Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man in his endowment with personal capacities. Harry Emerson Fosdick More Quotes by Harry Emerson Fosdick More Quotes From Harry Emerson Fosdick To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people's places, but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing ourselves in their places. Harry Emerson Fosdick golden-rulegoldenpeople Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. Harry Emerson Fosdick patriotic4th-of-julyfreedom No man is the whole of himself; his friends are the rest of him. Harry Emerson Fosdick apologyfriendshipmen ...while science gives us implements to use, science alone does not determine for what ends they will be employed. Radio is an amazing invention. Yet now that it is here, one suspects that Hitler never could have consolidated his totalitarian control over Germany without its use. One never can tell what hands will reach out to lay hold on scientific gifts, or to what employment they will be put. Ever the old barbarian emerges, destructively using the new civilization. Harry Emerson Fosdick civilizationsciencehands No character is ultimately tested until it has suffered. Harry Emerson Fosdick testedcharacter Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to. Harry Emerson Fosdick businessretirementlife God has put within our lives meanings and possibilities that quite outrun the limits of mortality. Harry Emerson Fosdick possibilitymeaning-of-lifelimits Life is like a library owned by the author. In it are a few books which he wrote himself, but most of them were written for him. Harry Emerson Fosdick inspirationallifebook No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it, by vigorously willing to have it ... Peace is a consciousness of springs too deep for earthly droughts to dry up. Peace is the gift not of volitional struggle but of spiritual hospitality. Harry Emerson Fosdick strugglespiritualspring No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it. Harry Emerson Fosdick stresscaringsuccess Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. Harry Emerson Fosdick democracies-havefreedompeople All altruism springs from putting yourself in the other person's place. Harry Emerson Fosdick altruismpersonsspring Divinity is not something supernatural that ever and again invades the natural order in a crashing miracle. Divinity is not in some remote heaven, seated on a throne. Divinity is love. . . . Wherever goodness, beauty, truth, love, are-there is the divine. Harry Emerson Fosdick miraclegodorder We ask the leaf, "Are you complete in yourself?" And the leaf answers, "No, my life is in the branches." We ask the branch, and the branch answers, "No my life is in the root." We ask the root, and it answers, "No my life is in the trunk and the branches and the leaves. Keep the branches stripped of leaves, and I shall die," So it is with the great tree of being. Nothing is completely and merely individual. Harry Emerson Fosdick rootsanswerstree Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it. Harry Emerson Fosdick causeschangechristian He who picks up one end of a stick picks up the other. He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end. Harry Emerson Fosdick Nothing in human life, least of all in religion, is ever right until it is beautiful. Harry Emerson Fosdick human-lifebeautifulreligion He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward. Harry Emerson Fosdick optimismprogressletting-go I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another. Harry Emerson Fosdick supportwarlying When you hear a person say, "I hate," adding the name of some race, nation, religion, or social class, you are dealing with a belated mind. That person may dress like a modern, ride in an automobile, listen to the radio, but his or her mind is properly dated about 1000 B.C. Harry Emerson Fosdick hatenamesclass
