“We expect old men to be conservative, but when a nation's young men are so, its funeral bell is already rung.”

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?”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“The instructions of an old man are precious.”

“Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.”

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.”

“I call upon you, young men, to obey your heart, and be the nobility of this land.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”