Great Throughts Treasury

"One of the almost numberless advantages of goodness is, that it blinds its possessor to many of those faults in others which could not fail to be detected by the morally defective. A consciousness of unworthiness renders people extremely quick-sighted in discerning the vices of their neighbors; as person scan easily discover in others the symptoms of those diseases beneath which they themselves have suffered."

"A beautiful woman without fixed principles may be likened to those fair but rootless flowers which float in streams, driven by every breeze."

"A German writer observes: "The noblest characters only show themselves in their real light. All others act comedy with their fellow-men even unto the grave.""

"A woman should not paint sentiment till she has ceased to inspire it."

"A woman's head is always influenced by her heart; but a man's heart is always influenced by his head."

"Alas! There is no casting anchor in the stream of time!"

"Bores: People who talk of themselves, when you are thinking only of yourself."

"Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower."

"Conversation is the legs on which thought walks; and writing, the wings by which it flies."

"Egoism is in general the malady of the aged? we become occupied with our own existence in proportion as it ceases to be interesting to others."

"Flowers are the bright remembrances of youth; they waft us back, with their bland odorous breath, the joyous hours that only young life knows, ere we have learnt that this fair earth hides graves."

"Friends are the thermometers by which we may judge the temperature of our fortunes."

"Genius is the gold in the mine; talent is the miner who works and brings it out."

"Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little."

"Haste is always ungraceful."

"Heaven sends us misfortunes as a moral tonic."

"How soothing is affection ... this sweetener of life."

"Love often re-illumes his extinguished flame at the torch of jealousy."

"Love-matches are made by people who are content, for a month of honey, to condemn themselves to a life of vinegar."

"Many minds that have withstood the most severe trials have been broken down by a succession of ignoble cares."

"Mediocrity is beneath a brave soul."

"Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our buried hopes."

"Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached, but great men resemble them not in this particular."

"Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart."

"Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which submits."

"Satire often proceeds less from ill nature than a desire to display wit."

"Some people are capable of making great sacrifices, but few are capable of concealing how much the effort has cost them."

"Superstition is only the fear of belief, while religion is the confidence."

"Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious."

"The chief requisites for a courtier are a flexible conscience and an inflexible politeness."

"The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for errors; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes."

"There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to rise in the world."

"There is no knowledge for which so great a price is paid as a knowledge of the world; and no one ever became an adept in it except at the expense of a hardened or a wounded heart."

"Those can most easily dispense with society who are the most calculated to adorn it; they only are dependent on it who possess no mental resources, for though they bring nothing to the general mart, like beggars, they are too poor to stay at home."

"Those who are formed to win general admiration are seldom calculated to bestow individual happiness."

"Thoughts come maimed and plucked of plumage from the lips, which, from the pea, in the silence of your own leisure and study, would be born with far more beauty."

"When the sun shines on you, you see your friends. It requires sunshine to be seen by them to advantage!"

"Wit is the lightning of the mind, reason the sunshine, and reflection the moonlight."

"Women excel more in literary judgment than in literary production,--they are better critics than authors."