Great Throughts Treasury

"Without earnestness no man is ever great or does really great things. He may be the cleverest of men; he may be brilliant; entertaining, popular; but he will want weight."

"The day that witnesses the conversion of our ministers into political and philosophical speculators or scientific lecturers, will witness the final decay of clerical weight and influence."

"The wild force of genius has often been fated by Nature to be finally overcome by quiet strength. The volcano sends up its red bolt with terrific force, as if it would strike the stars; but the calm, resistless hand of gravitation seizes it and brings it to the earth."

"Those who refuse the long drudgery of thought, and think with the heart rather than the head, are ever the most fiercely dogmatic in tone."

"The finite mind does not require to grasp the infinitude of truth, but only to go forward from light to light."

"The idea of philosophy is truth; the idea of religion is life."