Great Throughts Treasury

"Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants"

"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."

"Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world."

"My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man."

"Naked Truth needs no shift."

"Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgment."

"Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely. Sexes make no Difference; since in Souls there is none."

"Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Moms. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."

"No man is compelled to evil; his consent only makes it his."

"No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself."

"No people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyments of civil liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Conscience as to their Religious Profession and Worship."

"No religion is better than an unnatural one."

"Nor can we expect to be heard of God in our prayers, that turn the deaf ear to the petitions of the distressed among out fellow creatures."

"Nor must we always be neutral where our neighbors are concerned: for tho' meddling is a fault, helping is a duty."

"Nothing but a good life here can fit men for a better one hereafter."

"Nothing does reason more right, than the coolness of those that offer it: For Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers."

"Nothing more shows the low condition Man is fallen into, than the unsuitable notion we must have of God, by the ways we take to please him."

"Nothing shows our weakness more than to be so sharp-sighted at spying other men's faults, and so purblind about our own."

"Now I would have you well observe, that I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that has been too much exercised towards you by the people of these parts of the world, who have sought themselves, and to make great advantages by you, rather than be examples of justice and goodness unto you; which I hear has been matter of trouble to you and caused great grudgings and animosities, sometimes to the shedding of blood, which has made the great god angry. But I am not such man as is well known in my own country. I have great love and regard toward you, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind just, and peaceable life; and the people I send are of the same mind, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly."

"O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand."

"Of what benefit is it to say our prayers regularly, go to church, receive the sacraments, and maybe go to confessions too; ay, feast the priest, and give alms to the poor, and yet lie, swear, curse, be drunk, covetous, unclean, proud, revengeful, vain and idle at the same time?"

"Only trust thy self and another shall not betray thee."

"Oppression makes a poor country."

"Our strength will be reduced, but love can grow and forgive people first is a win."

"Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us... It more than anything deprives us of the use of our judgment; for it raises a dust very hard to see through. Like wine, whose lees fly by being jogg'd, it is too muddy to drink."

"Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains."

"People are more afraid of the laws of Man than of God, because their punishment seems to be nearest."

"Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform."

"Reason, like the Sun, is common to all; and 'tis for want of examining all by the same light and measure, that we are not all of the same mind: For all have it to that end, though not all do use it so."

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."

"Religion itself is nothing else but Love to God and Man."

"Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it."

"Seek not to be Rich, but Happy. The one lies in Bags, the other in Content: which Wealth can never give."

"Sense never fails to give them that have it, words enough to make them understood. It too often happens in some conversations, as in apothecary shops, that those pots that are empty, or have things of small value in them, are as gaudily dress'd as those that are full of precious drugs. They that soar too high, often fall hard, making a low and level dwelling preferable. The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune. Buildings have need of a good foundation, that lie so much exposed to the weather."

"Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom."

"Sexes make no Difference; since in Souls there is none: And they are the Subjects of Friendship."

"She is but half a wife that is not, nor is capable of being, a friend."

"Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns."

"Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves; and perhaps that is the reason of it."

"Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood."

"The Country is both the Philosopher's Garden and his Library, in which he Reads and Contemplates the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God."

"The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other."

"The more merciful acts thou dost, the more mercy thou wilt receive."

"The only fountain in the wilderness of life, where man drinks of water totally unmixed with bitterness, is that which gushes for him in the calm and shady recess of domestic life."

"The only gratification a covetous man gives his neighbors, is, to let them see that he himself is as little better for what he has, as they are."

"The public must and will be served."

"The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume, but a good stomach excels them all; to which nothing contributes more than industry and temperance."

"The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles."

"The smaller the drink the clearer the head and the cooler the blood, which are great benefits in temper and business."

"The tallest Trees are most in the Power of the Winds, and Ambitious Men of the Blasts of Fortune."