Great Throughts Treasury

"Mystery is but another name for our ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain."

"Nature and revelation are alike God's books; each may have mysteries, but in each there are plain practical lessons for everyday duty."

"Our opinions on all subjects are more largely formed by our sympathies than by carefully sifted evidence."

"Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument; not being founded in reason they cannot be destroyed by logic."

"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 tempter, holiness; its aim, obedience to God in improvement of self and benevolence to men."

"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 and truth."

"Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past - the best evidence of regret for them that we can offer, or the world receives."

"Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws - a thing which can never be demonstrated"

"Seek happiness for its own sake, and you will not find it; seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine."

"Sense, brevity, and point are the elements of a good proverb."

"Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong."

"Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end."

"Some men are born old, and some never seem so. If we keep well and cheerful we are always young, and at last die in youth, even when years would count us old."

"Temperance is to the body what religion is to the soul, the foundation and source of health and strength and peace."

"The benefit of proverbs, or maxims, is that they separate those who act on principle from those who act on impulse; and they lead to promptness and decision in acting. Their value deepens on four things; do they embody correct principles; are they on important subjects; what is the extent, and what is the ease of their application?"

"The highest attainment, as well as enjoyment of the spiritual life, is to be able at all times and in all things to say "Thy will be done.""

"The object of punishment is threefold: for just retribution; for the protection of society; for the reformation of the offender."

"The power of little things has so often been noted that we accept it as an axiom, and yet fail to see, in each beginning, the possibility of great events."

"The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds."

"There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. Like imprisoned steam, the more it is pressed the more it rises to resist the pressure. The more we are obliged to do the more we are able to accomplish."

"Think as well as read, and when you read. Yield not your minds to the passive impressions which others may make upon them. Hear what they have to say; but examine it, weight it, and judge for yourselves. This will enable you to make a right use of books - to use them as helpers, not as guides to your understanding; as counselors, not as dictators of what you are to think and believe."

"Thoroughly to teach another is the best way to learn for yourself."

"Thoroughly to teach another is the best way to learn yourself."

"To rejoice in another's prosperity, is to give content to your own lot; to mitigate another's grief, is to alleviate or dispel your own."

"To rule one's anger is well; to prevent it is still better."

"To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully."

"True conservatism is substantial progress; it holds fast what is true and good in order to advance in both. To cast away the old is not of necessity to attain the new. To reject anything that is valuable, lessens the power of gaining more. That a thing is new does not of course commend; that it is old does not discredit. The test question is, "Is it true or good?""

"True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it lead 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."

"We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living."

"We weep over the graves of infants and the little ones taken from us by death; but an early grave may be the shortest way to heaven."

"What we need in religion, is not new light, but new sight; not new paths, but new strength to walk in the old ones; not new duties, but new strength from on high to fulfill those that are plain before us."