Great Throughts Treasury

"One need remain in hell no longer than he chooses to; and the moment he chooses not to remain longer, not all the powers in the universe can prevent his leaving it. One can rise to any heaven he himself chooses; and when he chooses so to rise, all the higher powers of the universe combine to help him heavenward."

"No clear-thinking or clear-seeing man or woman can be an apostle of despair. He alone fails who gives up and lies down."

"There are many who are living far below their possibilities because they are continually handing over their individualities to others. Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself. Be true to the highest wisdom within your soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded on principle."

"He who remains cheerful in spirit and sees only the good side of all things, who never allows himself to be spiritually downcast but keeps his head high and courage in his heart, he sets in motion those fine, still powers, which make every step through life The more one loves the nearer he approaches to God, for God is the spirit of infinite love."

"“God is well and so are you.” You must awaken to the knowledge of your real being. When this awakening comes, you will have, and you will see that you have the power to determine what conditions are externalized in your body. You must recognize, you must realize yourself, as one with Infinite Spirit. God’s will is then your will; your will is God’s will, and “with God all things are possible.” When we are able to do away with all sense of separateness by living continually in the realization of his oneness, not only will our bodily ills and weaknesses vanish, but all limitations along all lines."

"Full, rich and abounding health is the normal and the natural condition of life. Anything else is an abnormal condition, and abnormal conditions as a rule come through perversions. God never created sickness, suffering and disease; they are man’s own creations. They come through his violating laws under which he lives. So used are we to seeing them that we come gradually, if not to think of them as natural, then to look on them as a matter of course."

"Many will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by a practice somewhat after the following nature: Wit a mind at peace, and with a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your own interior self, holding the thought - I am one with the Infinite Spirit of Life, the life of my life. I then as spirit, I a spiritual being, can in my own real nature admit of no disease. I now open my body, in w2hich disease has obtained a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowing tide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in and coursing through my body, and the healing process is going on. Realize this so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warming glow imparted by the life forces to the body. Believe the healing process is going on. Believe it, and hold continually to it. Many people greatly desire a certain thing but expect something else. They have greater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and hence they remain ill."

"There is no separation between your soul and the soul of the universe. In the deepest sense you are the great universal soul. Man is God incarnate."

"In direct proportion as a man recognizes himself as spirit, and lives accordingly, is he able to transcend in power the man who recognizes himself merely as material."

"In the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of your oneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individual form has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through this realization you open yourself to its divine inflow, you set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical body into a state of abounding health and strength. For to realize that this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of no disease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you, by realizing your oneness with it, you can so open yourself to its more abundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions - effects - will respond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quickly or more tardily, depending entirely on yourself."

"No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it finds therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it and so makes it possible for it to come. the sooner we begin to look within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it will be, for so much sooner will we begin to make conditions within ourselves such that only good may enter."

"A man carries his success or his failure with him. It does not depend on outside conditions."

"A miracle is nothing more or less than this. Anyone who has come into a knowledge of his or her true identity, of his or her oneness with the all-pervading wisdom and power, this makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mind knows of to be revealed to this person."

"But a small thing, apparently, is a kind look, word, or service of some kind; but, oh! who can tell where it may end? It costs the giver comparatively nothing; but who can tell the priceless value of him who receives it? The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of cold water, may grow and swell into a boundless river, refreshing and carrying life and hope in turn to numberless others, and these to others, and so have no end. This may be just the critical moment in some life. Given now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. So don't withhold the bread that's in your keeping, but Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go. There is no greater thing in life that you can do, and nothing that will bring you such rich and precious returns."

"Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself."

"Every thought you entertain is a force that goes out, and every thought comes back laden with its kind."

"Faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itself whatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects."

"Love is everything. It is the key to life, and its influences are those that move the world."

"Man is the individualized expression or reflection of God imaged forth and made manifest in bodily form. How is it, then, I hear it asked, that man has the limitations that he has, that he is subject to fears and forebodings, that he is liable to sin and error, that he is the victim of disease and suffering? There is but one reason. He is not living, except in rare cases here and there, in the conscious realization of his own true Being, and hence of his own true Self."

"Our complex modern life, especially in our larger centers, gets us running so many times into grooves that we are prone to miss, and sometimes for long periods, the all-around, completer life. We are led at times almost to forget that the stars come nightly to the sky, or even that there is a sky; that there are hedgerows and groves where the birds are always singing and where we can lie on our backs and watch the treetops swaying above us and the clouds floating by an hour or hours at a time; where one can live with his or her soul or, as Whitman has put it, where one can loaf and invite one's soul."

"The moment we fully and vitally realize who and what we are, we then begin to build our own World even as God builds his."

"This is the law of prosperity. When apparent adversity comes, be not cast down by it, but make the best of it, and always look forward for better things, for conditions more prosperous."

"Thoughts are forces."

