Henry Ward Beecher...

Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of Lyman Beecher, a prominent Congregational minister and educator. His sister was Harriet Beecher (Stowe), author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Beecher graduated from Amherst College in 1834 and studied at Lane Theological Seminary where his father was serving as president. In 1837 he was called to a Presbyterian ministry at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and began to develop his extraordinary preaching techniques. From 1839 to 1847 he ministered in Indianapolis.

In 1854 Beecher and his congregation were strongly opposed to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He raised funds to buy weapons for those willing to oppose slavery in Kansas and Nebraska and the rifles bought with this money became know as "Beecher's Bibles."

Here are just a few of the many quotes attributed to him.

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
Henry Ward Beecher

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

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.
Henry Ward Beecher

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.
Henry Ward Beecher

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.
Henry Ward Beecher

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

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

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up that makes us rich.
Henry Ward Beecher

Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart.
Henry Ward Beecher

Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.
Henry Ward Beecher

Suffering is part of the divine plan.
Henry Ward Beecher

Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.
Henry Ward Beecher

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

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.
Henry Ward Beecher

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.
Henry Ward Beecher

The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.
Henry Ward Beecher

The test of Christian character should be that a man is a joy-bearing agent to the world.
Henry Ward Beecher

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

Theology is a science of mind applied to God.
Henry Ward Beecher

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
Henry Ward Beecher

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

You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.
Henry Ward Beecher