Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Henry Ward Beecher

American Clergyman, Editor, Writer

"Morality is character and conduct such as is required by the circle or community in which the man’s life happens to be passed. It shows how much good men require of us."

"Love it is – not conscience – that is God’s regent in the human soul, because it can govern the soul as nothing else can."

"Remember God’s bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!"

"The most miserable pettifogging in the world is that of a man in the court of his own conscience."

"The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next."

"The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom."

"The prouder man is, the more he thinks he deserves; and the more he thinks he deserves, the less he really does deserve."

"The art of being happy is the power of extracting happiness from common things."

"The soul is a temple; and God is silently building it, by night and by day. Precious thoughts are building it; disinterested love is building it; all-penetrating faith is building it."

"There is no such thing as preaching patience into people, unless the sermon is so long that they have to practice it while they hear."

"The worst thing in the world, next to anarchy, is government."

"The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigor to our moral nature."

"What unnumbered cathedrals has God reared in the forest shades, vast and grand, full of curious carvings, and haunted evermore by tremulous music!"

"Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. "

"A success is one who decided to succeed - and worked. A failure is one who decided to succeed - and wished. A decided failure is one who failed to decide - and waited. "

"Four steps to achievement: plan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively, pursue persistently."