Great Throughts Treasury

"Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design."

"Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas."

"Truly I have looked into the very heart of darkness, and refused to yield to its paralyzing influence, but in spirit I am one of those who walk the morning. What if all dark, discouraging moods of the human mind come across my way as thick as the dry leaves of autumn? Other feet have traveled that road before me, and I know the desert leads to god as surely as the green, refreshing fields, and orchards."

"Under softest touch hides treacherous claws."

"Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness."

"True happiness is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."

"We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world--the company of those who have known suffering."

"We can decide to let our trials crush us, or we can convert them to new forces of good"

"We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough."

"We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten ? a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away."

"We need limitations and temptations to open our inner selves, dispel our ignorance, tear off disguises, throw down old idols, and destroy false standards. Only by such rude awakenings can we be led to dwell in a place where we are less cramped, less hindered by the ever-insistent External. Only then do we discover a new capacity and appreciation of goodness and beauty and truth."

"We work within the context of the letter that the Prime Minister sent to the leaders of the opposition which laid out the framework."

"What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self"

"What does this beauty or than music mean to you? you cannot see the waves rolling up the beach or hear their roar. What do they mean to you?' In the most evident sense they mean everything. I cannot fathom or define their meaning any more than I can fathom or define love or religion or goodness."

"We cannot freely and wisely choose the right way for ourselves unless we know both good and evil."

"We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings."

"What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me."

"We would never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world."

"What is true happiness? It's not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."

"What is so sweet as to awake from a troubled dream and behold a beloved face smiling upon you? I love to believe that such shall be our awakening from earth to heaven. My faith never wavers that each dear friend I have lost is a new link between this world and the happier land beyond the morn. My soul is for the moment bowed down with grief when I cease to feel the touch of their hands or hear a tender word from them; but the light of faith never fades from the sky, and I take heart again, glad they are free. I cannot understand why anyone should fear death?Suppose there are a million chances against that one that my loved ones who have gone on are alive. What of it? I will take that one chance and risk mistake, rather than let any doubts sadden their souls, and find out afterward. Since there is that one chance of immortality, I will endeavor not to cast a shadow on the joy of the departed?Certainly it is one of our sweetest experiences that when we are touched by some noble affection or pure joy, we remember the dead most tenderly, and feel more powerfully drawn to them."

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

"When all you can feel are the shadows, turn your face towards the sun."

"When I try to classify my earliest When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experience in her own fantasy."

"When the sun of consciousness first shone upon me, behold a miracle! The stock of my young life which had perished, steeped in the waters of knowledge grew again, budded again, was sweet again with the blossoms of childhood. Down in the depths of my being, I cried, ?it is good to be alive!? I held out two trembling hands to life, and in vain silence would impose dumbness upon me henceforth! The world to which I awoke was still mysterious; but there was hope and love and God in it, and nothing else mattered. Is it not possible that our entrance into heaven may be like this experience of mine?"

"When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us."

"When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use."

"When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."

"When you face the sun, all the shadows fall behind you."

"While friends are near us, we feel that all is well... Our everyday life blossoms into bright possibilities."

"While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done."

"With every friend I love who has been taken into the brown bosom of the earth a part of me has been buried there; but their contribution to my being of happiness, strength and understanding remains to sustain me in an altered world."

"While they were saying it couldn't be done, it was done."

"You have set yourself a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere."

"You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear."

"You will find a joy in overcoming obstacles."

"Your success and happiness lie within you. External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer trappings."

"Your success and happiness lie in you? Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties."