Quotes from beecher henry ward xi

Not to fear where there is occasion, is as great a weakness as to fear unduly, without reason.... Fear is a kind of bell, or gong, which rings the mind into quick life and avoidance upon the approach of danger.

Pain is God's midwife, that helps some virtue into existence.

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.

There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in this world--a kind of hedgehog forgiveness, shot out like quills.

Next to victory, there is nothing so sweet as defeat, if only the right adversary overcomes you.

Religion would save a man; Christ would make him worth saving.

Very few men acquire wealth in such a manner as to receive pleasure from it. Just as long as there is the enthusiasm of the chase they enjoy it; but when they begin to look around, and think of settling down, they find that that part by which joy enters is dead in them. They have spent their lives in heaping up colossal piles of treasure, which stand, at the end, like the pyramids in the desert sands, holding only the dust of kings.

A man can no more make money suddenly and largely, and be unharmed by it, than one could suddenly grow from a child's stature to a man's without harm.

When leisure is a selfish luxury, its very activity, when it stirs, is apt to be only a kind of indolence taking exercise, that it may the better digest its selfishness.

Nothing in this world requires such long seasoning and ripening as new thoughts.

There is an army of waiters in this world.

The advertisements in a newspaper are more full of knowledge in respect to what is going on in a state or community than the editorial columns are.

Hope is sweet-minded and sweet-eyed. It draws pictures; it weaves fancies; it fills the future with delight.

Suffering well borne is better than suffering removed.

Death is the dropping of the flower, that the fruit may swell.

The Divine Being brings comfort and consolation to men. He is a God for men that are weak, and want to be strong; for men that are impure, and want to be pure; for men that are unjust, and want to be just; for men that are unloving, and want to be loving; for men that aspire to all the greatness and glory of which the soul is capable.

That state of mind in which a man is impressed with invisible things is faith.