"What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away."

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More quotes from: Henry Ward Beecher

• "A book is good company. It is full of conversation without loquacity. It comes to ..."
• "A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for ..."
• "A church debt is the devil's salary. "
• "A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed ..."
• "A man's true state of power and riches is to be in himself. "
• "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted ..."
• "A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as ..."
• "All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of ..."
• "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on ..."
• "Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child. "
• "Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes ..."
• "Books are not men and yet they stay alive. "
• "Education is the knowledge of how to use the whole of oneself. Many men use ..."
• "Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into ..."
• "Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven. "
• "Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his ..."
• "Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of ..."
• "Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the ..."
• "Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages. "
• "Faith is spiritualized imagination. "
• "Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into. "
• "Gambling with cards or dice or stocks is all one thing. It's getting money without ..."
• "God appoints our graces to be nurses to other men's weaknesses. "
• "God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any ..."
• "Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the ..."
• "Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. "
• "Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength ..."
• "He is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his ..."
• "He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he ..."
• "Heaven will be inherited by every man who has heaven in his soul. "
• "Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself. "
• "I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will ..."
• "I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest ..."
• "I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love. "
• "I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There ..."
• "If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot ..."
• "In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, ..."

• "In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows ..."
• "It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the ..."
• "It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk. "
• "It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us ..."
• "It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. ..."
• "It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what ..."
• "It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much ..."
• "It's not the work which kills people, it's the worry. It's not the revolution that ..."
• "Laugh at your friends, and if your friends are sore; So much the better, you ..."
• "Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending ..."
• "Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to ..."
• "Mirth is the sweet wine of human life. It should be offered sparkling with zestful ..."
• "Never forget what a person says to you when they are angry. "
• "Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude. "
• "No man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions. "
• "No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today, mix good cheer ..."
• "Now comes the mystery. "
• "Of all escape mechanisms, death is the most efficient. "
• "Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a ..."
• "Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments. "
• "Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally ..."
• "Pushing any truth out very far, you are met by a counter-truth. "
• "Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of ..."
• "Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life. "
• "Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one ..."
• "Success is full of promise till one gets it, and then it seems like a ..."
• "Suffering is part of the divine idea. "
• "Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven. "
• "The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success. "
• "The advertisements in a newspaper are more full knowledge in respect to what is going ..."
• "The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. "
• "The babe at first feeds upon the mother's bosom, but it is always on her ..."
• "The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school ..."
• "The continuance and frequent fits of anger produce in the soul a propensity to be ..."
• "The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man and never ..."
• "The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and ..."

• "The dog is the god of frolic. "
• "The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences. "
• "The ignorant classes are the dangerous classes. "
• "The moment an ill can be patiently handled, it is disarmed of its poison, though ..."
• "The most dangerous people are the ignorant. "
• "The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. "
• "The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. "
• "The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level ..."
• "The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never excuses himself. "
• "The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope. "
• "The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide ..."
• "The test of Christian character should be that a man is a joy-bearing agent to ..."
• "The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be ..."
• "The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day ..."
• "The world's battlefields have been in the heart chiefly; more heroism has been displayed in ..."
• "The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government. "
• "Theology is a science of mind applied to God. "
• "There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come ..."
• "There are three schoolmasters for everybody that will employ them - the senses, intelligent companions, ..."
• "There is no faculty of the human soul so persistent and universal as that of ..."
• "There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child. "
• "To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine. "
• "To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, ..."
• "To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself. "
• "We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things. "
• "We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves. "
• "We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they ..."
• "We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's. "
• "Well married a person has wings, poorly married shackles. "
• "When a nation's young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung. "
• "Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore? "
• "You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we ..."
• "You cannot sift out the poor from the community. The poor are indispensable to the ..."
• "You have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in ..."
• "Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only ..."