"To be at one with God is to be at peace ... peace is to be found only within, and unless one finds it there he will never find it at all. Peace lies not in the external world. It lies within one's own soul."

"To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy... is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them."

"Every day is a fresh beginning. Every morn is the world made new, you who are weary of sorrow and sinning, here is a beautiful hope for you, a hope for me and a hope for you. All the past things are past and over, the tasks are done, and the tears are shed. Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover. Yesterday's wounds, which smarted and bled, are healed with the healing which night has shed. Let them go, since we cannot relieve them, cannot undo and cannot atone. God in his mercy receive, forgive them! Only the new days are our own. Today is ours, and today alone. Here are the skies all burnished brightly; here is the spent earth all reborn, here are the tired limbs springing lightly to face the sun and to share with the morn in the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn. Every day is a fresh beginning, listen, my soul, to the glad refrain, and, spite of old sorrow and older sinning, and puzzles forecasted, and possible pain, take heart with the day and begin again."

"A Creed of the Open Road - To live to our highest in all things that pertain to us, and to lend a hand as best we can to all others for this same end. To aid in righting the wrongs that cross our path by pointing the wrong-doer to a better way, and thus aid him or her in becoming a power for good. To turn toward and to keep our faces always to the light, knowing that we are then always safe, and that we shall travel with joy the open road. To love the fields and the wild flowers, the stars, the far-open sea, the soft, warm earth, and to live much with them alone; but to love struggling and weary men and women and every pulsing, living creature better. To do our own thinking, listening quietly to the opinions of others, but to be sufficiently men and women to act always upon our own convictions. To do our duty as we see it, regardless of the opinions of others--seeming gain or loss, temporary blame or praise. To remain in nature always sweet and simple and humble and therefore strong. To play the part of neither fool nor knave by attempting to judge another, but to give that same time to living more worthily ourselves. To get up immediately when we stumble, face again to the light, and travel on without wasting even a moment in regret. To love and to hold due reverence for all people and all things, but to stand in awe or fear of nothing save our own wrong-doing. To recognize the good lying at the heart of all people, of all things, waiting for expression all in its own good way and time. To know that it is the middle ground that brings pleasure and satisfaction, and that excesses have to be paid for always with heavy and sometimes frightful costs. To know that work, occupation, something definite and useful to do, is one of the established conditions of happiness in life. To realize always clearly that thoughts are forces, that like creates like, and that to determine one's thinking therefore is to determine one's own life. To take and to live always in the attitude of mind that compels gladness, looking for and thus drawing to us continually the best in all people and all things, being thereby the creators of our own good fortunes. To know that the ever-conscious realization of the essential oneness of each life with the Divine Life is the highest of all knowledge, and that to open ourselves as opportune channels for the Divine Power to work in and through us is the open door to the highest attainment, and to the best there is in life. In brief--to be honest, to be fearless, to be just, joyous, kind. This will make our part in life's great and as yet not fully understood play one of greatest glory, and we need then stand in fear of nothing--life nor death; for death is life. Or rather, it is the quick transition to life in another form; the putting off of the old coat and the putting on of the new; a passing not from light to darkness, but from light to light according as we have lived here; a taking up of life in another form where we leave it off here; a part in life not to be shunned or dreaded or feared, but to be welcomed with a glad and ready smile when it comes in its own good way and time."

"Every thought you entertain is a force that goes out, and every thought comes back laden with its kind. This is an immutable law. Every thought you entertain has moreover a direct effect upon your body. Love and its kindred emotions are the normal and the natural, those in accordance with the eternal order of the universe, for God is love. These have a life-giving, health-engendering influence upon your body, besides beautifying your countenance, enriching your voice, and making you ever more attractive in every way."

"Don't surrender your individuality, which is your greatest agent of power, to the customs and conventionalities that have got their life from the great mass of those who haven't enough force to preserve their individualities. Those who in other words have given them over as ingredients to the 'mush of concession' which one of our greatest writers has said characterizes our modern society. If you do surrender your individuality in this way, you simply aid in increasing the undesirable conditions; in payment for this you become a slave, and the chances are that in time you will be unable to hold even the respect of those whom you in this way try to please."

"Opulence is the law of the universe, an abundant supply for every need if nothing is put in the way of its coming. The natural and the normal life for us is this -to have such a fullness of life and power by living so continually in the realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life and Power that we find ourselves in the constant possession of an abundant supply of all things needed. Then not by hoarding, but by wisely using and ridding ourselves of things as they come, an ever renewing supply will be ours, a supply far better adapted to present needs than the old could possibly be. In this way we not only come into possession of the richest treasures of the Infinite Good ourselves, but we also become open channels through which they can flow to others."

