Great Throughts Treasury

"A man is what he thinks about all day."

"A more secret, sweet and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue. Then he is instructed in what is above him."

"A standing army is of more danger to the state it protects than to that which it threatens."

"All history is the record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one."

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen."

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

"All Spiritual being is in man. A wise old proverb says, “God comes to see us without bell”: that is, as there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so is there no bar or wall in the soul where man, the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, begins."

"And let no men’s sins dishearten thee: love a man even in his sin. Love is our highest word, and the synonym of God."

"An Indian has his knowledge for use, and it only appears in use. Most white men that we know have theirs for talking purposes."

"Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief in denying them."

"Beware of what you want for you will get it."

"An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man."

"As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits, which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men."

"Cause and effect are two sides of one fact."

"Books are for the scholars’ times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men’s transcripts of their readings. But when the intervals of darkness come, as come they must – we repair to the lamps which were kindled by their ray, to guide our steps to the East again, where the dawn is."

"Character is that which can do without success."

"Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified."

"Conversation is the laboratory and workshop of the student."

"Courage charms us because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind."

"Divine Providence sends the chiefest benefits under the mask of calamities."

"Do not go where the path may lead...go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

"Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it."

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about actions. All life is an experiment."

"Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance."

"Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay."

"Every fact depends for its value on how much we already know."

"Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm."

"Every actual state is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well."

"Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool."

"Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn from him."

"Every soul is potentially Genius, if not arrested."

"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide int he liar, but is a stab at the health of human society."

"Excellence is lost sight of in the hunger for sudden performance and praise."

"Fear always springs from ignorance."

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and some absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays."

"Extremes meet: there is no straight line."

"For all our penny-wisdom, for all our soul-destroying slavery to habit, it is not to be doubted that all men have sublime thoughts; that all men value the few real hours of life; they love to be heard; they love to be caught up in the vision of principles."

"God had infinite time to give us; but how did He give it? In one immense tract of a lazy millenium? No, but He cut it up into a neat succession of new mornings, and, with each, therefore, a new idea, new inventions, and new applications."

"From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all."

"God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please – you can never have both."

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays."

"God is the substratum of all souls. Is not that the solution of the riddle?"

"Good thoughts are no better than good dreams if you don’t follow through."

"Great is the mischief of a legal crime."

"Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world."

"I am a better believer, and all serious souls are better believers, in immortality than we can give grounds for."

"I consider theology to be the rhetoric of morals."

"If a man is at heart just, then in so far is he God; the safety of God, the immortality of God, the majesty of God, do enter in that man with justice."

"I have never met a great man who wasn’t inconsistent."

"If a nation of men is exalted to that height of morals as to refuse to fight and choose rather to suffer loss of goods and loss of life than to use violence, they must be not helpless but most effective and great men; they would overawe their invader, and make him ridiculous; they would communicate the contagion of their virtue and inoculate all mankind."