Great Throughts Treasury

"One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art. "

"Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected. "

"One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards. "

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. "

"Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others. "

"Pessimist - one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both."

"Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered. "

"Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit. "

"Punctuality is the thief of time."

"Pleasure is the only thing to live for. Nothing ages like happiness."

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."

"Some temptations are so great it takes great courage to yield to them."

"Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime."

"Religion is a fashionable substitute for Belief."

"Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions."

"Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. "

"Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement."

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. And unselfishness is letting other people's lives alone, not interfering with them. Selfishness always aims at uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it."

"Society often forgives the criminal... never the dreamer."

"Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex. "

"The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional. "

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror."

"The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream."

"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. "

"The condition of idleness is perfection; the aim of perfection is youth."

"The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. "

"The fatality of good resolutions is that they are always too late."

"The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered."

"The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture, and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends. "

"The English country gentleman galloping after a fox -- the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable. "

"The longer I live the more keenly I feel that whatever was good enough for our fathers is not good enough for us."

"The heart was made to be broken. "

"The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death. "

"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything."

"The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself. "

"The only charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties. "

"The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action."

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

"The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist the hole."

"The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands."

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. "

"The story of mankind began in a garden and ended in revelations."

"The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves."

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."

"There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. "

"The soul is born old, but it grows young; that is the comedy of life. The body is born young and grows old; that is life's tragedy."

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

"Those who are faithless know the pleasures of love; it is the faithful who know love's tragedies."

"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."

"Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. "