Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

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

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Mirth is the sweet wine of human life. It should be offered sparkling with zestful life unto God.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Every charitable act is a stepping stone towards heaven.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

The ignorant classes are the dangerous classes.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

That is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

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.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Now comes the mystery.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

A church debt is the devil's salary.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

God appoints our graces to be nurses to other men's weaknesses.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

There is but one easy place in this world, and that is the grave.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

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

~ Henry Ward Beecher

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

~ Henry Ward Beecher

The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

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

~ Henry Ward Beecher

The world's battlefields have been in the heart chiefly; more heroism has been displayed in the household and the closet, than on the most memorable battlefields in history.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

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!

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Man is at the bottom an animal, midway, a citizen, and at the top, divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

He is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

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

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing dies so hard, or rallies so often as intolerance.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

A tool is but the extension of a man's hand, and a machine is but a complex tool. And he that invents a machine augments the power of a man and the well-being of mankind.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with
the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

~ Henry Ward Beecher