Great Throughts Treasury

"Friends are made and kept three ways. First, by honoring them in their presence. Second, by saying good of them in their absence. Third, by serving them in their needs."

"Gratitude takes three forms: a feeling in the heart, an expression in words, and a giving in return."

"Happiness does not come from possessions, but from our appreciation of them. It does not come from our work, but from our attitude toward that work. It does not come from success, but from the spiritual growth we attain in achieving that success."

"Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity."

"He is not laughed at by others, that laughs at himself first."

"He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction."

"Hospitality is to be shown even towards an enemy. The tree doth not withdraw its shade, even from the woodcutter."

"If it were not for hope the heart would break."

"If the student fails to learn the teacher fails to teach."

"In the very depths of your soul, dig a grave; let it be as some forgotten spot to which no path leads; and there in the eternal silence bury the wrongs which you have suffered. Your heart will feel as if a load had fallen from it, and a divine peace come to abide with you."

"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

"If you don't have wrinkles, you haven't laughed enough."

"It is easier to understand a nation by listening to its music than by learning its language."

"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."

"It takes thirty-four muscles to frown, and only thirteen to smile. Why make the extra effort?"

"It takes vision and courage to create. It takes faith and courage to prove."

"Love is the doorway thru which the human soul passes from selfishness to service and from solitude to kinship with all mankind."

"Love requires daring."

"Memory tempers prosperity, consoles adversity, cautions youth, and delights old age."

"Man is the only animal that eats when he is not hungry, drinks when he is not thirsty, and makes love at all seasons."

"Most people have the idea that happiness is something that can be manufactured. They do not realize that it can no more be manufactured than wheat or corn can be manufactured. It must grow; and the harvest will be like the seed. It will take every moment that we have lived of life's probation day to think on the true, honest, just, pure and lovely things of life. These are the things that will make us contented."

"Much of the beauty of life is found in people who care."

"Misfortunes are needles with which God sews our souls to the eternal truths."

"Never speak unless you can improve on silence."

"Prolonged ideas paralyzes initiative."

"No rewards are offered for finding fault."

"Peace is not the absence of conflict from life, but the ability to cope with it."

"One of the striking characteristics of successful persons is their faculty of determining the relative importance of different things. There are many things which it is more desirable to do, a few are essential, and there is no more useful quality of the human mind than that which enables its possessor at once to distinguish which the few essential things are... Let one adopt the practice of reflecting, every morning, what must necessarily be done during the day, and then begin by doing the most important things first, leaving the others to take their chance of being done or left undone."

"Reverence is one of the signs of strength; irreverence one of the surest indications of weakness. No man will rise high who jeers at sacred things. The fine loyalties of life must be reverenced or they will be forsworn in the day of trial."

"Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get."

"Prosperity makes friends and adversity tries them."

"Swift gratitude is sweetest; if it delays, all gratitude is empty and unworthy of the name."

"The five most important words: I am proud of you."

"The human race is faced with a cruel choice: Work or daytime television."

"The massive gates of Circumstance are turned upon the smallest hinge."

"The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future."

"The mind is like a parachute; it works best when open."

"The poorest education that teaches self-control, is better than the best that neglects it."

"The only religion that will do anything toward enriching your life is the religion which inspires you to do something toward enriching the life of others."

"The world is full of beauty when the heart is full of love."

"The value of anything is what the next days' memory of it shall be."

"There is no sure way to guarantee that your child will grow up to be the kind of person you would like him to be. The most likely way is for you to be the kind of person you would like him to be."

"The wise man alone is free, and every fool is a slave."

"Time is the life of the soul."

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

"To face the inevitable is to confront something sacred. As long as anything is uncertain, the roads are open in more than one direction, and right and wrong may have many aspects. But let the issue be determined, let the die be cast, and acceptance and adjustment become our immediate duty. Until God’s will be known, we may work and wrestle and pry to carry our point, to save the day, to win the prize, spurred only the more by the uncertainty; of the result. But let the result be known, however dark and disappointing, and we should view it in the light of God’s plan to make us His evident children, and ask what we are to learn, what next we are to do."

"There is not much to do but bury a man when the last of his dreams are dead."

"To listen well, is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well, is as essential to all true conversation."

"To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose our feelings is to risk exposing our true self. To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd is to risk loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk despair. To try at all is to risk failure. But risk we must, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The man, the woman who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing."

"Tolerance is bigger than race, greater than creed, mightier than color. It is not a breaking down of all barriers between ourselves and the other fellow; it is the realization, that, in reality, there are no barriers to break down."