Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it.

A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and precepts of morality.

Although all the good arts serve to draw man's mind away from vices and lead it toward better things, this function can be more fully performed by this art, which also provides extraordinary intellectual pleasure.

Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and improved.

If you want young people to take right and wrong seriously, you must put them in the presence of people who take right and wrong seriously.

Well-read people are less likely to be evil.

We need to add to the three R's, namely Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic, a fourth--- RESPONSIBILITY.

He liked the mere act of reading, the magic of turning scratches on a page into words inside his head.

In a well-written book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such companions without attaining some resemblance to them.

The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give the example of, a virtuous life.

To amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as he ought to be.

The characteristic feature of all ethics is to consider human life as a game that can be won or lost and to teach man the means of winning.

Reading is very good. And you can quote me!

Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lender's books, and defy the foul fiend.

Men become builders by building and lyreplayers by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

I think one of the reasons I'm so thrilled with writing is because it is an act of reading for me at the same time, which is why my revisions are so sustained.

Books never pall on me. They discourse with us, they take counsel with us, and are united to us by a certain living chatty familiarity. And not only does each book inspire the sense that it belongs to its readers, but it also suggests the name of others, and one begets the desire of the other.

... what we can be positive about is what we have just said, namely that they must be given the right education, whatever that may be, as the surest way to make them behave humanely to each other and the subjects in their charge.

The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease & intimacy with the process of writing... It also offers you a constantly growing knowledge of what has been done and what hasn't, what is trite and what is fresh, what works and what lies there dying (or dead) on the page. The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.

A man may carry the whole scheme of Christian truth in his mind from boyhood to old age without the slightest effect upon his character and aims. It has had less influence than the multiplication table.

The future success of our nation depends on our ability to understand the difference between right and wrong and to have the strength of character to make the right choices.

Reading is the basic springboard for learning. And books provide the liftoff. They are the great equalizer, opening up new worlds to everyone.

One of the best ways to elevate your character is to emulate worthy role models

Reading ... changes you. You aren't the same person after you've read a particular book as you were before, and you will read the next book, unless both are Harlequin Romances, in a slightly different way.

Since the branch of philosophy on which we are at present engaged differs from the others in not being a subject of merely intellectual interest — I mean we are not concerned to know what goodness essentially is, but how we are to become good men, for this alone gives the study its practical value — we must apply our minds to the solution of the problems of conduct.