Great Throughts Treasury

"In the information-communication civilization of the 21st Century, creativity and mental excellence will become the ethical norm. The world will be too dynamic, complex, and diversified, too cross-linked by the global immediacies of modern (quantum) communication, for stability of thought or dependability of behaviour to be successful." - Timothy Leary, fully Timothy Francis Leary

"We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. They are a hundred times better educated than their grandparents, and ten times more sophisticated. There has never been such an open-minded group. The problem is that no one is giving them anything fresh. They've got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go." - Timothy Leary, fully Timothy Francis Leary

"Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous vizor hide deep vice! The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (Duchess of York at II, ii)" - William Shakespeare

"All is not offence that indiscretion finds, and dotage terms so." - William Shakespeare

"And I could laugh; I am light and heavy." - William Shakespeare

"Appear thou in the likeness of sigh; Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied! Cry but 'Ay me! pronounce but 'love' and 'dove': Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, One nickname for her purblind son and heir Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so true When King Cophetus loved the beggar maid! Romeo and Juliet, Act ii, Scene 1" - William Shakespeare

"Consideration, like an angel came and whipp'd the offending Adam out of him, leaving his body as a paradise to envelope and contain celestial spirits. King Henry V. Act i. Sc. 1." - William Shakespeare

"He who will warrant his virtue in every possible situation is either an impostor or a fool. " - Claude-Adrien Helvétius

"Nor is there any reason to believe that sound conviction will be less permanent in its influence than sophistry and error." - William Godwin

"I want a full and thorough investigation of this, and then we will issue the report publicly, ... We want to be transparent about this, and we are cooperating fully with the NCAA." - William Harvey

"The attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, no matter by what outward ills it may have been engendered? What is more injurious to others? What less helpful as a way out of the difficulty? It but fastens and perpetuates the trouble which occasioned it, and increases the total evil of the situation. At all costs, then, we ought to reduce the sway of that mood; we ought to scout it in ourselves and others, and never show it tolerance." - William James

"It is much more possible for the sun to give out darkness than for God to do or be, or give out anything but blessing and goodness." - William Law

"What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can't move, with no hope of rescue. Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances seems more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won't be troubling you much longer." - Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams

"All passions make us commit faults, but love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"O that a lady, of one man refused, should of another therefore be abused!" - William Shakespeare

"O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright." - William Shakespeare

"O! she's warm. If this be magic, let it be an art lawful as eating." - William Shakespeare

"O, that a man might know the end of this day's business ere it come! But it sufficeth that the day will end, and then the end is known." - William Shakespeare

"Once more, adieu. The rest let sorrow say." - William Shakespeare

"Now For self-culture nothing equals respect for others. To counteract firmness nothing equals compliance. Consequently it can be said that the Way of respect and acquiescence is woman's most important principle of conduct. So respect may be defined as nothing other than holding on to that which is permanent; and acquiescence nothing other than being liberal and generous. Those who are steadfast in devotion know that they should stay in their proper places; those who are liberal and generous esteem others, and honor and serve chem." - Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban

"Give Saturday, you will find Sunday." - Egyptian Proverbs

"It is a wretched thing to injure a poor man." - Egyptian Proverbs

"True sages are those who give what they have, without meanness and without secret!" - Egyptian Proverbs

"Nothing was better for you than humiliation, for there was nothing you felt more deeply." - Elias Canetti

"The child had indeed shut up but all the questions that had accumulated on his tongue circulated in his mouth, moved through the passages of his nose and climbed up from there to tickle into his teardrop ducts, so in his moss green pupils, curious, insistent, accusing sparks of questions continued to light up and fade away like fireflies flitting about on summer nights." - Elif Safak

"Why, what's wrong! Religions are like rivers: all flow into a sea. Mother Mary embodies compassion, mercy, love and unconditional love. It is personal, but belongs to everyone. Never mind that you're a Muslim, you can still love her and even called his daughter Maria." - Elif Safak

