Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

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

Tolerance, openness to argument, openness to self-doubt, willingness to see other people's points of view - these are very liberal and enlightened values that people are right to hold, but we can't allow them to delude us to the point where we can't recognise people who are needlessly perpetrating human misery.

We're not perfect, but we want to do the right thing.

Make yourself an example, achieve it, but don't hurt anyone on the way up. I don't think I did that.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be.

We grow a little every time we do not take advantage of somebody's weakness.

A large capacity to tolerate atrocity does not imply an unlimited capacity.

After I asked him [a student] what he meant, he replied that freedom consisted of the unimpeded right to get rich, to use his ability, no matter what the cost to others, to win advancement. No decent society can tolerate that definition.

No one is too young to do the right thing.

My power for good, whatever it may, would be gone if I didn’t try to live up to the doctrines I have tried to preach.

They are playing politics at the expense of human misery.

I like to think I'm a good, kind person who does the right thing, but I don't ever feel sorry for someone who didn't get the part that I got. Not for one second.

The people of the United States are not morally fit to survive.

Being a decent human being will require effort and energy.

When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil, if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom today this poor people are plundered and exposed.

Don't you think people often say other people are tough when they do not know how to cheat them?

Don't look over your shoulder and don't use or abuse others to get ahead. Keep your eyes focused on your goals and keep working for what you believe in and what you want to accomplish.

The moment we begin tolerating meanness, in ourselves and others, we are using our authorial power in the service of wrongdoing. We have both the capacity and the obligation to do better.

Never expect, never presume, always work hard and always be true to who you are.

Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions-it means that you refuse to sell your talents and aspirations short.

Look what you can become in pursuit of what you want, and look out for what you become in the pursuit of what you want--don't compromise!

Throughout history government has served as a vehicle for the organization of hatred and oppression, benefiting no one except those who are ambitious and ruthless enough to gain control of it.

It was time to pull my moral socks up and behave myself.

Life itself was hard enough without monosynaptic sociopaths preying on folks.