Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.

Beecher contrasts pride with humility as opposing moral psychologies. Pride, in his view, makes the self the measure of what is “owed,” so any gift or kindness is reinterpreted as merely partial payment of a larger entitlement. Gratitude therefore withers, because gratitude requires recognizing dependence and receiving more than one can claim by right. Humility, by contrast, is pictured as fertile “soil”: it does not deny worth, but it loosens the grip of entitlement and makes room for appreciation of unearned benefits—whether from other people, society, or God. The final sentence sharpens the point: chronic ingratitude often stems less from scarcity than from inflated expectations.