"SALERINO: I saw Bassanio and Antonio part: Bassanio told him he would make some speed of his return: he answer'd, 'Do not so; slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio but stay the very riping of the time; and for the Jew's bond which he hath of me, let it not enter in your mind of love: be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts to courtship and such fair ostents of love as shall conveniently become you there: and even there, his eye being big with tears, turning his face, he put his hand behind him, and with affection wondrous sensible he wrung Bassanio's hand; and so they parted." - William Shakespeare

"SECOND FISHERMAN: Canst thou catch any fishes then? PERICLES: I never practiced it. SECOND FISHERMAN: Nay, then thou wilt starve sure; for here's nothing to be got nowadays unless thou canst fish for 't." - William Shakespeare

"Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be!" - William Shakespeare

"She that herself will sliver and disbranch from her material sap, perforce must wither and come to deadly use." - William Shakespeare

"She would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too." - William Shakespeare

"So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends." - William Shakespeare

"So, of his gentleness, Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me from mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom." - William Shakespeare

"The sound universe is also spectacular around here. In the evenings there's a cricket orchestra with frogs providing the bass line. In the dead of night the dogs howl about how misunderstood they are. Before dawn the roosters for miles around announce how freaking cool it is to be roosters." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"As the moths around a taper, as the bees around a rose, as the gnats around a vapour, so the spirits group and close round about a holy childhood, as if drinking its repose." - Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Mountain gorses, ever-golden. Cankered not the whole year long! Do ye teach us to be strong, howsoever pricked and holden like your thorny blooms and so trodden on by rain and snow, up the hillside of this life, as bleak as where ye grow?" - Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"My heart is very tired--my strength is low-- My hands are full of blossoms pluck'd before held dead within them till myself shall die." - Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Among the clergy we find our most violent enemies, those most opposed to any change in woman's position." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"That only a few, under any circumstances, protest against the injustice of long-established laws and customs, does not disprove the fact of the oppressions, while the satisfaction of the many, if real only proves their apathy and deeper degradation." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"Whatever the theories may be of woman's dependence on man, in the supreme moments of her life he cannot bear her burdens." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"You don’t want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don’t want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading." - Dorothy Parker

"Too much principle is often more harmful than too little." - Ellen Glasgow, fully Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow

"Christianity is most admirably adapted to the training of slaves, to the perpetuation of a slave society; in short, to the very conditions confronting us to-day... The rulers of the earth have realized long ago what potent poison inheres in the Christian religion. That is the reason they foster it; that is why they leave nothing undone to instill it into the blood of the people. They know only too well that the subtleness of the Christian teachings is a more powerful protection against rebellion and discontent than the club or the gun." - Emma Goldman

"Treat the "Because" when you find yourself thinking that your Prayer cannot be answered for any reason whatever - treat that reason. When something says to you that you cannot demonstrate "because" - treat the because. When you think, I cannot demonstrate because I have not enough understanding - treat for understanding. When you think, I cannot treat because I have a Headache - treat the headache. When you think, I cannot demonstrate because I am full of doubts - treat the doubts. When you think I cannot demonstrate because it is now too late - treat against the time illusion. When you think, I cannot demonstrate in this part of the country - treat against the space illusion. When you think, I cannot demonstrate this thing because of my age - treat your age belief. When you think, I cannot demonstrate because someone else will hinder me - treat the belief in a power other than God. No matter what name the because may give itself, it is still your belief in limitation. Be loyal to God and know that He and He alone has all power. Treat the because." - Emmet Fox

"You are not happy because you are well. You are well because you are happy. You are not depressed because trouble has come to you, but trouble has come to you because you are depressed. You can change your thoughts and feelings, and then the outer things will come to correspond, and indeed there is no other way of working." - Emmet Fox

"Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself." - English Proverbs

"Never quit certainty for hope." - English Proverbs

"You take the best of our tradition as a start, and I'll take the best of Christianity ... From there we can build." - Feisal Abdul Rauf

"Ambition...the original of vices; Mother of hypocrisy, parent of envy, engineer of deceit." - Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

"In principle the great religions of the world do not differ as much as they appear to." - Ernest Shurtleff Holmes