Hosea Ballou Quotations

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

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

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.

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

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

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.

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

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

Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character.

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.

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

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

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction....

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

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

There is no such things as 'best' in the world of individuals.

Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.

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

Doubt is an incentive to truth, and patient inquiry leadeth the way.

Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character

Embark on no enterprise which you cannot submit to the test of prayer.

Liberality should be tempered with judgment, not with profuseness.

With regard to manner, be careful to speak in a soft, tender, kind and loving way. Even when you have occasion to rebuke, be careful to do it with manifest kindness. The effect will be incalculably better.

Lay silently the injuries you receive upon the altar of oblivion.

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

It is the nature of intellect to strive to improve in intellectual power.

Ministers who threaten death and destruction employ weapons of weakness. Argument and kindness are alone effectual, flavored by the principles of Divine love.

Lenity has almost always wisdom and justice on its side.

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.

Few things in this world more trouble people than poverty, or the fear of poverty; and, indeed, it is a sore affliction; but, like all other ills that flesh is heir to, it has its antidote, its reliable remedy. The judicious application of industry, prudence and temperance is a certain cure.

It is a glorious occupation, vivifying and self-sustaining in its nature, to struggle with ignorance, and discover to the inquiring minds of the masses the clear cerulean blue of heavenly truth.

Some clergymen make a motto, instead of a theme, of their texts.

How can there be pride in a contrite heart? Humility is the earliest fruit of religion.

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

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.

There is no possible excuse for a guarded lie. Enthusiastic and impulsive people will sometimes falsify thoughtlessly, but equivocation is malice prepense.

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.

There is one court whose findings are incontrovertible, and whose sessions are held in the chambers of our own breast.

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

Between the humble and contrite heart and the majesty of Heaven there are no barriers; the only password is prayer.

Humanity , in the aggregate, is progressing, and philanthropy looks forward hopefully.

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?

It is better to be the builder of our own name than to be indebted by descent for the proudest gifts known to the books of heraldry.

To talk of luck and chance only shows how little we really know of the laws which govern cause and effect.

A mother's love, in a degree, sanctifies the most worthless offspring.

Be more careful of your conscience than of your estate. The latter can be bought and sold; the former never.

I have somewhere read that conscience not only sits as witness and judge within our bosoms, but also forms the prison of punishment.

No outward change need trouble him who is inwardly serene.

Duty itself is supreme delight when love is the inducement and labor. By such a principle the ignorant are enlightened, the hard-hearted softened, the disobedient reformed, and the faithful encouraged.

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

Prosperity is very liable to bring pride among the other goods with which it endows an individual; it is then that prosperity costs too dear.

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

A good smile is the sunshine of wisdom.

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

Servility is disgusting to a truly noble character, and engenders only contempt.

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

O sin, how you paint your face! how you flatter us poor mortals on to death! You never appear to the sinner in your true character; you make fair promises, but you never fulfil one; your tongue is smoother than oil, but the poison of asps is under your lip!

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

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

Moderation is the key to lasting enjoyment.

It is but a step from companionship to slavery when one associates with vice.

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

Hatred is self-punishment. Hatred it the coward's revenge for being intimidated.

Experience is retrospect knowledge.

Purity in person and in morals is true godliness.

You cannot judge by outward appearances; the soul is only transparent to its Maker.

Rage is mental imbecility.

That alone can be called true refinement which elevates the soul of man, purifying the manners by improving the intellect.

A true religious instinct never deprived man of one single joy; mournful faces and a sombre aspect are the conventional affectations of the weak-minded.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The eye is inlet to the soul.

There is one sure criterion of judgment as to religious faith in doctrinal matters; can you reduce it to practice? If not, have none of it.

Doubt that creed which you cannot reduce to practice.

Too many people embrace religion from the same motives that they take a companion in wedlock, not from true love of the person, but because of a large dowry.

There is no such thing as "best" in the world of individuals.

It is very questionable, in my mind, how far we have the right to judge one of another, since there is born within every man the germs of both virtue and vice. The development of one or the other is contingent upon circumstances.

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

The act of divine worship is the inestimable privilege of man, the only created being who bows in humility and adoration.

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

There is no doubt that religious fanatics have done more to prejudice the cause they affect to advocate than have its opponents.

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.

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

The law of heaven is love.

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!

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.

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.

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.

None but the guilty know the withering pains of repentance.

True repentance also involves reform.

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

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.

Of all the ingenious mistakes into which erring man has fallen, perhaps none have been so pernicious in their consequences, or have brought so many evils into the world, as the popular opinion that the way of the transgressor is pleasant and easy.

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