Great Throughts Treasury

"Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall."

"Read nature; nature is a friend to truth; Nature is Christian, preaches to mankind; And bids dead matter aid us in our creed."

"Reason progressive, Instinct is complete; swift instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs. Brutes soon their zenith reach? In ages they no more could know, do, covet or enjoy."

"Religion crowns the statesman and the man, sole source of public and of private peace."

"Religion's all. Descending from the skies to wretched man, the goddess in her left holds out this world, and, in her right, the next."

"Remember that God is as near to our mouth when we speak as that man is who leans his ear to our whispers."

"Revere thyself, and yet thyself despise."

"Satire recoils whenever charged too high; round your own fame the fatal splinters fly."

"Satire! thou shining supplement of public laws."

"Scorn the proud man that is ashamed to weep."

"See from behind her secret stand the sly informer minutes ev'ry fault and her dread diary with horror fills."

"See how they began alms of flattery!"

"Seems it strange that thou shouldst live forever? Is it less strange that thou shouldst live at all? - This is a miracle; and that no more."

"Sense is our helmet, wit is but the plume; the plume exposes, 'tis our helmet saves. Sense is the diamond, weighty, solid, sound; when cut by wit, it casts a brighter beam; yet, wit apart, it is a diamond still."

"Shall man alone, for whom all else revives, no resurrection know? Shall man alone, imperial man! be sown in barren ground, less privileged than grain, on which he feeds?"

"Shall man alone, whose fate, whose final fate, hangs on that hour, exclude it from his thoughts? I think of nothing else--I see, I feel it! All nature like an earthquake, trembling round! All deities, like summer's swarms on wing, all basking in the full meridian blaze! I see the Judge enthroned, the flaming guard! The volume open'd--open'd every heart! A sunbeam pointing out each secret thought! No patron! intercessor none! now past the sweet, the clement mediatorial hour! For guilt no plea! to pain no pause! no bound! Inexorable all! and all extreme!"

"Some for hard masters, broken under arms, In battle lopt away, with half their limbs, Beg bitter bread thro' realms their valor saved."

"Some for renown on scraps of learning dote, and think they grow immortal as they quote. To patch-work learned quotations are allied; both strive to make our poverty our pride."

"Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, and think they grow immortal as they quote."

"Some future strain, in which the muse shall tell how science dwindles, and how volumes swell. How commentators each dark passage shun, and hold their farthing candle to the sun."

"Some o'erenamor'd of their bags run mad, groan under gold, yet weep for want of bread."

"Some weep in perfect justice to the dead, as conscious all their love is in arrear."

"Some wish they did, but no man disbelieves."

"Some wits, like oracles, deal in ambiguities, but not with equal success; for though ambiguities are the first excellence of an impostor, they are the last of a wit."

"Some write, confin'd by physic; some, by debt; Some, for 'tis Sunday; some, because 'tis wet... Another writes because his father writ, and proves himself a bastard by his wit."

"Soon as man, expert from time, has found the key of life, it opes the gates of death."

"Sorrow's best antidote is employment."

"Souls made of fire and children of the sun, with whom Revenge is virtue."

"Still seems it strange, that thou shouldst live forever? Is it less strange, that thou shouldst live at all? This is a miracle; and that no more."

"Such blessings Nature pours, o'erstock'd mankind enjoy but half her stores. In distant wilds, by human eyes unseen, she rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet green; pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace and waste their music on the savage race."

"Sure as night follows day, Death treads in Pleasure's footsteps round the world, when pleasure treads the paths which Reason shuns."

"Sweet instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs."

"Talents angel-bright, if wanting worth are shining instruments in false ambition's hand, to finish faults illustrious, and give infamy renown."

"Teach me my days to number, and apply My trembling heart to wisdom."

"Teach me, by this stupendous scaffolding, Creation's golden steps, to climb to Thee."

"That awful independent on to-morrow! Whose work is done; who triumphs in the past; whose yesterdays look backward with a smile nor, like the Parthian, wound him as they fly."

"That chastity of look which seems to hang a veil of purest light over all her beauties, and by forbidding most inflames desire."

"That hideous sight--a naked human heart."

"That life is long which answers life's great end."

"That man lives greatly, whatever his fate or fame, who greatly dies."

"That modest grace subdued my soul; that chastity of look, which seems to hang a veil of purest light o'er all her beauties."

"The bell strikes one. We take no note of time, but from its loss. To give it then a tongue is wise in man. As if an angel spoke, I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, it is the knell of my departed hours. Where are they? With the years beyond the flood. It is the signal that demands despatch; how much is to be done!"

"The blood will follow where the knife is driven, the flesh will quiver where the pincers tear."

"The body's wisdom to conceal the mind."

"The booby father craves a booby son, and by Heaven?s blessing thinks himself undone."

"The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileg?d beyond the common walk of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven."

"The Christian is the highest style of man."

"The clouds may drop down titles and estates, and wealth may seek us, but wisdom must be sought."

"The course of nature governs all! The course of nature is the heart of God. The miracles thou call'st for, this attest; for say, could nature nature's course control? But miracles apart, who sees Him not?"

"The course of Nature is the art of God."