Quotes from Henry Ward Beecher

Victories that are cheap are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting.

I used to think the Lord's Prayer was a short prayer; but as I live longer, and see more of life, I begin to believe there is no such thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying that prayer, were to be stopped by every word until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take him a lifetime.

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.

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

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

Adversity, if for no other reason, is of benefit, since it is sure to bring a season of sober reflection. People see clearer at such times. Storms purify the atmosphere.

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?

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

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.

Heaven will be inherited by every man who has heaven in his soul.

He that would look with contempt on the pursuits of the farmer, is not worthy the name of a man.

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