Hosea Ballou famous quotes

Tears of joy are like the summer rain drops pierced by sunbeams.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Inspirational #Summer #Rain

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Happiness #Happy #Real

Theories are always very thin and insubstantial, experience only is tangible.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Experience #Tangible #Theory

Honest and courageous people have very little to say about either their courage or their honesty.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Honesty #People #Littles

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

#Charity #Divinity #Divine

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

#Gratitude #Spring #Heart

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

#Biblical #Mountain #Energy

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

#Life #Godly #Practice

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

#Being Original #Pretension

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage....
-- Hosea Ballou

#Truth #Cowardice #Falsehood

If gratitude is due from children to their earthly parent, how much more is the gratitude of the great family of men due to our father in heaven.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Gratitude #Children #Father

Suspicion is far more to be wrong than right; more often unjust than just. It is no friend to virtue, and always an enemy to happiness.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Friendship #Happiness #Enemy

Hatred is self-punishment.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Self #Punishment #Justice

Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Disease #Illness #Retribution

The oppression of any people for opinion's sake has rarely had any other effect than to fix those opinions deeper, and render them more important.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Freedom #People #Important

Religion which requires persecution to sustain, it is of the devil's propagation.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Devil #Persecution

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Truth #Doubt #Curiosity

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

#Experience #Add

No one has a greater asset for his business than a man's pride in his work.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Business #Pride #Men

Most people who commit a sin count on some personal benefit to be derived therefrom, but profanity has not even this excuse.
-- Hosea Ballou

#People #Benefits #Sin

True repentance always involves reform.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Reform #Repentance

A careless and blasphemous use of the name of the Divine Being is not only sinful, but it is also prima facie evidence of vulgar associations.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Names #Use #Association

Moderation is the key to lasting enjoyment.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Keys #Moderation #Enjoyment

Prosperity seems to be scarcely safe, unless it be mixed with a little adversity.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Adversity #Safe #Littles

Prosperity often presages adversity.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Adversity #Prosperity

As "unkindness has no remedy at law," let its avoidance be with you a point of honor.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Law #Honor #Remedy

A chaste and lucid style is indicative of the same personal traits in the author.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Style #Chaste #Traits

Has not God borne with you these many years? Be ye tolerant to others.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Years #Tolerance

We must not only read the Scriptures, but we must make their rules of life our own.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Scripture #Rules Of Life

Obedience sums up our entire duty.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Obedience #Duty

Obedience, as it regards the social relations, the rules of society, and the laws of nature and nature's God, should commence at the cradle and end only at the tomb.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Law #Obedience #Social

Attempt to teach the young but little at a time; this will be easier to impart, easier to receive, and surer to be retained.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Teaching #Littles #Easier

Idleness is emptiness; the tree in which the sap is stagnant, remains fruitless.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Tree #Sap #Laziness

Hypocrisy is oftenest clothed in the garb of religion.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Hypocrisy

Liberality should be tempered with judgment, not with profuseness.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Judgment #Should

Reproof, especially as it relates to children, administered in all gentleness, will render the culprit not afraid, but ashamed to repeat the offence.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Children #Culprit #Ashamed

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

#Prayer #Humble #Generations

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

#Heart #Weather #Tears

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

#Sympathy #Reality #Imagination

Remember, when incited to slander, that it is only he among you who is without sin that may cast the first stone.
-- Hosea Ballou

#May #Stones #Firsts

There is no immunity from the consequences of sin; punishment is swift and sure to one and all.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Punishment #Sin #Consequences Of Sin

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

#Giving Up #Sacrifice #Add

None but the guilty know the withering pains of repentance.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Pain #Guilty #Repentance

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.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Children #Grief #Compassion

That kind of discipline whose pungent severity is in the manifestations of paternal love, compassion, and tenderness is the most sure of its object.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Compassion #Punishment #Discipline

Be circumspect in your dealings, and let the seed you plant be the offspring of prudence and care; thus fruit follows the fair blossom, as honor follows a good life.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Good Life #Honor #Care

There is no better rule to try a doctrine by than the question, Is it merciful, or is it unmerciful? If its character is that of mercy, it has the image of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Jesus #Character #Trying

As the sun's rays will irradiate even the murky pool, and make its stagnant waters to shine like silver, so doth God's goodness and tender mercy, towards the greatest sinner, and the blackest heart, make his own image visible there!
-- Hosea Ballou

#Heart #Water #Shining

The law of heaven is love.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Love #Law #Heaven

The eye is the inlet to the soul, and it is well to beware of him whose visual organs avoid your honest regard.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Eye #Soul #Honest

If we are at peace with God and our own conscience, what enemy among men need we fear?
-- Hosea Ballou

#Men #Enemy #Needs

Self-respect is the best of all.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Respect #Self #Self Respect

It is vain to trust in wrong; it is like erecting a building upon a frail foundation, and which will directly be sure to topple over.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Foundation #Building #Vain

A wise Providence consoles our present afflictions by joys borrowed from the future.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Wise #Joy #Affliction

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

#Example #Influence #Silent

Theory, from whatever source, is not perfect until it is reduced to practice.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Practice #Perfect #Source

Our blessings are the least heeded, because the most common events of life.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Blessing #Events #Common

A single bad habit will mar an otherwise faultless character, as an ink-drop soileth the pure white page.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Character #White #Ink

A good smile is the sunshine of wisdom.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Smile #Sunshine

How white are the fair robes of Charity as she walketh amid the lowly habitations of the poor!
-- Hosea Ballou

#White #Charity #Poor

True charity is spontaneous and finds its own occasion; it is never the offspring of importunity, nor of emulation.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Charity #Emulation #Spontaneous

Folly is like the growth of weeds, always luxurious and spontaneous; wisdom, like flowers, requires cultivation.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Weed #Wisdom #Flower

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.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Eye #Blessing #Reality

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Beautiful #Easy #Difficult

Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Blood #Relation #Exaggeration

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

#Facts #Tradition #Falsehood

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

#Done #Consciousness #Benevolent

Death comes to us, under many conditions, with all the welcome serenity of sleep.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Sleep #Serenity #Welcome

All our possessions are as nothing compared to health, strength, and a clear conscience.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Possession #Clear #Clear Conscience

If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Agreement #Unity #Spirit

The severest punishment suffered by a sensitive mind, for injury inflicted upon another, is the consciousness of having done it.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Punishment #Mind #Done

Experience is retrospect knowledge.
-- Hosea Ballou

#Experience #Retrospect