“The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself.”

—  Henry Ward Beecher

Source: Life Thoughts (1858), p. 18

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself." by Henry Ward Beecher?
Henry Ward Beecher photo
Henry Ward Beecher 75
American clergyman and activist 1813–1887

Related quotes

Matt Dillahunty photo

“You are better than your god. You are better than your religion.”

Matt Dillahunty (1969) American activist

Episode 578: "Still More Scamlets" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcLAeTm5AY, Channel Austin (November 9, 2008)
The Atheist Experience
Context: You are better than your god. You are better than your religion. So am I, so is damn near everybody on the planet. I wish you people would wake up and see this. Stop apologizing for this! [holds up The Bible] It's not the Good Book, there's nothing good about it. All it does is poison minds. All it does is make you sacrifice your humanity— the only thing that you have that is of any value— in order to sit around in deference to your gods.

William Faulkner photo

“Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

“Anyone can write. Some people can write a bit better than others; they're called authors. Then there are some who can write better than authors; they're called artists.”

Walter Moers (1957) German comic creator and author
Margaret Fuller photo

“Thoughts which come at a call
Are no better than if they came not at all”

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist

Life Without and Life Within (1859), A Greeting
Context: Thoughts which come at a call
Are no better than if they came not at all
Neither flower nor fruit,
Yielding no root
For plant, shrub, or tree.

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Cruelty is the worst of sins. It is far better to worship a false God, than to injure your neighbor—far better to bow before a monstrosity of stone, than to enslave your fellow-men.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Context: I do not think idolatry the worst of sins. Cruelty is the worst of sins. It is far better to worship a false God, than to injure your neighbor—far better to bow before a monstrosity of stone, than to enslave your fellow-men.

“Don't try to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself.”

Carlos Gershenson (1978) Mexican researcher

Zire Notes (May 2004 - December 2006)

Miguel de Unamuno photo

“Religion is better described than defined and better felt than described.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), X : Religion, the Mythology of the Beyond and the Apocatastasis
Context: Religion is better described than defined and better felt than described. But if there is any one definition that latterly has obtained acceptance, it is that of Schleiermacher, to the effect that religion consists in the simple feeling of a relationship of dependence upon something above us and a desire to establish relations with this mysterious power.

William Faulkner photo

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Paris Review interview (1958)
Context: Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. An artist is a creature driven by demons. He don’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done.

“An idle man has a constant tendency to torpidity. He has adopted the Indian maxim — that it is better to walk than to run, and better to stand than to walk, and better to sit than to stand, and better to lie than to sit. He hugs himself into the notion, that God calls him to be quiet.”

Richard Cecil (clergyman) (1748–1810) British Evangelical Anglican priest and social reformer

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 345.

Richelle Mead photo

“You’re better than this, Adrian. Whatever the reason, you’re better than it. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you’re weaker than you are”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Related topics