry Ward Beecher

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Words Are But The Bannerets Of A Great Army, A Few Bits Of Waving Color Here And There; Thoughts Are The Main Body Of The Footman That March Unseen Below.

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

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

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

We Pray For Those Who Have Ceased To Pray. We Pray For Those That Need Prayer More Than Ever, That Have Fewer And Fewer Seasons Even Of Thought, That Grow Hard With Years, That Are Less And Less Troubled By Sin, And That Are More And More Irreverent Of Religion. We Pray For The Children Of Christian Parents Who Sometimes Weep At The Memory Of Father And Mother, But Who Never Have Thought Of God.

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

Well-married, A Man Is Winged: Ill-matched, He Is Shackled.

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.

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

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

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

Death Is Not An End. It Is A New Impulse.

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

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

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.

Faith Is Spiritualized Imagination.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

A Christianity Which Will Not Help Those Who Are Struggling From The Bottom To The Top Of Society, Needs Another Christ To Die For It.

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

Self-government By The Whole People Is The Teleologic Idea. The Republican Form Of Government Is The Noblest And The Best, As It Is The Latest.

What Is The Disposition Which Makes Men Rejoice In Good Bargains? There Are Few People Who Will Not Be Benefited By Pondering Over The Morals Of Shopping.

A Man's Ledger Does Not Tell What He Is, Or What He Is Worth. Count What Is In Man, Not What Is On Him, If You Would Know What He Is Worth-whether Rich Or Poor.

God Bless The Good-natured, For They Bless Everybody Else.

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

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.

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

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

Never Forget What A Man Has Said To You When He Was Angry. If He Has Charged You With Anything, You Had Better Look It Up.

There Are Joys Which Long To Be Ours.

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

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.

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

Nothing Can Compare In Beauty, And Wonder, And Admirableness, And Divinity Itself, To The Silent Work In Obscure Dwellings Of Faithful Women Bringing Their Children To Honor And Virtue And Piety.

What Is The Bible In Your House? It Is Not The Old Testament, It Is Not The New Testament, It Is Not The Gospel According To Matthew, Or Mark, Or Luke, Or John; It Is The Gospel According To William; It Is The Gospel According To Mary; It Is The Gospel According To Henry And James; It Is The Gospel According To Your Name. You Write Your Own Bible.

Love Cannot Endure Indifference. It Needs To Be Wanted. Like A Lamp, It Needs To Be Fed Out Of The Oil Of Another's Heart, Or Its Flame Burns Low.

Money In The Hands Of One Or Two Men Is Like A Dungheap In A Barnyard. So Long As It Lies In A Mass, It Does No Good; But, If It Is Only Spread Out Evenly On The Land, Everything Will Grow.

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

Religion Is Using Everything For God.

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

It Takes A Man To Make A Devil; And The Fittest Man For Such A Purpose Is A Snarling, Waspish, Red-hot, Fiery Creditor.

Morality Must Always Precede And Accompany Religion, And Yet Religion Is Much More Than Morality.

There Is Nothing That A New-englander So Nearly Worships As An Argument.

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.

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.

Sometimes Fear Is Wholesome And Rational; It Is Well To Swing Fear As A Mighty Battle-axe Over Men's Heads When No Other Motive Will Move Them.

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 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.

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

Expedients Are For The Hour, But Principles Are For The Ages.

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.

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

Sophistry Is The Fallacy Of Argument.

True Obedience Is True Freedom.

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

If We Are Like Christ, We Shall Seek, Not To Absorb, But To Reflect The Light Which Falls Upon Others, And Thus We Shall Become Pure And Spotless.

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

Some People Are Proud Of Their Humility.

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

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.

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

Each Book Has A Secret History Of Ways And Means.

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.

Where Is Human Nature So Weak As In The Bookstore?

No Matter What Looms Ahead, If You Can Eat Today, Enjoy Today, Mix Good Cheer With Friends Today Enjoy It And Bless God For It.

We Under No Circumstances Know The Appreciate Of Your Parent Till We Develop Into Dad And Mom Ourselves.

