Great Throughts Treasury

"Change is constant."

"I repeat … that all power is a trust - that we are accountable for its exercise - that, from the people, and for the people, all springs, and all must exist."

"It is much easier to be critical than to be correct."

"Life is too short to be little."

"Justice is truth is action."

"Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory."

"Man is born to believe, and if no church comes forward with all the title deeds of truths... he will find alters and idols in his own heart and his own imagination."

"Man is made to adore and obey; but… if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities and find a chieftain in his own passions."

"Nurture great thoughts for you will never go higher than your thoughts."

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.”"

"Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning."

"Silence is the mother of Truth."

"The rarest and most admirable quality of public life, moral courage."

"The secret of success is constancy of purpose."

"Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time."

"The spirit of the age is the very thing that a great man changes."

"The sense of existence is the greatest happiness."

"The true test of a civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out."

"The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity."

"Whatever is found what is called a paternal government was found a State education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience [is] to commence tyranny in the nursery."

"We are not indebted to the Reason of man for any of the great achievements which are the landmarks of human action and human progress… Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination."

"Almost everything that is great has been done by youth."

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action."

"Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions."

"Perseverance and tact are the two great qualities most valuable for all men who would mount, but especially for those who have to step out of the crowd."

"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations."

"Great services are not canceled by one act or by one single error."

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."