Great Throughts Treasury

"We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men. But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends." - Robert Byrd, fully Robert Carlyle Byrd

"Strange as my circumstances were, the terms of this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements and alarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner; and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it. " - Robert Louis Stevenson, fully Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

"The way liberals are interpreting the First Amendment today is that it prevents anyone who is religious from being in government. They say that violates the prohibition against church and state." - Rush Limbaugh

"We are trapped in this spiral of self-dependence and lack of trust. Real progress will never be made until we reduce this level of fear. As a historian, I tell you it will take decades--maybe even a century--before we wean Americans off their guns. And until we reduce the level of fear and of violent crime, Americans would sooner die than give up their guns" - S. L. A. Marshall, Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall

"When we once begin to form good resolutions, God gives us every opportunity of carrying them out." - John Chrysostom, fully Saint John Chrysostom

"Work at ridding yourself of the esteem you have had up to now for the glitter and sparkle of virtue and the vain applause of the world, which Our Lord so assiduously avoided and so often recommends us to shun, and that you labor in earnest to acquire true and solid virtues." - Saint Vincent de Paul

"It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions." - Samuel Adams

"'Cause grace and virtue are within Prohibited degrees of kin; And therefore no true saint allows They shall be suffer'd to espouse." - Samuel Butler

"Never value the valueless. The trick is to know how to recognize it." - Sidney Madwed

"Analogies prove nothing, that is quite true, but they can make one feel more at home." - Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

"Conscience is the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us." - Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

"Humor is a means of obtaining pleasure in spite of the distressing effects that interface with it." - Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

"I will cure all the incurable nervous cases and through you I shall be healthy." - Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

"The impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself, and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious thing in life." - Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

"The person who can feel joy because he is not ill or injured lives a happy life." - Simcha Zissel of Kelm, fully Rabbi imcha Zissel Ziv Broida, aka the Elder of Kelm

"Justice for crimes against humanity must have no limitations." - Simon Wiesenthal

"Every perfect life is a parable invented by God." - Simone Weil

"Nothing can ever justify the assumption that any man, whoever he may be, has been deprived of this power. It is a power which is only real in this world in so far as it is exercised. The sole condition for exercising it is consent. This act of consent may be expressed, or it may not be, even tacitly; it may not be clearly conscious, although it has really taken place in the soul. Very often it is verbally expressed although it has not in fact taken place. But whether expressed or not, the one condition suffices: that it shall in fact have taken place. To anyone who does actually consent to directing his attention and love beyond the world, towards the reality that exists outside the reach of all human faculties, it is given to succeed in doing so. In that case, sooner or later, there descends upon him a part of the good, which shines through him upon all that surrounds him." - Simone Weil

"I am one of those who would rather sink with faith than swim without it." - Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley

"The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water." - Stendhal, pen name of Marie Henn Beyle or Marie-Henri Beyle NULL

"Science is a method for testing claims about the natural world, not an immutable compendium of absolute truths. The fundamentalists, by knowing the answers before they start, and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science—or of any honest intellectual inquiry." - Stephan Jay Gould

"The only decent marriage would be one allowing each partner to lead an independent life, in which, instead of a fusion derived from an enforced community of economic interest, both freely accepted mutual responsibility." - Theodor W. Adorno, born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund

"Love is the only thing you can really give in all this world. When you give love, you give everything." - Theodore Dreiser, fully Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser

"In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows. That is what you fought for in the Civil War, and that is what we strive for now." - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

"My view was that every executive officer, and above all every executive officer in high position, was a steward of the people bound actively and affirmatively to do all he could for the people, and not to content himself with the negative merit of keeping his talents undamaged in a napkin. I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific authorization to do it. My belief was that it was not only his right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws. Under this interpretation of executive power I did and caused to be done many things not previously done by the President and the heads of the departments. I did not usurp power, but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power. In other words, I acted for the public welfare, I acted for the common well-being of all our people, whenever and in whatever manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative prohibition." - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young." - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

"How does the poet speak to men with power, but by being still more a man than they?" - Thomas Carlyle

"A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively." - Thomas Jefferson

"And, finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them." - Thomas Jefferson

"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society." - Thomas Jefferson

"Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise." - Thomas Jefferson

"Every man's reason is his own rightful umpire. This principle, with that of acquiescence in the will of the majority, will preserve us free and prosperous as long as they are sacredly observed." - Thomas Jefferson

"I succeed him; no one could replace him." - Thomas Jefferson

"It is my rule never to take a side in any part in the quarrels of others, nor to inquire into them. I generally presume them to flow from the indulgence of too much passion on both sides, and always find that each party thinks all the wrong was in his adversary. These bickerings, which are always useless, embitter human life more than any other cause..." - Thomas Jefferson

"Planting is one of my great amusements, and even of those things which can only be for posterity, for a Septuagenary has no right to count on anything but annuals." - Thomas Jefferson

"The flames kindled on the Fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them." - Thomas Jefferson

"The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government the ingredient of republicanism; evidently none where the authorities are hereditary... or self-chosen... and little, where for life, in proportion as the life continues in being after the act of election." - Thomas Jefferson

"The law of self-preservation is higher than written law." - Thomas Jefferson

"The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

"The tax which will be paid for [the] purpose [of education] is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance." - Thomas Jefferson

"Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people. They fix, too, for the people the principles of their political creed." - Thomas Jefferson

"We love peace, yet spurn a tame submission to wrong." - Thomas Jefferson

"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination." - Thomas Jefferson

"All aesthetic judgment is really cultural evaluation." - Susan Sontag

"Congress has passed the big inheritance tax. That gets you when you’re gone. I think it’s a good law. You had had the use of the money during your lifetime, so turn it over to the government and they can do some darn fool things with it. Maybe as foolish as the children of the deceased would. It’s only one generation from a pick handle to a putter and one more from a tuxedo to a tramp." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

"Now they got such a high inheritance tax on 'em that you won't catch these old rich boys dying promiscuously like they did. This bill makes patriots out of everybody. You sure do die for your country if you die from now on." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

"The reason political party platforms are so long is that when you straddle anything it takes a long time to explain it." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

"They got such a high inheritance tax on ’em that you won’t catch these old rich boys dying promiscuously like they did. This bill makes patriots out of everybody. You sure do die for your country if you die from now on." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

"The family is the nucleus of civilization." - Will and Ariel Durant