Quotes from beecher henry ward viii

A man never has good luck who has a bad wife.

Life is a plant that grows out of death.

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.

It usually takes a hundred years to make a law, and then, after it has done its work, it usually takes a hundred years to get rid of it.

There is in youth a purity of character which, when once touched and defiled, can never be restored; a fringe more delicate than frost-work, and which, when torn and broken, can never be re-embroidered.

There are crimes that, like frost on flowers, in one single night destroy character and reputation.

Woman began at zero, and has through ages slowly unfolded and risen. Each age has protested against growth as unsexing woman.

The mind has no kitchen to do its dirty work in while the parlor remains clean.

Our earthly loves are but so many silver steps leading us up to the great golden love of God.

Sorrows bring us closer to God than joys.

Some sins, like asps, always carry their sting with them.

Our virtues are like crystals hidden in rocks. No man shall find them by any soft ways, but by the hammer and by fire.

A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it, else the hand would cut itself which sought to drive it home upon another. The worst lies, therefore, are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.

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.

Men's graces must get the better of their faults as a farmer's crops do of the weeds--by growth. When the corn is low, the farmer uses the plough to root up the weeds; but when it is high, and shakes its palm-like leaves in the wind, he says, "Let the corn take care of them," for the dense shadow of growing corn is as fatal to weeds as the edge of the sickle.

The soul is often hungrier than the body, and no shops can sell it food.

A week filled up with selfishness, and the Sabbath stuffed full of religious exercises, will make a good Pharisee, but a poor Christian. There are many persons who think Sunday is a sponge with which to wipe out the sins of the week. Now, God's altar stands from Sunday to Sunday, and the seventh day is no more for religion than any other. It is for rest. The whole seven are for religion, and one of them for rest.

Amid the discords of this life, it is blessed to think of heaven, where God draws after him an everlasting train of music; for all thoughts are harmonious and all feelings vocal, and so there is round about his feet eternal melody.

The mischiefs of anarchy have been equaled by the mischiefs of government.