Hosea Ballou Quotes - Page 2

True sympathy is putting ourselves in another's place; and we are moved in proportion to the reality of our imagination.

It is in sickness that we most feel the need of that sympathy which shows how much we are dependent upon one another for our comfort, and even necessities. Thus disease, opening our eyes to the realities of life, is an indirect blessing.

It is my humble prayer that I may be of some use in my day and generation.

Faith, in order to be genuine and of any real value, must be the offspring of that divine love which Jesus manifested when He prayed for His enemies on the cross.

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.

The cloudy weather melts at length into beauty, and the brightest smiles of the heart are born of its tears.

The goodness of God to mankind is no less evinced in the chastisement with which He corrects His children than in the smiles of His providence; for the Lord will not cast off forever, but though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.

It is what we give up, not what we lay up, that adds to our lasting store.

The experience of others adds to our knowledge, but not to our wisdom; that is dearer bought.

Pretension almost always overdoes the original, and hence exposes itself.

Self-respect is the best of all.

The heavens and the earth, the woods and the wayside, teem with instruction and knowledge to the curious and thoughtful.

How quickly a truly benevolent act is repaid by the consciousness of having done it!

Envy may justly be called "the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity;" it is the most acid fruit that grows on the stock of sin, a fluid so subtle that nothing but the fire of divine love can purge it from the soul.

Preaching is to much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer the skeptic.

No reproof or denunciation is so potent as the silent influence of a good example.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul; and the heart of man knoweth none more fragrant.

Man, being not only a religious, but also a social being, requires for the promotion of his rational happiness religious institutions, which, while they give a proper direction to devotion, at the same time make a wise and profitable improvement of his social feelings.

If our Creator has so bountifully provided for our existence here, which is but momentary, and for our temporal wants, which will soon be forgotten, how much more must He have done for our enjoyment in the everlasting world?

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

Energy, like the biblical grain of the mustard-seed, will remove mountains.

It is the goodly outside that sin puts on which tempteth to destruction. It has been said that sin is like the bee, with honey in its mouth, but a sting in its tail.

Not the least misfortune in a prominent falsehood is the fact that tradition is apt to repeat it for truth.

None but the guilty know the withering pains of repentance.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.