Great Throughts Treasury

"The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer."

"The most effective teacher will always be biased, for the chief force in teaching is confidence and enthusiasm."

"One does not fear God because He is terrible, but because he is literally the soul of goodness and truth, because to do him wrong is to do wrong to some mysterious part of oneself."

"It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what they don't know; and the less a person knows, the more sure they are that they know everything."

"For good and evil, man is a free creative spirit. This produces the very queer world we live in, a world in continuous creation and therefore continuous change and insecurity."

"I look upon life as a gift from God. I did nothing to earn it. Now that the time is coming to give it back, I have no right to complain."

"Love doesn't grow on trees like apples in Eden - it's something you have to make. And you must use your imagination too."

"Reality becomes a prison to those who can't get out of it."

"The truth is that life is hard and dangerous; that he who seeks his own happiness does not find it; that he who is weak must suffer; that he who demands love will be disappointed; that he who is greedy will not be fed; that he who seeks peace will find strife; that truth is only for the brave; that joy is only for him who does not fear to be alone; that life is only for the one who is not afraid to die."

"For me, the principal fact of life is the free mind. For good and evil, man is a free creative spirit. This produces the very queer world we live in, a world in continuous creation and therefore continuous change and insecurity. A perpetually new and lively world, but a dangerous one, full of tragedy and injustice. A world in everlasting conflict between the new idea and the old allegiances, new arts and new inventions against the old establishment. "

"To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius."