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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.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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You Can Imagine Thistle-down

Henry Ward Beecher

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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.

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

That Which Distinguishes Man From The Brute Is His Power, In Dealing With Nature, To Milk Her Laws, And Make Them Give Forth Their Bounty.

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.

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.

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

Nature Holds An Immense Uncollected Debt Over Every Man's Head.

Happy Is The Man Who Has That In His Soul Which Acts Upon The Dejected As April Airs Upon Violet Roots. Gifts From The Hand Are Silver And Gold, But The Heart Gives That Which Neither Silver Nor Gold Can Buy. To Be Full Of Goodness, Full Of Cheerfulness, Full Of Sympathy, Full Of Helpful Hope, Causes A Man To Carry Blessings Of Which He Is Himself As Unconscious As A Lamp Is Of Its Own Shining. Such A One Moves On Human Life As Stars Move On Dark Seas To Bewildered Mariners; As The Sun Wheels, Bringing All The Seasons With Him From The South.

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

Nobody Ever Sees Truth Except In Fragments.

Discover What You Are.

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

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 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.

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

Nowhere Else Can One Find So Miscellaneous, So Various, An Amount Of Knowledge As Is Contained In A Good Newspaper.

Love Without Faith Is As Bad As Faith Without Love.

The Dog Is The God Of Frolic.

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

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.

A Grindstone That Had Not Grit In It, How Long Would It Take To Sharpen An Ax? And Affairs That Had Not Grit In Them, How Long Would They Take To Make A Man?

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.

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.

It Is One Of The Worst Effects Of Prosperity To Make A Man A Vortex Instead Of A Fountain; So That, Instead Of Throwing Out, He Learns Only To Draw In.

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

Some People Are Proud Of Their Humility.

Whatever Is Almost True Is Quite False, And Among The Most Dangerous Of Errors, Because Being So Near Truth, It Is More Likely To Lead Astray.

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

The Cynic Puts All Human Actions Into Two Classes - Openly Bad And Secretly Bad.

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

There Is A Temperate Zone In The Mind, Between Luxurious Indolence And Exacting Work; And It Is To This Region, Just Between Laziness And Labor, That Summer Reading Belongs.

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

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

The Cynic Is One Who Never Sees A Good Quality In A Man, And Never Fails To See A Bad One. He Is The Human Owl, Vigilant In Darkness And Blind To Light, Mousing For Vermin, And Never Seeing Noble Game.

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

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?

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!

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.

The Truest Self-respect Is Not To Think Of Self.

Nature Would Be Scarcely Worth A Puff Of The Empty Wind If It Were Not That All Nature Is But A Temple, Of Which God Is The Brightness And The Glory.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

He That Does Not Know How Wisely To Meddle With Public Affairs In Preaching The Gospel, Does Not Know How To Preach The Gospel.

Preaching The Gospel

You Have Seen A Ship Out On The Bay, Swinging With The Tide, And Seeming As If It Would Follow It; And Yet It Cannot, For Down Beneath The Water It Is Anchored. So Many A Soul Sways Toward Heaven, But Cannot Ascend Thither, Because It Is Anchored To Some Secret Sin.

No Man Is Such A Conqueror, As The One That Has Defeated Himself.

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

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.

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.

It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint, Gristle To Muscle, And Makes Men Invincible.

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.

There Is No Faculty Of The Human Soul So Persistent And Universal As That Of Hatred.

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

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.

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

Our Earthly Loves Are But So Many Silver Steps Leading Us Up To The Great Golden Love Of God.

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

Eternal Vigilance

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

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.

Where Human Life Needs Most Sympathy, Where Usually It Is The Most Barren, There It Is That Christ Is More Likely To Be Found Than Anywhere Else.

If You Have Only Two Or Three Things That You Can Enjoy And They Are Things Which Time And Decay May Remove From You, What Are You Going To Do In Old Age?

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

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.

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

Flowers Are The Sweetest Things God Ever Made And Forgot To Put A Soul Into.

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

Our Days Are A Kaleidoscope. Every Instant A Change Takes Place In The Contents. New Harmonies, New Contrasts, New Combinations Of Every Sort. Nothing Ever Happens Twice Alike. The Most Familiar People Stand Each Moment In Some New Relation To Each Other, To Their Work, To Surrounding Objects. The Most Tranquil House, With The Most Serene Inhabitants, Living Upon The Utmost Regularity Of System, Is Yet Exemplifying Infinite Diversities.

Nothing Can Be More Airy And Beautiful Than The Transparent Seed-globe-a Fairy Dome Of Splendid Architecture.

