Great Throughts Treasury

"This book unto the friend of my best friend as of the Wisest Love a Mark I send that she may write my Makers prais therin and make herself thereby a Cherubin."

"Tho the Spirit of an Angel be limited and Circumscribed in it self, yet the Supreme Spirit, which is GOD, is uncircumscribed. He is evry where and wholy evry where: which makes their Knowledg to be Dilated evry where. for being wholy evry where They are immediatly present with his Omnipresence in evry place and wholy. It filleth them for ever."

"This moment exhibits infinite space, but there is a space also wherein all moments are infinitely exhibited, and the everlasting duration of infinite space is another region and room of joys."

"Thoughts are the wings on which the soul doth flie, the messengers which soar abov the skie, Elijahs firey charet, that conveys the soul, even here, to those eternal joys. Thoughts are the privileged posts that soar unto his throne, and there appear before our selvs approach. These may at any time abov the clouds, abov the stars may clime. The soul is present by a thought; and sees the New Jerusalem."

"To think the world therefore a general Bedlam, or place of madmen, and oneself a physician, is the most necessary point of present wisdom: an important imagination, and the way to happiness."

"This visible world is wonderfully to be delighted in, and highly to be esteemed, because it is the theatre of God's righteous Kingdom."

"Wants are good. Wants are ?the bands and cements between God and us?. ?Want is the foundation of all His Fulness?. Want is ?a treasure in heaven?. ?You must want like a God, that you may be satisfied by God?. We are lifted to God on the wings of desire. ?The Desire satisfied is a Tree of Life.?"

"To love one person with a private love is poor and miserable: to love all is glorious."

"We do not ignore maturity. Maturity consists in not losing the past while fully living in the present with a prudent awareness of the possibilities of the future."

"You are as prone to love, as the sun is to shine."

"Wisdom is the principal thing, yet all men neglect her.? True philosophy is a love of wisdom, and this will direct us to happiness, or Felicity. We should strain every sinew to learn ?the way to perfect happiness."

"Yet thus it was. The Gem, the Diadem, the Ring Enclosing all that Stood upon this Earthy Ball; the Heavenly Ey, much Wider then the Skie, wher in they all included were the Glorious Soul that was the King made to possess them, did appear a Small and little thing!"

"You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and Kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world. Till your spirit filleth the whole world, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all Ages as with your walk and table: till you are intimately acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was made: till you love men so as to desire their happiness, with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own: till you delight in God for being good to all: you never."

"You never know yourself till you know more than your body."

"Your enjoyment of the world is never right, til every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father?s Palace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as Celestial Joys: having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were among the Angels? You never enjoy the world aright, til the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world."