Henry Ward Beecher

“The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.”

“Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty.”

“We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's.”

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

“To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.”

“To array a man's will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine.”

“If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost.”

“Success is full of promise till one gets it, and then it seems like a nest from which the bird has flown.”

“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.”

“‎Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.”

“The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.”

“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!”

“Of all escape mechanisms, death is the most efficient.”

“Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself.”

“Now comes the mystery.”

“All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot.”

“Laughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either.”

“No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today, mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it.”

“Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.”

“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.”