If We Would Have Anything Of Benefit, We Must Earn It, And Earning It Become Shrewd, Inventive, Ingenious, Active, Enterprising.

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

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.

Our Flag Means All That Our Fathers Meant In The Revolutionary War. It Means All That The Declaration Of Independence Meant. It Means Justice. It Means Liberty. It Means Happiness.... Every Color Means Liberty. Every Thread Means Liberty. Every Star And Stripe Means Liberty.

What A Pity Flowers Can Utter No Sound!-a Singing Rose, A Whispering Violet, A Murmuring Honeysuckle ... Oh, What A Rare And Exquisite Miracle Would These Be!

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

Our Best Successes Often Come After Our Greatest Disappointments.

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.

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

Love Is The World's River Of Life

It Is A Bitter Thought To An Avaricious Spirit That By And By All These Accumulations Must Be Left Behind. We Can Only Carry Away From This World The Flavor Of Our Good Or Evil Deeds.

Mirth Is God's Medicine.

If A Man Meets With Injustice, It Is Not Required That He Shall Not Be Roused To Meet It; But If He Is Angry After He Has Had Time To Think Upon It, That Is Sinful. The Flame Is Not Wrong, But The Coals Are.

I Don't Like These Cold, Precise, Perfect People, Who, In Order Not To Speak Wrong, Never Speak At All, And In Order Not To Do Wrong, Never Do Anything.

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

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.

The Clearest Window That Ever Was Fashioned If It Is Barred By Spiders' Webs, And Hung Over With Carcasses Of Insects, So That The Sunlight Has Forgotten To Find Its Way Through, Of What Use Can It Be? Now, The Church Is God's Window; And If It Is So Obscured By Errors That Its Light Is Darkness, How Great Is That Darkness!

A Library Is Not A Luxury But One Of The Necessities Of Life.

Life Is A Plant That Grows Out Of Death.

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.

Children Learn To Read By Being In The Presence Of Books. The Love Of Knowledge Comes With Reading And Grows Upon It. And The Love Of Knowledge, In A Young Mind, Is Almost A Warrant Against The Inferior Excitement Of Passions And Vices.

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

Some Men Are Like Pyramids, Which Are Very Broad Where They Touch The Ground, But Grow Narrow As They Reach The Sky.

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.

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.

Affliction Comes To The Believer Not To Make Him Sad, But Sober; Not To Make Him Sorry, But Wise. Even As The Plow Enriches The Field So That The Seed Is Multiplied A Thousandfold, So Affliction Should Magnify Our Joy And Increase Our Spiritual Harvest.

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

Ambition Is The Way In Which A Vulgar Man Aspires.

Children Are The Hands By Which We Take Hold Of Heaven. By These Tendrils We Clasp It And Climb Thitherward. And Why Do We Think That We Are Separated From Them? We Never Half Knew Them, Nor In This World Could.

No Man Can Tell Another His Faults So As To Benefit Him, Unless He Loves Him.

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

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

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

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

The Dog Was Created Specially For Children. He Is A God Of Frolic.

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

The Monkey Is An Organized Sarcasm Upon The Human Race.

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.

Good Nature Is Often A Mere Matter Of Health.

Books Are The Windows Through Which The Soul Looks Out.

Today Is A Goblet Day. The Whole Heavens Have Been Mingled With Exquisite Skill To A Delicious Flavor, And The Crystal Cup Put To Every Lip. Breathing Is Like Ethereal Drinking. It Is A Luxury Simply To Exist.

There Are Many Persons Of Combative Tendencies, Who Read For Ammunition, And Dig Out Of The Bible Iron For Balls. They Read, And They Find Nitre And Charcoal And Sulphur For Powder. They Read, And They Find Cannon. They Read, And They Make Portholes And Embrasures. And If A Man Does Not Believe As They Do, They Look Upon Him As An Enemy, And Let Fly The Bible At Him To Demolish Him. So Men Turn The Word Of God Into A Vast Arsenal, Filled With All Manner Of Weapons, Offensive And Defensive.

Where Is Human Nature So Weak As In The Bookstore?

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.

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.

Love Is God's Loaf; And This Is That Feeding For Which We Are Taught To Pray, "give Us This Day Our Daily Bread."

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

This World Is Magnificent For Strangers And Pilgrims, But Miserable For Residents.

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

Congratulations

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.

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

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.

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

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

The Continuance And Frequent Fits Of Anger Produce In The Soul A Propensity To Be Angry; Which Oftentimes Ends In Choler, Bitterness, And Moronity, When The Mid Becomes Ulcerated, Peevish, And Querulous, And Is Wounded By The Least Occurrence.