"Religion in its true sense is the most joyous thing the human soul can know, and when the real religion is realized we shall find that it will be an agent of peace, of joy, and of happiness, and never an agent of gloomy, long-faced sadness. It will then be attractive to all and repulsive to none. Let our Churches grasp these great truths, let them give their time and attention to bringing people into a knowledge of their true selves, into a knowledge of their relations, of their oneness, with the Infinite God, and such joy will be the result, and such crowds will flock to them, that their very walls will seem almost to burst, and such songs of joy will continually pour forth as will make all people in love with the religion that makes for everyday life, and hence the religion that is true and vital."

"Sufficient it is to know that the way we lived our yesterday has determined for us our today. And, again, when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should be tomorrows, with which we have nothing to do. Sufficient to know that the way we live our today determines our tomorrow."

"That we have within us the force or the power that makes us what we are, and that we have it in our own hands to determine how that force, that power shall be used is a revelation, if not clearly realized before, of tremendous import to any life."

"He alone fails who gives up and lies down."

"Let there be many windows in your soul, that all the glory of the universe may beautify it. Not the narrow pane of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays that shine from countless sources. Tear away the blinds of superstition, let the light pour through fair windows, broad as truth itself and high as heaven... Tune your ear to all the worldless music of the stars and to the voice of nature, and your heart shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights, and all the forces of the firmament shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid to thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole."

"I am resolved in all human contact to meet petulance with patience, questionings with kindness, hatred with love, eager always to do the kindly deed that brings the joy of service "and that alone makes human life truly human. I shall seek no advantage for myself to the detriment or the harm of my neighbor, knowing that it is only through the law of mutuality that I can fully enjoy what I gain" or can even be a man. I am resolved therefore so to live this day that, when the twilight comes and the night falls, I shall be not only another day's journey nearer home; but I shall have lived a man's part and done a man's work in the world and shall indeed deserve my Father's love and care."

"Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, and self-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-people be made the fundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these great and all-important questions will become. Ay, they will almost solve themselves."

"One carries one's success or failure with oneself; it does not depend on outside conditions."

"The great central fact in human life, in your life and mine, is the coming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with this Infinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. This is the great central fact in human life, for in this all else is included, all else follows in its train. In just the degree that we come into a conscious realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we actualize in ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life."

"The great central fact of the universe is that Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itself in and through all; that self-existent principle of life from which all has come, and not only from which all has come, but from which all is continually coming. If there is an individual life, there must of necessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes. If there is a quality or a force of love, there must of necessity be an infinite source of love whence it comes. If there is wisdom, there must be the all-wise source behind it from which it springs. The same is true in regard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard to what we call material things."

"The majority of people are not awake; it is only here and there that we find one even partially awake. Practically all of us, as a result, are living lives that are unworthy almost the name of lives, compared to those we might be living, and that lie within our easy grasp. While it is true that each life is in and of Divine Being, hence always one with it, in order that this great fact bear fruit in individual lives, each one must be conscious of it; he or she must know it in thought, and then live continually in this consciousness."

"The truly wise man will recognize no one as an enemy."

"There is a divine sequence running throughout the universe. Within and above and below the human will incessantly works the Divine will. To come into harmony with it and thereby with all the higher laws and forces, to come then into league and to work in conjunction with them, in order that they can work in league and in conjunction with us, is to come into the chain of this wonderful sequence. This is the secret of all success. This is to come into the possession of unknown riches, into the realization of undreamed-of powers."

"There is no more important injunction in all the world, nor one with a deeper interior meaning, than 'To thine own self be true.' In other words, be true to your own soul, for it is through your own soul that the voice of God speaks to you. This is the interior guide. This is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This is conscience. This is intuition. This is the voice of the higher self, the voice of the soul, the voice of God."

"There is no thing we cannot overcome. Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, and calls down punishment that is not merited. Back of thy parents and grandparents lies the great eternal will: that too is thine inheritance -strong, beautiful, divine ,sure lever of success for one who tries. There is no noble height thou canst not climb, all triumphs may be thine in time's futurity, if, whatso'er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt, but lean upon the staff of god's security. Earth has no claim the soul cannot contest, know thyself part of the eternal source, naught can stand before thy spirit's force. The soul's divine inheritance is best."

"Those who, forgetting self, make the object of their lives service, helpfulness and kindness to others, find their whole nature growing and expanding, themselves becoming large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, sympathetic, joyous, and happy; their lives becoming rich and beautiful."

"Thought is the great builder in human life: it is the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and you will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind."

"The blind following of party simply because one chances to belong to a particular party, and many times because one's father or uncle--in some cases tomorrow one's mother or aunt--belonged to it, has been one of the chief causes of the most notorious political corruption and debauchery."

"To live one's life as it comes to him or her to live it in essentials, considerate always of the feelings, the beliefs, the customs, the welfare of others in non-essentials, brings a completeness and a balance to life that makes for contentment as well as for growth and continual attainment."

"Truth is within ourselves, it takes no rise from outward things, whate'er you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all. Where truth abides in fullness."