“He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.”

— Henry Ward Beecher, Lectures to Young Men (1844)

About Henry Ward Beecher

1813 – 1887

American clergyman and social reformer.

“Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.”

“He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.”

“Where is human nature so weak as in a book store?”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”