Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

Volumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious.

We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side; one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.

The same church members who yell like Comanche Indians at a ball game on Saturday sit like wooden Indians in church on Sunday.

Do you call yourselves Christians? Does then the religion of Him whom you call your Savior inspire your spirit, and guide your practices? Surely not. It is recorded of him that a bruised reed he never broke. Cease, then, to call yourselves Christians, lest you declare to the world your hypocrisy. Cease, too, to call other nations savage, when you are tenfold more the children of cruelty than they.

The propriety of some persons seems to consist in having improper thoughts about their neighbors.

Some make a conscience of spitting in the Church, yet robbe the Altar.

Everyone knows what a hypocrite is. That's the guy who gripes about the sex, violence and nudity on his VCR.

You slam a politician, you make out he's the devil, with horns and hoofs. But his wife loves him, and so did all his mistresses.

I like the English. They have the most rigid code of immorality in the world.

Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant intervention elsewhere.

I don't want people to think I'm a hypocrite.

My judges preach against free love openly, practice it secretly.

No operas, plays, or concerts are allowed in London on Sundays, and even cards are so expressly forbidden that none but persons of quality, and those we call the genteel, play on that day; the rest of the nation go either to church, to the tavern, or to see their mistresses.

… moral 5 o’clock shadow

Men condemne the same things in others, which they approve in themselves; on the other side, they publickly commend what they privately condemne;

Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue.

Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.

Virtually all political discourse in the days of my youth was devoted to the ferreting out of hypocrisy... Because they were hypocrites, the Victorians were despised in the late twentieth century. Many of the persons who held such opinions were, of course, guilty of the most nefarious conduct themselves, and yet saw no paradox in holding such views because they were not hypocrites themselves-they took no moral stances and lived by none.

That's always the way with fanatics; they cross themselves at the tavern and throw stones at the temple.

A woman fallen has no future; a man risen has no past.

The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.

Some make Conscience of wearing a Hat in the Church, who make none of robbing the Altar.

It's the old American Double Standard, ya know: Say one thing, do somethin' different. And of course this country is founded on the double standard. That's our history. We were founded on a very basic double standard: This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.