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

The Commerce Of The World Is Conducted By The Strong, And Usually It Operates Against The Weak.

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.

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

Gratitude Is The Fairest Blossom Which Springs From The Soul.

Remember God's Bounty In The Year. String The Pearls Of His Favor. Hide The Dark Parts, Except So Far As They Are Breaking Out In Light! Give This One Day To Thanks, To Joy, To Gratitude!

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

No Man Is More Cheated Than The Selfish Man.

The Divine Mind Does Not Think For Us, Or Inspite Of Us, But Works In Us To Think, And To Will, And To Do.

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

The Call To Religion Is Not A Call To Be Better Than Your Fellows, But To Be Better Than Yourself. Religion Is Relative To The Individual.

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

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

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

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.

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

There Is Nothing Which Vanity Does Not Desecrate.

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

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.

Men Can Make An Idol Of The Bible.

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

A Person Can No More Make Money Suddenly And Largely, And Be Unharmed By It, Than One Could Suddenly Grow From A Child's Stature To An Adult's Without Harm.

There Is No Part Of Government Which Cannot Better Suffer Derangement Than The Ballot. If You Strike The Ballot With Disease, It Is Heart Disease.

We Go To The Grave Of A Friend Saying, "a Man Is Dead," But Angels Throng About Him Saying, "a Man Is Born."

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

Now, Men Think, With Regard To Their Conduct, That, If They Were To Lift Themselves Up Gigantically And Commit Some Crashing Sin, They Should Never Be Able To Hold Up Their Heads; But They Will Harbor In Their Souls Little Sins, Which Are Piercing And Eating Them Away To Inevitable Ruin.

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

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.

I Pray On The Principle That Wine Knocks The Cork Out Of A Bottle. There Is An Inward Fermentation, And There Must Be A Vent.

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

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

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.

Affliction Comes To Us All, Not To Make Us Sad, But Sober; Not To Make Us Sorry, But To Make Us Wise; Not To Make Us Despondent, But By Its Darkness To Refresh Us As The Night Refreshes The Day; Not To Impoverish, But To Enrich Us

Beware Of Him Who Hates The Laugh Of A Child.

Good Men Are Not Those Who Now And Then Do A Good Act, But Men Who Join One Good Act To Another.

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

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

A Bird In A Cage Is Not Half A Bird.

A Love Of Flowers Would Beget Early Rising, Industry, Habits Of Close Observation, And Of Reading. It Would Incline The Mind To Notice Natural Phenomena, And To Reason Upon Them. It Would Occupy The Mind With Pure Thoughts, And Inspire A Sweet And Gentle Enthusiasm; Maintain Simplicity Of Taste; And ... Unfold In The Heart An Enlarged, Unstraightened, Ardent Piety.

There Is Nothing That Makes More Cowards And Feeble Men Than Public Opinion.

There Is So Much That Is Deaf And Dumb In Man, And So Much That Is Paralyzed, So Much That Is Shrunken, That Nothing Short Of A Miraculous Touch Of Re-creation Can Make Them At Death Perfect Beings.

It Is Not When The Cable Lies Coiled Up On The Deck That You Know How Strong Or How Weak It Is; It Is When It Is Put To The Test.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

God Never Made Anything Else So Beautiful As Man.

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!'"

A Church Debt Is The Devil's Salary.

Mountains Of Gold Would Not Seduce Some Men, Yet Flattery Would Break Them Down.

Love Is The River Of Life In This World. Think Not That Ye Know It Who Stand At The Little Tinkling Rill, The First Small Fountain. Not Until You Have Gone Through The Rocky Gorges, And Not Lost The Stream; Not Until You Nave Gone Through The Meadow, And The Stream Has Widened And Deepened Until Fleets Could Ride On Its Bosom; Not Until Beyond The Meadow You Have Come To The Unfathomable Ocean, And Poured Your Treasures Into Its Depths--not Until Then Can You Know What Love Is.

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.

The Philosophy Of One Century Is The Common Sense Of The Next.

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.

It Takes Longer For Man To Find Out Man Than Any Other Creature That Is Made.

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.

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.

Experience Is The Mother Of Custom.

