Great Throughts Treasury

"By reading a man does, as it we, antedate his life, and make himself contemporary with past ages."

"Conscience and covetousness are never to be reconciled; like fire and water they always destroy each other, according tot he predominancy of the element."

"Dangerous principles impose upon our understanding, emasculate our spirits, and spoil our temper."

"Envy is an ill-natured vice, and is made up of meanness and malice. It wishes the force of goodness to be strained, and the measure of happiness abated. It laments over prosperity, and sickens at the sight of health. It oftentimes wants spirit as well as good nature."

"Envy lies between two beings equal in nature, though unequal in circumstances."

"Every one has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases."

"How are such an infinite number of things placed with such order in the memory, notwithstanding the tumult, marches, and counter-marches of the animal spirits?"

"Idleness is an inlet to disorder, and makes way for licentiousness. People that have nothing to do are quickly tired of their own company."

"Prudence is the necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess."

"There are few things reason can discover with so much certainty and ease as its own insufficiency."

"Those who despise fame seldom deserve it. We are apt to undervalue the purchase we cannot reach, to conceal our poverty the better. It is a spark which kindles upon the best fuel, and burns brightest in the bravest breast."

"Thoughts take up no room. When they are right, they afford a portable pleasure, which one may travel with without any; trouble or encumbrance. ,"

"Truth is the band of union and the basis of human happiness. Without this virtue there is no reliance upon language, no confidence in friendship, no security in promises and oaths."

"Vanity is a strong temptation to lying; it makes people magnify their merit, over flourish their family, and tell strange stories of their interest and acquaintance."

"What can be more honorable than to have courage enough to execute the commands of reason and conscience, to maintain the dignity of our nature, and the station assigned us?"

"Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support us under solitude, and keep us from becoming a burden to ourselves. They help us to forget the crossness of men and things, composed our cares and our passions, and lay our disappointments asleep. When we are weary of living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride or design in their conversation."

"Despair is the offspring of fear; of laziness, and impatience; it argues a defect of spirit and resolution, and often of honesty too. I would not despair unless I saw my misfortune recorded in the book of fate; and signed and sealed by necessity."

"Vanity is a strong temptation to lying; it makes people magnify their merit, over-flourish their family, and tell strange stories of their interest and acquaintance."

"We must not let go manifest truths because we cannot answer all questions about them."

"Belief gets in the way of learning. "

"In civilized life, where the happiness and indeed almost the existence of man, depends on the opinion of his fellow men. He is constantly acting a studied part. "

"True courage is a result of reasoning. A brave mind is always impregnable. "

"As the language of the face is universal, so 'tis very comprehensive; no laconism can reach it; 'tis the short-hand of the mind, and crowds a great deal in a little room."

"Avoid all affectation and singularity. What is according to nature is best, and what is contrary to it is always distasteful. Nothing is graceful that is not our own."

"Confidence, as opposed, to modesty and distinguished from decent assurance, proceeds from self-opinion, and is occasioned by ignorance and flattery"

"Envy is of all others the most ungratifying and disconsolate passion. There is power for ambition, pleasure for luxury, and pelf even for covetousness; but envy gets no reward but vexation."

"Hope is a vigorous principle; it is furnished with light and heat to advise and execute; it sets the head and heart to work, and animates a man to do his utmost. And thus, by perpetually pushing and assurance, it puts a difficulty out of countenance, and makes a seeming impossibility give way."

"How many feasible projects have miscarried through despondency, and been strangled in their birth by a cowardly imagination."

"It is a difficult task to talk to the purpose, and to put life and perspicuity into our discourse."

"Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the imperfections of our nature; which one would think, might dispose us to modesty."

"Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess."

"Self-conceit is a weighty quality, and will sometimes bring down the scale when there is nothing else in it. It magnifies a fault beyond proportion, and swells every omission into an outrage"

"What can be more honorable than to have courage enough to execute the commands of reason and conscience,--to maintain the dignity of our nature, and the station assigned us?"