HENRY WARD BEECHER

We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.

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

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

Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child.

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

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

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.

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.

Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude.

Clothes and manners do not make the man; but, when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.

The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success.

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.

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

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

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

Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.

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

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

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

Love cannot endure indifference. It needs to be wanted. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another's heart, or its flame burns low.

There are three schoolmasters for everybody that will employ them - the senses, intelligent companions, and books.

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

In this world, full often, our joys are only the tender shadows which our sorrows cast.

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.