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!

Maple-trees Are The Cows Of Trees (spring-milked).

The Conditions Of City Life May Be Made Healthy, So Far As The Physical Constitution Is Concerned; But There Is Connected With The Business Of The City So Much Competition, So Much Rivalry, So Much Necessity For Industry, That I Think It Is A Perpetual, Chronic, Wholesale Violation Of Natural Law. There Are Ten Men That Can Succeed In The Country, Where There Is One That Can Succeed In The City.

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

You Cannot Play The Hypocrite Before God; And To Obtain Pardon You Must Cease To Sin, As Well As To Be Exercised By A Spirit Of Repentance.

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

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

Flattery Is Praise Insincerely Given For An Interested Purpose.

A Babe Is Nothing But A Bundle Of Possibilities.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

We Not Only Live Among Men, But There Are Airy Hosts, Blessed Spectators, Sympathetic Lookers-on, That See And Know And Appreciate Our Thoughts And Feelings And Acts.

Wherever You Have Seen God Pass, Mark That Spot, And Go And Sit In That Window Again.

A Man's Religion Is Himself. If He Is Right-minded Toward God, He Is Religious; If The Lord Jesus Christ Is His Schoolmaster, Then He Is Christianly Religious.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Men Think God Is Destroying Them Because He Is Tuning Them. The Violinist Screws Up The Key Till The Tense Cord Sounds The Concert Pitch; But It Is Not To Break It, But To Use It Tunefully, That He Stretches The String Upon The Musical Rack.

For Fidelity, Devotion, Love, Many A Two-legged Animal Is Below The Dog And The Horse. Happy Would It Be For Thousands Of People If They Could Stand At Last Before The Judgment Seat And Say, I Have Loved As Truly And Have Lived As Decently As My Dog, And Yet We Call Them Only Brutes.

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.

Debt Rolls A Man Over And Over, Binding Him Hand And Foot, And Letting Him Hang Upon The Fatal Mesh Until The Long-legged Interest Devours Him.

The Mystery Of History Is An Insoluble Problem.

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.

Riches Without Law Are More Dangerous Than Is Poverty Without Law

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

The Human Soul Is God's Treasury, Out Of Which He Coins Unspeakable Riches.

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.

All Men Are Tempted. There Is No Man That Lives That Can't Be Broken Down, Provided It Is The Right Temptation, Put In The Right Spot.

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

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

No Man Is Good For Anything Who Has Not Some Particle Of Obstinacy To Use Upon Occasion.

The Poor Man With Industry Is Happier Than The Rich Man In Idleness.

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.

The Methods By Which Men Have Met And Conquered Trouble, Or Been Slain By It, Are The Same In Every Age.

A Man That Is Afraid Is Never A Man.

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

The Newspaper Is A Greater Treasure To The People Than Uncounted Millions Of Gold.

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.

Defeat Is A School In Which Truth Always Grows Strong.

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

It Is The Very Wantonness Of Folly For A Man To Search Out The Frets And Burdens Of His Calling And Give His Mind Every Day To A Consideration Of Them. They Belong To Human Life. They Are Inevitable. Brooding Only Gives Them Strength.

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

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

Men Can Make An Idol Of The Bible.

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

All Things In The Natural World Symbolize God, Yet None Of Them Speak Of Him But In Broken And Imperfect Words. High Above All He Sits, Sublimer Than Mountains, Grander Than Storms, Sweeter Than Blossoms And Tender Fruits, Nobler Than Lords, Truer Than Parents, More Loving Than Lovers. His Feet Tread The Lowest Places Of The Earth; But His Head Is Above All Glory, And Everywhere He Is Supreme.

All Words Are Pegs To Hang Ideas On.

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.

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

Sink The Bible To The Bottom Of The Ocean, And Man's Obligations To God Would Be Unchanged. He Would Have The Same Path To Tread, Only His Lamp And His Guide Would Be Gone; He Would Have The Same Voyage To Make, But His Chart And Compass Would Be Overboard!

Suffering Is Part Of The Divine Idea.

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.

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.

I Would Rather Speak The Truth To Ten Men Than Blandishments And Lying To A Million. Try It, Ye Who Think There Is Nothing In It! Try What It Is To Speak With God Behind You, To Speak So As To Be Only The Arrow In The Bow Which The Almighty Draws.

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.

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

The Tidal Wave Of God's Providence Is Carrying Liberty Throughout The Globe.

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

There Is Not On Earth So Base A Knave As The Man Who Wins The Love Of A Woman When He Knows That He Cannot Or Ought Not To Requite It.

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

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.

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.

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Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Malcolm Bradbury

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