Great Throughts Treasury

"Liberty is the parent of truth, but truth and decency are sometimes at variance. All men and all propositions are to be treated here as they deserve, and there are many who have no claim either to respect or decency."

"Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. He that labors in any great or laudable undertaking has his fatigues first supported by hope and afterwards rewarded by joy."

"Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions."

"Life consists not of a series of illustrious actions or elegant enjoyments. The greater part of our time passes in compliance with necessities, In the performance of daily duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, in the procurement of petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is ruffled by small obstacles and frequent interruption."

"Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, and now I know it"

"Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment."

"Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation on how it shall be spent."

"Life is surely given us for higher purposes than to gather what our ancestors have wisely thrown away, and to learn what is of no value but because it has been forgotten."

"Life, like every other blessing, derives its value from its use alone. Not for itself, but for a nobler end the eternal gave it; and that end is virtue."

"Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better."

"Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past."

"London! the needy villain's general home, The common sewer of Paris and of Rome! With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state."

"Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise."

"Luxury, so far as it reaches the people, will do good to the race of people; it will strengthen and multiply them. Sir, no nation was ever hurt by luxury for, as I said before, it can reach but a very few."

"Long customs are not easily broken; he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain."

"Man is not weak - knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength."

"Love is only one of many passions."

"Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed."

"Many have no happier moments than those that they pass in solitude, abandoned to their own imagination, which sometimes puts sceptres in their hands or miters on their heads, shifts the scene of pleasure with endless variety, bids all the forms of beauty sparkle before them, and gluts them with every change of visionary luxury."

"Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force."

"Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor, but, even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it."

"Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled."

"Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance."

"Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity, and he must expect to be wretched, who pays to beauty, riches, or politeness that regard which only virtue and piety can claim."

"Many useful and valuable books lie buried in shops and libraries unknown and unexamined, unless some lucky compiler opens them by chance, and finds an easy spoil of wit and learning."

"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures."

"Men are not blindly betrayed into corruption, but abandon themselves to their passions with their eyes open; and lose the direction of truth, because they do not attend to her voice, not because they do not understand it."

"Men are like stone jugs - you may lug them where you like by the ears."

"Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking."

"Marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor."

"Men are seldom more innocently employed than when they are honestly making money."

"Men do not suspect faults which they do not commit."

"Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult."

"Men have been wise in many different modes; but they have always laughed the same way."

"Men know that woman are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves."

"Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed."

"Men only become friends by community of pleasures."

"Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves."

"Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed."

"Merit is much more cheaply acknowledged than rewarded"

"Merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness."

"Most arts require long study and application; but the most useful art of all, that of pleasing, requires only desire."

"Misery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine security. The visit of an invader is necessarily rare, but domestic animosities allow no cessation."

"Moderation is commonly firm, and firmness is commonly successful."

"Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use."

"Most men are more willing to indulge in easy vices than to practice laborious virtues."

"Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young."

"Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice"

"Mutual complacency is the atmosphere of conjugal love."

"Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, roll daring down the torrent of his fate?"