Great Throughts Treasury

"We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave."

"We wake sleeping, and sleep waking, I do not see so clearly in my sleep; but as to my being awake, I never found it clear enough and free from clouds."

"What really is? That which is eternal: that is to say, what never had birth, nor will ever have an end; to which time never brings any change. For time is a mobile thing, which appears as in a shadow, together with matter, which is ever running and flowing, without ever remaining stable or permanent... Wherefore we must conclude that God is - not at all according to any measure of time, but according to an eternity immutable and immobile, not measured by time or subject to any decline."

"What we commonly call friendships are nothing but acquaintance and familiarities, either occasionally contracted or upon some design, by means of which there happens some little intercourse between our souls."

"When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed, his praises never."

"Wisdom has its excesses, and is in no less need of moderation than folly."

"Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly."

"Wonder - which is the seed of knowledge."

"Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end... It's a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content or of weariness."

"Zeal and curiosity are the twin scourges of the soul: the latter prompts us to poke our noses into everything; the former prevents our leaving anything in doubt or undecided."

"A generous and free-minded confession doth disable a reproach and disarm an injury."

"A man must be a little mad if he does not want to be even more stupid."

"A man of understanding has lost nothing, if he has himself."

"A speech belongs half to the speaker and half to the listener."

"Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying."

"Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet; the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies."

"Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved."

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war."

"Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness."

"Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to."

"Experience teaches that a strong memory is generally joined to a weak judgment."

"Desire and hope will push us on toward the future."

"Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations."

"Few men have been admired by their own households."

"Follow the order of nature, for God’s sake! Follow it! It will lead who follows; and those who will not, it will drag along anyway."

"Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky."

"Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society."

"God might grant us riches, honors, long life and health, but many times to our own hurt: for whatsoever is pleasing to us, is not always healthful for us."

"Habituation puts to sleep the eye of our judgment."

"He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself."

"Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows."

"Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health."

"Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be."

"How many things which served us yesterday as articles of faith, are fables for us today."

"Human understanding is marvelously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses."

"If you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved."

"In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page-boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk, they are all part of the curriculum."

"Intemperance is the pestilence which killeth pleasure; temperance is not the flail of pleasure; it is the seasoning thereof."

"It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness."

"It is only a fool who never suspects he could be foolishly mistaken."

"It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity."

"Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but prejudices destroy every tender disposition."

"My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."

"Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself."

"Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; She better understands her own ways than we."

"Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think."

"Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it."

"Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages."

"Malice sucks up the greater part of its own venom, and poisons itself with it."

"Man is forming thousands of ridiculous relations between himself and God."