Great Throughts Treasury

"It is the weak who are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong."

"Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of what we are capable."

"The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all."

"I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong. "

"We can understand and relate to most people better if you look at them – no matter how impressive they may be – as if they are children. For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much – we simply grow taller. Oh, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales."

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be “happy.” I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all. "

"First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people. "

"I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong. "

"Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense. "

"We see things as we are, not as they are. "

"Why did God give me two ears and one mouth? So that I will hear more and talk less. "

"Words must surely be counted among the most powerful drugs man ever invented. "

"Hope is ambiguous, but fear is precious."

"Humor is the affectionate communication of insight."

"Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them. "

"Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined. "