Henry Ward Beecher

Books are not men, and yet they stay alive.

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

Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one.

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

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

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

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

Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.

The most dangerous people are the ignorant.

Faith is spiritualized imagination.

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

The dog is the god of frolic.

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.

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

A church debt is the devil's salary.

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.

The ignorant classes are the dangerous classes.

'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.

Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child.

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