Great Throughts Treasury

"A friend always loves, but he who loves is not always a friend."

"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."

"A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer."

"A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness."

"A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude. If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it. But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself? Miserable is he who slights that witness."

"A good conscience welcomes the crowd, but a bad conscience, even in solitude, is disturbed and troubled. If your deeds are honorable, let everybody know them; if base, what matters it that no one knows them, as long as you yourself know them?"

"A good judge condemns wrongful acts, but does not hate them."

"A good man will not waste himself upon mean and discreditable work or be busy merely for the sake of being busy."

"A good mind possesses a kingdom."

"A great fortune is a great slavery."

"A great mind becomes a great fortune."

"A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent."

"A great step towards independence is a good-humored stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment."

"A guilty person sometimes has the luck to escape detection, but never to feel sure of it."

"A happy life consists in a mind which is free, upright, undaunted and steadfast, beyond the influence of fear or desire."

"A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature."

"A hated government does not last long."

"A hungry people listens not to reason, not cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers."

"A king is he who has laid fear aside and the base longings of an evil heart; whom ambition unrestrained and the fickle favour of the reckless mob move not."

"A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts."

"A large library is apt to distract rather than to instruct the learner; it is much better to be confined to a few authors than to wander at random over many."

"A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners."

"A lesson that is never learned can never be too often taught."

"A man can refrain from wanting what he has not and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand."

"A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is."

"A man is threatened with death by an enemy, but this form of death is anticipated by an attack of indigestion. And if we are willing to examine critically the various causes of our fear, we shall find that some exist, and others only seem to be. We do not fear death; we fear the thought of death. For death itself is always the same distance from us; wherefore, if it is to be feared at all, it is to be feared always. For what season of our life is exempt from death?"

"A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool; similarly, only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his position, which after all is only something we wear like clothing."

"A man who suffers or stresses before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary."

"A man?s as miserable as he thinks he is."

"A multitude of books distracts the mind."

"A person teaching and a person learning,' he said, 'should have the same end in view: the improvement of the latter."

"A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand."

"A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant."

"A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favour."

"A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party: there is no battle unless there be two."

"A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the study of so vast a subject. A time will come when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them."

"A small part of life is only true life, the rest of the part is not life, is mere time."

"A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer."

"A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand."

"A thing is never too often repeated which is never sufficiently learned."

"A thing seriously pursued affords true enjoyment."

"A trifling debt makes a man your debtor; a large one makes him an enemy."

"A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty."

"A wise man never asks what another man serves, for only his actions will speak the truth."

"A woman is not beautiful when her ankle or arm wins compliments, but when her total appearance diverts admiration from the individual parts of her body."

"Accordingly, weigh carefully your hopes as well as your fears, and whenever all the elements are in doubt, decide in your own favour; believe what you prefer. And if fear wins a majority of the votes, incline in the other direction anyhow, and cease to harass your soul, reflecting continually that most mortals, even when no troubles are actually at hand or are certainly to be expected in the future, become excited and disquieted. No one calls a halt on himself, when he begins to be urged ahead; nor does he regulate his alarm according to the truth."

"Accustom yourself to that which you bear ill, and you will bear it well."

"Adverse fortune seldom spares men of the noblest virtues. No one can with safety expose himself often to dangers. The man who has often escaped is at last caught."

"After a bad harvest sow again. [Yield not to difficulties.]"

"After a long space of time I have seen your beloved Pompeii. I was thus brought again face to face with the days of my youth. And it seemed to me that I could still do, nay, had only done a short time ago, all the things which I did there when a young man. We have sailed past life, Lucilius, as if we were on a voyage, and just as when at sea, to quote from our poet Vergil, lands and towns are left astern, even so, on this journey where time flies with the greatest speed, we put below the horizon first our boyhood and then our youth, and then the space which lies between young manhood and middle age and borders on both, and next, the best years of old age itself. Last of all, we begin to sight the general bourne of the race of man. Fools that we are, we believe this bourne to be a dangerous reef; but it is the harbor, where we must someday put in, which we may never refuse to enter; and if a man has reached this harbor in his early years, he has no more right to complain than a sailor who has made a quick voyage. For some sailors, as you know, are tricked and held back by sluggish winds, and grow weary and sick of the slow-moving calm; while others are carried quickly home by steady gales."