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

The Soul Is A Temple; And God Is Silently Building It By Night And By Day. Precious Thoughts Are Building It; Disinterested Love Is Building It; All-penetrating Faith Is Building It.

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!

Good-humor Makes All Things Tolerable

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.

Theology Is A Science Of Mind Applied To God.

Science And Religion

It's Easier To Go Down A Hill Than Up It But The View Is Much Better At The Top.

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

All Higher Motives, Ideals, Conceptions, Sentiments In A Man Are Of No Account If They Do Not Come Forward To Strengthen Him For The Better Discharge Of The Duties Which Devolve Upon Him In The Ordinary Affairs Of Life.

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

Every Charitable Act Is A Stepping Stone Toward Heaven.

Christ Certainly Did Come To Destroy The Law And The Prophets.

It Is A Man Dying With His Harness On That Angels Love To Escort Upward.

A Man Is A Fool Who Sits Looking Backward From Himself In The Past. Ah, What Shallow, Vain Conceit There Is In Man! Forget The Things That Are Behind. That Is Not Where You Live. Your Roots Are Not There. They Are In The Present; And You Should Reach Up Into The Other Life.

That State Of Mind In Which A Man Is Impressed With Invisible Things Is Faith.

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

Of All Escape Mechanisms, Death Is The Most Efficient.

Yea, Though The Breath Of Disappointment Should Chill The Sanguine Heart, Speedily Gloweth It Again, Warmed By The Live Embers Of Hope.

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.

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

Human Life Is God's Outer Church. Its Needs And Urgencies Are Priests And Pastors.

The God Of The Bible Is A Moral Monstrosity.

All Words Are Pegs To Hang Ideas On.

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.

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

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.

What We Call Wisdom Is The Result Of All The Wisdom Of Past Ages.

Christianity Works While Infidelity Talks. She Feeds The Hungry, Clothes The Naked, Visits And Cheers The Sick, And Seeks The Lost, While Infidelity Abuses Her And Babbles Nonsense And Profanity. 'by Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them.'

Work Is Not A Curse, But Drudgery Is.

Men Must Read For Amusement As Well As For Knowledge.

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

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

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.

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

The First Merit Of Pictures Is The Effect Which They Can Produce Upon The Mind; — And The First Step Of A Sensible Man Should Be To Receive Involuntary Effects From Them. Pleasure And Inspiration First, Analysis Afterward.

The Diameter Of Each Day Is Measured By The Stretch Of Thought - Not By The Rising And Setting Of The Sun.

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.

Difficulties Are God's Errands; And When We Are Sent Upon Them, We Should Esteem It A Proof Of God's Confidence.

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

Eternal Vigilance

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

If A Man Has Come To That Point Where He Is No Content That He Says; I Do Not Want To Know Any More, Or Do Any More Or Be Any More, He Is In A State In Which He Ought To Be Changed Into A Mummy.

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.

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.

As Flowers Always Wear Their Own Colors And Give Forth Their Own Fragrance Every Day Alike, So Should Christians Maintain Their Character At All Times And Under All Circumstances.

Character, Like Porcelain-ware, Must Be Painted Before It Is Glazed. There Can Be No Change Of Color After It Is Burned In.

If One, Then, Asks Me The Meaning Of Our Flag, I Say To Him, It Means Just What Concord And Lexington Meant, What Bunker Hill Meant; It Means The Whole Glorious Revolutionary War, Which Was, In Short, The Rising Up Of A Valiant Young People Against An Old Tyranny, To Establish The Most Momentous Doctrine That The World Had Ever Known - The Right Of Men To Their Own Selves And To Their Liberties.

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.

Now Comes The Mystery.

The Most Dangerous People Are The Ignorant.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Keeping Secrets

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.

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.

When God Thought Of Mother, He Must Have Laughed With Satisfaction, And Framed It Quickly - So Rich, So Deep, So Divine, So Full Of Soul, Power, And Beauty, Was The Conception.

To Array A Man's Will Against His Sickness Is The Supreme Art Of Medicine.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The Things That Hurt Us Teach Us.

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.

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