The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
Living is death; dying is life. We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citizens; on this side orphans, on that children.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that true existence is often misunderstood, equating living with a form of death and dying with the essence of life.
Henry Ward Beecher's quote reflects the idea that the life we experience on Earth is fraught with limitations and misconceptions. By contrasting life and death, he invites us to consider a deeper truth: that our current existence is merely a shadow of a more profound reality beyond death, where we will find our true identity and belonging. In essence, Beecher argues that what we perceive as life is filled with interruptions and losses, whereas death leads to a fuller understanding of existence and connection.
Themes
LifeDeathExistenceIdentityTruth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a philosophical discussion about the nature of life and death.
More from Henry Ward Beecher
All quotes →A man who cannot get angry is like a stream that cannot overflow, that is always turbid. Sometimes indignation is as good as a thunderstorm in summer, clearing and cooling the air.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
No one can deal with the hearts of men unless he has the sympathy which is given by love.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
No man can tell if he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
Similar quotes
Being an occupier is not good for anybody's global standing. It is a catalyst for terrorist recruitment.
Samantha PowerRead
In the glad old days, before the rise of modern morbidities...it used to be thought a disadvantage to be misunderstood.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
You are what what you eat eats.
Michael PollanRead
If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.
Joseph AddisonRead
I wanted to swallow myself by opening my mouth very wide and turning it over my head so that it would take in my whole body, and then the Universe, until all that would remain of me would be a ball of eaten thing which little by little would be annihilated: that is how I see the end of the world.
Jean GenetRead
Salvation means knowing the truth. We do not become anything; we are what we are. Salvation [comes] by faith and not by work. It is a question of knowledge! You must know what you are, and it is done. The dream vanishes. This you [and others] are dreaming here. When they die, they go to [the] heaven [of their dream]. They live in that dream, and [when it ends], they take a nice body [here], and they are good people.
Swami VivekanandaRead