Henry Ward Beecher quotes

“A church debt is the devil's salary.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Success is full of promise till one gets it, and then it seems like a nest from which the bird has flown.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Clothes and manners do not make the man; but, when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Love is the river of life in the world.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“The humblest individual exerts some influence, either for good or evil, upon others.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“The moment an ill can be patiently handled, it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“When a nation's young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“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.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“No man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“The dog was created specially for children. He is a god of frolic.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Theology is a science of mind applied to God.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“There is no faculty of the human soul so persistent and universal as that of hatred.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“What a mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Heaven will be inherited by every man who has heaven in his soul.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

“It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.”

— Henry Ward Beecher