Great Throughts Treasury

"The past is rich in lessons from which we would greatly profit except that the present is always so full of Special Circumstances."

"The plague of government is senile delinquency."

"The real is very real to him, the unreal even more so."

"The soul may sleep and the body still be happy, but only in youth."

"The poor have the same basic pleasures as the rich, and the rich will always resent it."

"The three horrors of modern life - talk without meaning, desire without love, work without satisfaction."

"The time to begin most things is ten years ago."

"The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it."

"The woman just ahead of you at the supermarket checkout has all the delectable groceries you didn't even know they carried."

"The way the neurotic sees it: bars on his door mean that he's locked in; bars on your door mean that he's locked out."

"The total history of almost anyone would shock almost everyone."

"The young are generally full of revolt, and are often pretty revolting about it."

"There are a handful of people whom money won't spoil, and we all count ourselves among them."

"Theatre audiences can't be made to think and cry: at best, they can be made to think and laugh, or to feel and cry."

"There are children born to be children, and others who must mark time till they can take their natural places as adults."

"There are now electrical appliances with the main unit so sealed in that it cannot be got at for repair. There have always been human beings like that."

"There?s an awful lot of blood around that water is thicker than."

"There are whole years for which I hope I?ll never be cross-examined, for I could not give an alibi."

"There's little enough to be said for nationalism, so let's say it and have done."

"There?s nothing wrong with most men?s egos that the kowtowing of a headwaiter can?t cure."

"There's no way to repay a mother's love, or lack of it."

"There's only one person who needs a glass of water oftener than a small child tucked in for the night, and that's a writer sitting down to write."

"They threaten me with lung cancer, and still I smoke and smoke. If they'd only threaten me with hard work, I might stop."

"To smoke or not to smoke: I can make of either a life work."

"Those who turn to God for comfort may find comfort but I do not think they will find God."

"Throughout our lives, we see in the mirror the same innocent trusting face we have seen there since childhood."

"Too much money is as demoralizing as too little, and there's no such thing as exactly enough."

"Vanity, revenge, loneliness, boredom, all apply: lust is one of the least of the reasons for promiscuity."

"Tough and funny and a little bit kind: that is as near to perfection as a human being can be."

"Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening."

"We are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy."

"We all dream of being the darling of everybody's darling."

"We all become great explorers during our first few days in a new city, or a new love affair."

"We are irritated by rascals, intolerant of fools, and prepared to love the rest. But where are they?"

"We are like people with short-term leases on summer cottages; we can never seem to make our provisions come out even with our stay."

"We are seldom happy with what we now have, but would go to pieces if we lost any part of it."

"We choose those we like; with those we love, we have no say in the matter."

"We catch frightful glimpses of ourselves in the hostile eyes of others."

"We climb mountains because they are there, and worship God because He is not."

"We hear only half of what is said to us, understand only half of that, believe only half of that, and remember only half of that."

"We have to call it "freedom": who'd want to die for "a lesser tyranny"?"

"We come late, if at all, to wine and philosophy; whiskey and action are easier."

"We sometimes feel that we have been really understood, but it was always long ago, by someone now dead."

"We tell our children things which we know are not so, but which we wish were so."

"We wake in the night, to stereophonic silence."

"We work for praise, and dawdle once we have it."

"We welcome passion, for the mind is briefly let off duty."

"What a shame that allowances have to stop with the teens: both those that are paid to us and those that are made for us."

"What we love about love is the fever, which marriage puts to bed and cures."

"What we forgive too freely doesn?t stay forgiven."