Great Throughts Treasury

"God gives us always strength enough and sense enough, for every thing he wants us to do."

"Genius is only a superior power of seeing."

"God intends no man to live in this world without working; but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work."

"Great art is precisely that which never was, nor will be taught, it is pre-eminently and finally the expression of the spirits of great men."

"Great completion marks the progress of art, absolute completion usually its decline."

"Happiness is everywhere, and its spring is in our own heart."

"No peace was ever won from fate by subterfuge or agreement; no peace is ever in store for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin - victory over the sin that oppresses, as well as over that which corrupts."

"No peace was ever won from fate by subterfuge or argument; no peace is ever in store for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin - victory over the sin that oppresses, as well as over that which corrupts."

"No day is without its innocent hope."

"He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace."

"He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great."

"No divine terror will ever be found in the work of the man who wastes a colossal strength in elaborating toys; for the first lesson that terror is sent to teach us is, the value of the human soul, and the shortness of mortal time."

"No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish."

"Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books."

"Obedience is, indeed, founded on a kind of freedom, else it would become mere subjugation, but that freedom is only granted that obedience may be more perfect; and thus while a measure of license is necessary to exhibit the individual energies of things, the fairness and pleasantness and perfection of them all consist in their restraint."

"Of all the pulpits from which human voice is ever sent forth, there is none from which it reaches so far as from the grave."

"Superstition, in all times and among all nations, is the fear of a spirit whose passions are those of a man, whose acts are the acts of a man; who is present in some places, not in others; who makes some places holy and not others; who is kind to one person, unkind to another; who is pleased or angry according to the degree of attention you pay him, or praise you refuse him; who is hostile generally to human pleasure, but may be bribed by sacrifice of a part of that pleasure into permitting the rest. This, whatever form of faith it colors, is the essence of superstition."

"The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and be bought for it."

"The constant duty of every man to his fellows is to ascertain his own powers and special gifts, and to strengthen them for the help of others."

"Temperance, in the nobler sense, does not mean a subdued and imperfect energy; it does not mean a stopping short in any good thing, as in love or in faith; but it means the power which governs the most intense energy, and prevents its acting in any way but as it ought."

"The greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as the greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure."

"The Divine mind is as visible in its full energy of operation on every lowly bank and mouldering stone as in the lifting of the pillars of heaven, and settling the foundation of the earth."

"Remember always, in painting as in eloquence, the greater your strength, the quieter will be your manner, and the fewer your words; and in painting, as in all the arts and acts of life, the secret of high success will be found, not in a fretful and various excellence, but in a quiet singleness of justly chosen aim."

"The enormous influence of novelty - the way in which it quickens observation, sharpens sensation, and exalts sentiment - is not half enough taken note of by us, and is to me a very sorrowful matter. And yet, if we try to obtain perpetual change, change itself will become monotonous."

"The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something."

"The highest thoughts are those which are least dependent on language, and the dignity of any composition and praise to which it is entitled are in exact proportion to is dependency of language and expression."

"The passions of mankind are partly protective, partly beneficent, like the chaff and grain of the corn, but none without their use, none without nobleness when seen in balanced unity with the rest of the spirit which they are charged to defend."

"The plea of ignorance will never take away our responsibilities."

"The power of association is stronger than the power of beauty; therefore, the power of association is the power of beauty."

"The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most."

"The truths of nature are one eternal change, one infinite variety. There is no bush on the face of the globe exactly like another bush; there are no two trees in the forest whose boughs bend into the same network, nor two leaves on the same tree which could not be told one form the other, nor two waves in the sea exactly alike."

"The question is now what a man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love and value and appreciate."

"The weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is peculiar to him, and which worthily used, will be a gift also to his race."

"The religion that makes the purest and happiest homes will always be the best for any country."

"The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions."

"The whole period of youth is one essentially of formation, edification, instruction, I use the words with their weight in them; in taking of stores, establishment in vital habits, hopes and faiths. There is not an hour of it but is trembling with destinies, not a moment of which, once past, the appointed work can ever be done again, or the neglected blow struck on the cold iron."

"There is a care for trifles which proceeds from love of conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base."

"There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

"The... closest trial question to any living creature is, "What do you like?" Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are."

"There is no wealth but life."

"Though nature is constantly beautiful, she does not exhibit her highest powers of beauty constantly; for then they would satiate us, and pall upon our senses. It is necessary to their appreciation that they should be rarely shown. Her finest touches are things which must be watched for; her most perfect passages of beauty are the most evanescent."

"They are the weakest-minded and the hardest-hearted men, that most love variety and change."

"There's no music in "rest," but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody, always talking of perseverance and courage and fortitude; but patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude, and the rarest, too."

"To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion - all in one."

"To yield reverence to another, to hold ourselves and our lives at his disposal, is not slavery; often, it is the noblest state in which a man can live in this world."

"When God shuts a door, he opens a window."

"Wise laws and just restrains are to a noble nation not chains, but chains of mail, strength and defense, though something of an encumbrance."

"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."

"[The simplest and most necessary truths are always the last believed."

"You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased by them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight."