BEECHER

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.

All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

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

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.

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

"I can forgive, but I cannot forget" is only another way of saying "I will not forgive." Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note--torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.

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

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

If a man has come to that point where he is so content that he says; I do not want to know any more, or do any more or be any more, he is in a state which he ought to be changed into a mummy.

Keep a fair-sized cemetery in your back yard,/ in which to bury the faults of your friends.

The Bible is God's chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars.

The strength of a man consists in finding out the way God is going, and going that way.

To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.

Whatever is only almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is the more likely to lead astray.

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?