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Influence: Quotations from Burning Words

The Bible calls the good man's life a light; and it is the nature of light to flow out spontaneously in all directions, and fill the world unconsciously with its beams. So the Christian shines it would say, not so much because he will, as because he is a luminous object. Not that the active influence of Christians is made of no account in the figure, but only that this symbol of light has its propriety in the fact that their unconscious influence is the chief influence, and has the precedence in its power over the world. The outward endeavors made by good men or bad to sway others, they call their influence; whereas it is, in fact, but a fraction, and, in most cases, but a very small fraction of the good or evil that flows out of their lives.— HORACE BUSHNELL

What we do is transacted on a stage of which all the universe are spectators. What we say is transmitted in echoes that will never cease. What we are is influencing and acting on the rest of mankind. Neutral we cannot be. Living, we act; and dead, we speak; and the whole universe is the mighty company forever looking, forever listening, and all nature the tablets, forever recording the words, the deeds, the thoughts, the passions of mankind.— JOHN CUMMING

If you had the seeds of a pestilence in your body, you would not have a more active contagion than you have in your tempers, tastes, and principles. Simply to be in this world, whatever you are, is to exert an influence - an influence, too, compared with which mere language and persuasion are feeble.— HORACE BUSHNELL

No man is so insignificant as to be sure his example can do no hurt. To get good is animal; to do good is human; to be good is Divine. The true use of a man's possessions is to help his work; and the best end of all his work is to show us what he is. The noblest workers of our world bequeath us nothing so great as the image of themselves. Their task, be it ever so glorious, is historical and transient; the majesty of their spirit is essential and eternal,— JAMES MARTINEAU

Every word, thought, and deed has its influence upon the destiny of man. Every life, well spent or ill spent, bears with it a long train of consequences, extending through generations yet unborn.— SAMUEL SMILES

No fountain is so small but that heaven may be imaged in its bosom.— NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the might of the Spirit of God.— C. H. SPURGEON

Thank God! some lights never go out, Death cannot quench them. They shine forever. Luther's great lantern, "The just shall live by faith," still gleams from Wartburg Castle. John Bunyan's lamp twinkles yet through the gratings of Bedford jail.— T. L. CUYLER

My mother spoke of Christ to father, by her feminine and childlike virtues, and, after having borne his violence without a murmur or complaint, gained him at the close of his life to Christ.— ST. AUGUSTINE