Top 500 Henry Ward Beecher Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 5 of 10

201. “A man’s character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

202. “Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

203. “Life is a plant that grows out of death.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

204. “The poor man with industry is happier than the rich man in idleness.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

205. “The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

206. “When there is love in the heart, there are rainbows in the eyes, which cover every black cloud with gorgeous hues.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

207. “I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

208. “Take all the robes of all the good judges that have ever lived on the face of the earth, and they would not be large enough to cover the iniquity of one corrupt judge.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

209. “In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

210. “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.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

211. “Love is the river of life in the world.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

212. “A church debt is the devil’s salary.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

213. “Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

214. “It is defeat that turns bone to flint, gristle to muscle, and makes men invincible.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

215. “Living is death; dying is life. We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citizens; on this side orphans, on that children;.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

216. “Home should be an oratorio of the memory, singing to all our after life melodies and harmonies of old-remembered joy.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

217. “Mirth is God’s medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

218. “There is no slave out of heaven like a loving woman; and of all loving women, there is no such slave as a mother.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

219. “The imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization. It is the very eye of faith.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

220. “The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

221. “Defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

222. “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.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

223. “Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others are plain, honest and upright, like the broad faced sunflower and the hollyhock.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

224. “A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it. The worst lies are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

225. “The church is no more religion than the masonry of the aqueduct is the water that flows through it.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

226. “Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

227. “Sorrow is Mount Sinai. If one will, one may go up and talk with God, face to face.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

228. “The pen is the tongue of the hand; a silent utterer of words for the eye.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

229. “A cunning man overreaches no one half as much as himself.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

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

— Henry Ward Beecher

231. “Love is not a possession but a growth. The heart is a lamp with just oil enough to burn for an hour, and if there be no oil to put in again its light will go out. God’s grace is the oil that fills the lamp of love.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

232. “Some people think black is the color of heaven, and that the more they can make their faces look like midnight, the more evidence they have of grace. But God, who made the sun and the flowers, never sent me to proclaim to you such a lie as that.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

233. “The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself. Religion is relative to the individual.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

234. “A book is a garden; A book is an orchard; A book is a storehouse; A book is a party. It is company by the way; it is a counselor; it is a multitude of counselors.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

235. “There is nothing which vanity does not desecrate.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

236. “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.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

237. “A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a mentor, a teacher, a guidepost, a counsellor.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

238. “The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

239. “A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad track-an inch between wreck and smooth-rolling prosperity.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

240. “A little library, growing every year, is an honorable part of a man’s history. It is a man’s duty to have books.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

241. “Evil men of every degree will use you, flatter you, lead you on until you are useless; then, if the virtuous do not pity you, or God compassionate, you are without a friend in the universe.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

242. “Whatever is almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is more likely to lead astray.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

243. “The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a But.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

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

— Henry Ward Beecher

245. “No man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

246. “It is trial that proves one thing weak and another strong. A house built on the sand is in fair weather just as good as if builded on a rock. A cobweb is as good as the mightiest cable when there is no strain upon it.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

247. “The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

248. “When our children die, we drop them into the unknown, shuddering with fear. We know that they go out from us, and we stand, and pity, and wonder.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

249. “Your greatest pleasure is that which rebounds from hearts that you have made glad.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

250. “Love is the medicine of all moral evil. By it the world is to be cured of sin.”

— Henry Ward Beecher