Great Throughts Treasury

"Do not cage God in a picture frame. Do not confine him in an idol. He is all forms; He is all Names." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Do not entertain bad thoughts and do bad deeds. Life is holy and sacred. Go through it with joy and happiness. Do not carry gloomy, unhappy faces. Happiness is union with God. This period of your life is sacred. If you can not derive happiness and live in Bliss at this age, can you be blissful when you grow old? Now, you have only two legs to carry; you can jump about freely. But when you marry and rear up a family, you will move like a caterpillar with many legs." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Do not kill us. preach us. protect us and do not become angry. May we never oppose you." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Do not long after the departed, who conduct (men) afar. Ascend from the darkness, come to the light. We lay hold of thy hands." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Every being is a pilgrim destined to reach Madhava and merge in Him; but most people have forgotten the road; they wander like lost children, wasting precious time in the by-paths." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"God is naturally pervading all places. Sometimes He is hidden, and sometimes He is revealed; thus God has made the world of His making. He Himself wakes us from sleep. No one can estimate His value, although everyone has tried, over and over again, to describe Him." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"God is one but the ways to reach Him are many." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"I clap thy teeth upon thy teeth, and also thy jaw upon thy jaw; I press thy tongue against thy tongue, and close up, O serpent, thy mouth." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"If our thoughts, actions and deeds are pure then we are automatically blessed with added benefits like good health, strength, long life and most importantly benediction. Therefore we should try to keep ourselves pure and chaste." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"May earth provide us with all the things of our requirements just like a 'mother', who breast-feeds her child." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"People learn details about China, Russia and America; they know about the volcanoes of the Pacific or the islands of the Arctic regions; but they do not know an iota about the features of their own inner realms." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Prayer has been made to all three of them for welfare, success and prosperity." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Return when called, knowing the outlet of the path (death), the ascent, the advance, the road of every living man." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"The balanced persons will be active because it is their duty. They will not be agitated by anything - failure or success. The Godly will take up activity as a means of worshipping God; and they leave the result to God. They know that they are but instruments in the hands of God." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"The blossom of Love will make the air fragrant; the river of Love will murmur along the valleys; and every bird, beast and child will sing the song of Love." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"The first impulse of jealousy, moreover the one that comes after the first, the fire, the heart-burning, that do we waft away from thee." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"The sweetness and pleasantness of personality should be evident in his actions and thoughts. This will help in establishing peace and happiness all round and lead to the feeling of universal brotherhood." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"The upper part of the womb do I place below, there shall come to thee neither offspring nor birth. I render thee sterile and devoid of offspring; a stone do I make into a cover for thee." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Those, who are successful and prosperous earn respect of the people. One should therefore strive tirelessly to earn wealth so that success and good status follows up naturally." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Verily, every creature lives there, the cow, the horse, and man, where this charm is performed, as the (protecting) barrier for life." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Whatever the method of worship and whichever the Name or Form, it is faith that matters; it is that which gives life and energy for higher things." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"When selfishness is gone, then one becomes the Lord Himself; seek the Sanctuary of the treasure of mercy." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"You have wasted the precious jewel of this human life; you do not know the Way of the Lord of the Universe." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"Your eyes should not seek evil sights; your ears should not seek evil tales; your tongue should not seek evil speech; your hands should not seek evil acts; your minds should not seek evil thoughts." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"I never knew anybody . . . who found life simple. I think a life or a time looks simple when you leave out the details." - Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

"The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story." - Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

"You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium." - Ursula Le Guin, fully Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

"A person who cannot move and live a normal life because he is pinned under a boulder has more time to think about his hopes than someone who is not trapped in this way." - Václav Havel

"The average church member doesn’t even give the devil enough trouble to get his attention!" - Vance Havner

"The vaults of heaven are moth-proof, rust-proof, and thief-proof." - Vance Havner

"Simple truths are a relief from grand speculations." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

"That does not offend society is not the purview of justice." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

"And when there is no wind a beast draws along a huge cart, which is a grand sight." - Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

"But he who did not bear help to an ally or friend is beaten with rods." - Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

"Here then should each man read, and gazing find both how to live and govern, and beware of godlessness; and, seeing God all-where, be bold to grasp the universal mind." - Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

"How far more wondrous than your phantasies are Nature's works, how far more sweet to sing! Thus taught, the soul falsehood and truth descries." - Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella

"It becomes essential to choose one's path. Life consists in making these choices. One develops by choosing. It requires strength to become a child of God ..." - Toyohiko Kagawa

"It is not enough to have ideals. We must translate them into action. We must clear our own little corner of creation." - Toyohiko Kagawa

"The Buddha's wisdom and radiance are like the sun, because they shine upon the entire earth, lighting up even the remotest corners of darkness." - Hsuan Hua, aka An Tzu and Tu Lun

"If you're looking for adventure of a new and different kind, and you come across a Girl Scout who is similarly inclined, don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared. Be prepared!" - Tom Lehrer, fully Thomas Andrew Lehrer

"Do not despise the opinion of the world; you might as well say you do not care for the light of the sun, because you can use a candle." - Tryon Edwards

"Looks are more expressive and reliable than words; they have a language which all understand, and language itself is to be interpreted by the look as well as tone with which it is uttered." - Tryon Edwards

"Our censure of our fellowmen, which we are prone to think a proof of our superior wisdom, is too often only the evidence of the conceit that would magnify self, or of the malignity or envy that would detract from others." - Tryon Edwards

"Religion, in its purity, is not so much a pursuit as a temper; or rather it is a temper, leading to the pursuit of all that is high and holy. Its foundation is faith; its action, works; its temper, holiness; its aim, obedience to God in improvement of self and benevolence to men." - Tryon Edwards

"Ridicule may be the evidence of wit or bitterness and may gratify a little mind, or an ungenerous temper, but it is no test of reason or truth." - Tryon Edwards

"The leaves in autumn do not change color from the blighting touch of frost, but from the process of natural decay. - They fall when the fruit is ripened, and their work is done. - And their splendid coloring is but their graceful and beautiful surrender of life when they have finished their summer offering of service to God and man. And one of the great lessons the fall of the leaf teaches, is this: Do your work well, and then be ready to depart when God shall call." - Tryon Edwards

"The mortality of mankind is but a part of the process of living - a step on the way to immortality. - Dying, to the good man, is but a brief sleep, from which he wakes to a perfection and fullness of life in eternity." - Tryon Edwards

"This world is the land of the dying; the next is the land of the living." - Tryon Edwards

"True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it leads not to emotion, and emotion is vain if not enlightened by intellect; and both are vain if not guided by truth and leading to duty." - Tryon Edwards

"When a tradesman is about to weigh his goods, he first of all looks to his scales and sees that his weights are right. And so for all wise, or safe, or profitable self-examination, we are not to look to frames, or feelings, or to the conduct of others, but to God's word, which is the only true standard of decision." - Tryon Edwards