Henry Ward Beecher

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs -- jolted by every pebble in the road. "

"A reputation for good judgment, for fair dealing, for truth, and for rectitude, is itself a fortune. "

"All words are pegs to hang ideas on. "

"Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. "

"Doctrine is nothing but the skin of truth set up and stuffed. "

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. "

"Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven. "

"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. "

"Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality. "

"Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength. "

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself. "

"I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love. "

"If a man cannot be a Christian in the place he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere. "

"It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage. "

"It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. "

"It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship. "

"It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has. "

"Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry. "

"Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart. "

"Our sweetest experiences of affection are meant to point us to that realm which is the real and endless home of the heart. "

"Repentance is another name for aspiration. "

"Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years. "

"Some people are so dry that you might soak them in a joke for a month and it would not get through their skins. "

"The dog was created especially for children. He is the God of frolic. "

"The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a but. "

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. "

"The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection. "

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

"To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice. "

"Troubles are often the tools God fashions us for better things. "

"We not only live among men, but there are airy hosts, blessed spectators, sympathetic lookers-on, that see and know and appreciate our thoughts and feelings and acts. "

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

"What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose. "

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore "

"You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are but you must approach each man by the right door. "