Great Throughts Treasury

"Keep thy spirit pure from worldly taint by the repellent strength of virtue."

"There is no surer mark of the absence of the highest moral and intellectual qualities than a cold reception of excellence."

"Amid life's quests there seems but worthy one, to do men good."

"Night brings out stars, as sorrow shows us truths."

"Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use."

"Any heart turned God-ward, feels more joy in one short hour of prayer, than e'er was raised by all the feasts on earth since its foundation."

"Kindness is wisdom; there is none in life but needs it, and may learn."

"It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another, without helping himself."

"Search for a single, inclusive good is doomed to failure. Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situation of experience its own full and unique meaning."

"The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself."

"The worst men often give the best advice."

"There is nothing on earth worth being known but God and our own souls."

"America - half-brother of the world."

"Both man and womankind belie their nature when they are not kind."

"As nightingales feed on glow worms, so poets live upon the living light of nature and beauty."

"Earth's liquid jewelry, wrought of the air."

"Every believer is God's miracle."

"Grief hallows hearts even while it ages heads."

"It is sad to think how few our pleasures really are, and for which we risk eternal good."

"Dew-drops - nature's tears, which she sheds on her own breast for the fair which die. - The sun insists on gladness; but at night, when he is gone, poor nature loves to weep."

"Let each man think himself an act of God; his mind a thought, his life a breath of God."

"Men might be better if we deemed better of them. - The worst way to improve the world is to condemn it."

"Poetry is itself a thing of God. - He made his prophets poets; and the more we feel of poesie do we become like God in love and power."

"Poets are all who love and feel great truths, and tell them."

"That a majority of the Abolitionists in this place would patronize a free labor store, in preference to others, I do not doubt; but we do not muster money in Cincinnati."

"The best enjoyment is half disappointment to what we intend or would have in this world."

"The death-bed of a clay, how beautiful!"

"The firefly only shines when on the wing; so it is with the mind; when we rest we darken."

"The sun-god's crest upon his azure shield, the heavens."

"There is a large body of abolitionists in Clinton and Clark Counties in this state, and in Wayne County Indiana, that would undoubtedly support such a store, but whether their support would be sufficient, I am unable to say."

"They who forgive most, shall be most forgiven."

"Thou wind! which art the unseen similitude of God the Spirit, his most sweet and mightiest sign."

"Walk boldly and wisely in the light thou hast; there is a hand above will help thee on."

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on the dial; we should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."

"What are ye orbs? The words of God? the Scriptures of the skies?"

"What men call accident is the doing of God's providence."

"Who never doubted, never half believed. - Where doubt is, there truth is - it is her shadow."