Great Throughts Treasury

"The brevity of our life, the dullness of our senses, the torpor of our indifference, the futility of our occupation, suffer us to know but little: and that little is soon shaken and then torn from the mind by the traitor to learning, that hostile and faithless stepmother to memory, oblivion."

"A recognition of truth and the practice of virtue is the title to security for both the individuals and the whole of mankind."

"Virtue cannot be fully attained without liberty and the absence of liberty proves that virtue in its full protection is wanting. Therefore a man is free in proportion to the measure of his virtues, and the extent to which he is free determines what his virtues can accomplish."

"Seeking is a necessary preliminary to finding, and one who cannot endure the hardship of inquiry cannot expect to harvest the fruit of knowledge."

"The only sure road to truth is humility."

"One who comprehends truth is wise, one who loves it good, one who orders his life in accordance with it happy."

"The petition of an empty hand is dangerous."