Great Throughts Treasury

"As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers."

"As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of genius; which to angels look like torment and insanity, I collected some of their proverbs, thinking that as the sayings used in a nation mark its character, so the proverbs of hell show the nature of infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments."

"As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible."

"As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys."

"Beats all the lies you can invent."

"Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor; then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door."

"Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire."

"Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare."

"Between two moments, bliss is ripe."

"Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white."

"Break this heavy chain that does freeze my bones around. Selfish, vain, eternal bane! That free love with bondage bound."

"Bring me an axe and spade, bring me a winding-sheet; when I my grave have made let winds and tempests beat: then down I’ll lie as cold as clay. True love doth pass away!"

"Bring me my bow of burning gold: bring me my arrows of desire: bring me my spear: o clouds unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire! I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land."

"Bring out number weight and measure in a year of dearth."

"But most thro' midnight streets I hear how the youthful harlots curse blasts the new-born infants tear and blights with plagues the marriage hearse"

"But to go to school in a summer morn, Oh, it drives all joy away! Under a cruel eye outworn, the little ones spend the day-- in sighing and dismay."

"But want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hard ships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money for that is the misers passion, not the thiefs."

"But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine."

"By the stream and o'er the mead; gave thee clothing of delight, softest clothing, woolly bright."

"Can delight chained in night the virgins of youth and morning bear?"

"Can I see a falling tear, and not feel my sorrow's share?"

"Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief? Can I see a falling tear, and not feel my sorrow's share? Can a father see his child weep, nor be with sorrow filled? Can a mother sit and hear an infant groan, an infant fear? No, no! Never can it be! Never, never can it be!"

"Children of the future age reading this indignant page know that in a former time love, sweet love, was thought a crime."

"Choosing forms of worship form poetic tales."

"Christ’s crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals."

"Christianity is art and not money. Money is its curse."

"Christ's crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals."

"Coloring does not depend on where the colors are put, but on where the lights and darks are put, and all depends on form and outline, on where that is put."

"Come higher, sleep, and my griefs enfold."

"Come live, and be merry, and join with me, to sing the sweet chorus of 'ha ha he!'"

"Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts or to empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their history shows, for the above reason of individual merit being its great hatred. Empires flourish till they become commercial and then they are scattered abroad to the four winds"

"Cruelty has a human heart, and jealousy a human face; terror the human form divine, and secrecy the human dress. The human dress is forged iron, the human form a fiery forge, the human face a furnace seal d, the human heart its hungry gorge."

"Damn braces: bless relaxes."

"Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!"

"Degrade first the arts if you'd mankind degrade, hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade."

"Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee?"

"Dip him in the river who loves water."

"Do what you will, this life's a fiction"

"Do what you will, this world’s a fiction and is made up of contradiction."

"Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?" He replied, "All poets believe it does. And in ages of imagination, this firm persuasion removes mountains; but many are not capable of firm persuasion of anything."

"Does the eagle know what is in the pit or wilt thou go ask the mole? Can wisdom be put in a silver rod, or love in a golden bowl?"

"Does the sower sow by night, or the ploughman in darkness plough?"

"Down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way, till a void boundless as the nether sky appeared beneath us, and we held by the roots of trees and hung over this immensity; but I said: if you please we will commit ourselves to this void and see whether providence is here also."

"Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead."

"Each man is haunted until his humanity awakens."

"Each man must create his own system or else he is a slave to another mans."

"Each outcry of the hunted hare a fibre from the brain does tear."

"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave."

"Embraces are cominglings from the head even to the feet, and not a pompous high priest entering by a secret place."

"England! Awake! Awake! Awake! Jerusalem thy sister calls! Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death, and close her from thy ancient walls?"