Quotes by Social Reformers - Page 2

It is a man's duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries in life.
Henry Ward Beecher
The unique personality which is the real life in me, I can not gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others. I am myself spiritually dead unless I reach out to the fine quality dormant in others. For it is only with the god enthroned in the innermost shrine of the other, that the god hidden in me, will consent to appear.
Felix Adler
Man is at the bottom an animal midway a citizen and at the top divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top.
Henry Ward Beecher
Our days are a kaleidoscope. Every instant a change takes place. ... New harmonies new contrasts new combinations of every sort. ... The most familiar people stand each moment in some new relation to each other to their work to surrounding objects.
Henry Ward Beecher
Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence.
B.R. Ambedkar
A safe army is better than a safe border
B.R. Ambedkar
I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation and there must be a vent.
Henry Ward Beecher
Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless struggle.... Goats are used for sacrificial offerings and not lions.
B.R. Ambedkar
Doctrine is nothing but the skin of truth set up and stuffed.
Henry Ward Beecher
If you ask me, my ideal would be the society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. An ideal society should be mobile and full of channels of conveying a change taking place in one part to other parts.
B.R. Ambedkar
Why does a human body become deceased?The reason is that as long as the human body is not free from suffering, mind cannot be happy. If a man lacks enthusiasm, either his body or mind is in a deceased condition.... Now what saps the enthusiasm in man? If there is no enthusiasm, life becomes drudgery - a mere burden to be dragged. Nothing can be achieved if there is no enthusiasm. The main reason for this lack of enthusiasm on the part of a man is that an individual looses the hope of getting an opportunity to elevate himself. Hopelessness leads to lack of enthusiasm. The mind in such cases becomes deceased.... When is enthusiasm created? When one breaths an atmosphere where one is sure of getting the legitimate reward for one's labor, only then one feels enriched by enthusiasm and inspiration.
B.R. Ambedkar
Once more, my harp! once more, although I thoughtNever to wake thy silent strings again,A wandering dream thy gentle chords have wrought,And my sad heart, which long hath dwelt in pain,Soars, like a wild bird from a cypress bough,Into the poet's Heaven, and leaves dull grief below
Caroline Norton
They serve God well Who serve his creatures.
Caroline Norton
Oh, God! That bread should be so dear, And flesh and blood so cheap!
Jacob A. Riis
The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies but the thankful heart... will find in every hour some heavenly blessings.
Henry Ward Beecher
One cannot have any respect or regard for men who take the position of the reformer and then refuse to see the logical consequences of that position, let alone following them out in action.
B.R. Ambedkar
A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society.
B.R. Ambedkar
A book is good company. It is full of conversation without loquacity. It comes to your longing with full instruction, but pursues you never.
Henry Ward Beecher
Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two and I know it was not the last blow that did it but all that had gone before.
Jacob A. Riis
In the Hindu religion, one can[not] have freedom of speech. A Hindu must surrender his freedom of speech. He must act according to the Vedas. If the Vedas do not support the actions, instructions must be sought from the Smritis, and if the Smritis fail to provide any such instructions, he must follow in the footsteps of the great men. He is not supposed to reason. Hence, so long as you are in the Hindu religion, you cannot expect to have freedom of thought
B.R. Ambedkar
For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights.
B.R. Ambedkar
It is not what a man gets, But what a man is,That he should think of.He should first think of his character,And then of his condition.He that has character need have no fear of his condition.Character will draw condition after it.
H.W. Beecher (1813-1887)
What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.
Henry Ward Beecher
Indifferentism is the worst kind of disease that can affect people.
B.R. Ambedkar
Though, I was born a Hindu, I solemnly assure you that I will not die as a Hindu
B.R. Ambedkar
The meanest most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man and then qualifies it with a 'but'.
Henry Ward Beecher
Interest works night and day in fair weather and in foul. It gnaws at a man's substance with invisible teeth.
Henry Ward Beecher
The use of tobacco is one of the most evident of all the retrograde influences of our time. It invades all classes, destroys social life, and is turning, in the words of Mantegazza, the whole of Europe into a cigar divan.
Charles R. Drysdale
Any man can work when every stroke of his hands brings down the fruit rattling from the tree ... but to labor in season and out of season under every discouragement... that requires a heroism which is transcendent.
Henry Ward Beecher
If I find the constitution being misused, I shall be the first to burn it.
B.R. Ambedkar
Atheism deprives superstition of its stand ground, and compels Theism to reason for its existence.
George Holyoake
A bitter thing cannot be made sweet. The taste of anything can be changed. But poison cannot be changed into nectar.
B.R. Ambedkar
Ones best success comes after their greatest disappointments.
Henry Ward Beecher
The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of
Charles Henry Parkhurst
Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.
Henry Ward Beecher
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
Henry Ward Beecher
A tool is but the extension of a man's hand and a machine is but a complex tool. He that invents a machine augments the power of a man and the well being of mankind.
Henry Ward Beecher
The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.
Henry Ward Beecher
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.
Henry Ward Beecher
Faith is spiritualized imagination.
Henry Ward Beecher
A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.
Henry Ward Beecher
Prayer covers the whole of man's life. There is no thought feeling yearning or desire however low trifling or vulgar we may deem it which if it affects our real interest or happiness we may not lay before God and be sure of sympathy. His nature is such that our often coming does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole life of every man may be rolled on to God and not weary him though it has wearied man.
Henry Ward Beecher
Mirthfulness is in the mind and you cannot get it out. It is just as good in its place as conscience or veneration.
Henry Ward Beecher
God pardons like a mother who kisses the offense into everlasting forgetfulness.
Henry Ward Beecher
Do not look back on happiness or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today do not let yourself be cheated out of it.
Henry Ward Beecher
Now comes the mystery! (last words)
Henry Ward Beecher
Adversity, if for no other reason, is of benefit, since it is sure to bring a season of sober reflection. People see clearer at such times. Storms purify the atmosphere.
Henry Ward Beecher
None love to speak so much when the mood of speaking comes as they who are naturally taciturn.
Henry Ward Beecher
The dog is the god of frolic.
Henry Ward Beecher
Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry.
Henry Ward Beecher
Slavery does not merely mean a legalised form of subjection. It means a state of society in which some men are forced to accept from others the purposes which control their conduct.
B.R. Ambedkar
Purpose is what gives life a meaning.
C. H. Parkhurst
A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs jolted by every pebble in the road.
Henry Ward Beecher
Victories that are cheap are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting.
Henry Ward Beecher
Failure is a school in which the truth always grows strong.
Henry Ward Beecher
What is dying?I am standing on the seashore.A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.She is an object and I stand watching herTill at last she fades from the horizon,And someone at my side says, “She is gone!” Gone where?Gone from my sight, that is all;She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is gone”,There are others who are watching her coming,And other voices take up a glad shout,“There she comes” – and that is dying.
Charles Henry Brent
The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.
Henry Ward Beecher
I feel virtuous because my soul is at ease.
Frances Wright
It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk.
Henry Ward Beecher
No man is more cheated than the selfish man.
Henry Ward Beecher