Hosea Ballou quotes:

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Tears of joy are like the summer rain drops pierced by sunbeams.
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.
Preaching is to much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer the skeptic.
Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character.
Theories are always very thin and insubstantial, experience only is tangible.
Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.
Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable.
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.
No one has a greater asset for his business than a man's pride in his work.
Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.
Energy, like the biblical grain of the mustard-seed, will remove mountains.
Hatred is self-punishment. Hatred it the coward's revenge for being intimidated.
Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.
Pretension almost always overdoes the original, and hence exposes itself.
Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage....
Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.
A single bad habit will mar an otherwise faultless character, as an ink-drop soileth the pure white page.
Hatred is self-punishment.
Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction....
There is no doubt that religious fanatics have done more to prejudice the cause they affect to advocate than have its opponents.
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.
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.
The act of divine worship is the inestimable privilege of man, the only created being who bows in humility and adoration.
How quickly a truly benevolent act is repaid by the consciousness of having done it!
There is no immunity from the consequences of sin; punishment is swift and sure to one and all.
Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.
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.
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.
The heavens and the earth, the woods and the wayside, teem with instruction and knowledge to the curious and thoughtful.
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.
Mystery and innocence are not akin.
Servility is disgusting to a truly noble character, and engenders only contempt.
Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.
Religion which requires persecution to sustain, it is of the devil's propagation.
Most people who commit a sin count on some personal benefit to be derived therefrom, but profanity has not even this excuse.
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.
Rage is mental imbecility.
Obedience and resignation are our personal offerings upon the altar of duty.
We must not only read the Scriptures, but we must make their rules of life our own.
Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage
Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature
Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine
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!
A chaste and lucid style is indicative of the same personal traits in the author.
There is nothing that needs to be said in an unkind manner.
As "unkindness has no remedy at law," let its avoidance be with you a point of honor.
It is my humble prayer that I may be of some use in my day and generation.
It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.
Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.
Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.
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.
A mother's love, in a degree, sanctifies the most worthless offspring.
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.
A wise Providence consoles our present afflictions by joys borrowed from the future.
All our possessions are as nothing compared to health, strength, and a clear conscience.
Attempt to teach the young but little at a time; this will be easier to impart, easier to receive, and surer to be retained.
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.
Be more careful of your conscience than of your estate. The latter can be bought and sold; the former never.
Between the humble and contrite heart and the majesty of Heaven there are no barriers; the only password is prayer.
Death comes to us, under many conditions, with all the welcome serenity of sleep.
Doubt that creed which you cannot reduce to practice.
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.
Embark on no enterprise which you cannot submit to the test of prayer.
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.
Error is always more busy than truth.
Experience is retrospect knowledge.
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.
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.
Folly is like the growth of weeds, always luxurious and spontaneous; wisdom, like flowers, requires cultivation.
Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul; and the heart of man knoweth none more fragrant.
Has not God borne with you these many years? Be ye tolerant to others.
Honest and courageous people have very little to say about either their courage or their honesty.
How can there be pride in a contrite heart? Humility is the earliest fruit of religion.
How white are the fair robes of Charity as she walketh amid the lowly habitations of the poor!
Humanity , in the aggregate, is progressing, and philanthropy looks forward hopefully.
Hypocrisy is oftenest clothed in the garb of religion.
I have somewhere read that conscience not only sits as witness and judge within our bosoms, but also forms the prison of punishment.
Idleness is emptiness; the tree in which the sap is stagnant, remains fruitless.
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?
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.
If we are at peace with God and our own conscience, what enemy among men need we fear?
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.
It is but a step from companionship to slavery when one associates with vice.
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.
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.
It is the nature of intellect to strive to improve in intellectual power.
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.
It is what we give up, not what we lay up, that adds to our lasting store.
Lay silently the injuries you receive upon the altar of oblivion.
Lenity has almost always wisdom and justice on its side.
Liberality should be tempered with judgment, not with profuseness.
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.
Ministers who threaten death and destruction employ weapons of weakness. Argument and kindness are alone effectual, flavored by the principles of Divine love.
Moderation is the key to lasting enjoyment.
No outward change need trouble him who is inwardly serene.
No reproof or denunciation is so potent as the silent influence of a good example.
None but the guilty know the withering pains of repentance.
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!
Obedience sums up our entire duty.
Our blessings are the least heeded, because the most common events of life.
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.
Prosperity often presages adversity.
Prosperity seems to be scarcely safe, unless it be mixed with a little adversity.
Purity in person and in morals is true godliness.
Remember, when incited to slander, that it is only he among you who is without sin that may cast the first stone.
Reproof, especially as it relates to children, administered in all gentleness, will render the culprit not afraid, but ashamed to repeat the offence.
Self-respect is the best of all.
Some clergymen make a motto, instead of a theme, of their texts.
That alone can be called true refinement which elevates the soul of man, purifying the manners by improving the intellect.
That kind of discipline whose pungent severity is in the manifestations of paternal love, compassion, and tenderness is the most sure of its object.
The cloudy weather melts at length into beauty, and the brightest smiles of the heart are born of its tears.
The experience of others adds to our knowledge, but not to our wisdom; that is dearer bought.
The eye is inlet to the soul.
The eye is the inlet to the soul, and it is well to beware of him whose visual organs avoid your honest regard.
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.
The law of heaven is love.
The severest punishment suffered by a sensitive mind, for injury inflicted upon another, is the consciousness of having done it.
Theory, from whatever source, is not perfect until it is reduced to practice.
There is no possible excuse for a guarded lie. Enthusiastic and impulsive people will sometimes falsify thoughtlessly, but equivocation is malice prepense.
There is no such thing as "best" in the world of individuals.

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