Henry Ward Beecher

The monkey is an organized sarcasm upon the human race.
– Henry Ward Beecher

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.
– Henry Ward Beecher

Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry.
– Henry Ward Beecher

We never know the love of the parent until we become parents ourselves.
– Henry Ward Beecher

It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.
– Henry Ward Beecher

I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and
strictly honest who complained of bad luck.
– Henry Ward Beecher

A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.
– Henry Ward Beecher

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone expects of you. Never excuse
yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everyone else.
– 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

There is no friendship, no love, like that of the mother for the child.
– Henry Ward Beecher

‘I can forgive, but I cannot forget,” is only another way of saying, ”I cannot forgive.”
– Henry Ward Beecher

Rain! Whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of
grandeur the very mountains.
– Henry Ward Beecher

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a
man than he can bear. Worry is the rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution which
destroys the machinery but the friction. Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are
sweet juices.
– Henry Ward Beecher

What a mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
– Henry Ward Beecher

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.
– Henry Ward Beecher

No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy the sunlight today, mix good cheer
with friends today, enjoy it and bless God for it. Do not look back on happiness – or dream of
it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not let yourself be cheated out of it.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.
– 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

The worst thing in the world next to anarchy, is government.
– Henry Ward Beecher

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have
traveled from the point where they started.
– Henry Ward Beecher

No man is such a conqueror, as the one that has defeated himself.
– Henry Ward Beecher

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up
one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but
on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and
take no interest in the things that were and are past.
– Henry Ward Beecher

To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary; nature,
study and practice.
– Henry Ward Beecher

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.
– Henry Ward Beecher

It’s easier to go down a hill than up but the view is much better at the top.
– Henry Ward Beecher

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.
– Henry Ward Beecher

A forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note, torn in two and burned up, so that it can
never be shown against the man.
– Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing dies so hard, or rallies so often, as intolerance.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The dog is the god of frolic.
– Henry Ward Beecher

If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his
personality, makes him landlord to a ghost.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The ignorant classes are the dangerous classes.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and
to show you where the harbor is and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars.
– Henry Ward Beecher

All words are pegs to hang ideas on.
– Henry Ward Beecher

To array a man’s will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine.
– Henry Ward Beecher

He who hunts for flowers will find flowers; and he who loves weeds will find weeds.
– Henry Ward Beecher

There are more quarrels smothered by just shutting your mouth, and holding it shut, than
by all the wisdom in the world.
– Henry Ward Beecher

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble
in the road.
– Henry Ward Beecher

When a nation’s young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.
– Henry Ward Beecher

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

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor,
a multitude of counselors.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The indolent mind is not empty, but full of vermin.
– Henry Ward Beecher

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. One must take it. The
only choice is how.
– Henry Ward Beecher