Henry Ward Beecher

A book is good company. It is full of conversation without loquacity. It comes to your longing with full instruction, but pursues you never.

A man that does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good.

Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.

The dog was created specially for children. He is a god of frolic.

Mirth is the sweet wine of human life. It should be offered sparkling with zestful life unto God.

Theology is a science of mind applied to God.

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

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.

There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.

God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas.

God appoints our graces to be nurses to other men's weaknesses.

The dog is the god of frolic.

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.

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.

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.

We are always on the anvil by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

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.

There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.

God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness.

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one.