Great Throughts Treasury

"One of the tremendous evils of the world is the monstrous accumulation of power in a few hands."

"Practice makes perfect, so be careful what you practice."

"Secret study, silent thought is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs. What a man does outwardly is but the expression and completion of his inward thought."

"The best books for a man are not always those which the wise recommend, but often those which meet the peculiar wants, the natural thirst of his mind, and therefore awaken interest and rivet thought."

"The chief evil of war is more evil. War is the concentration of all human crimes. Here is its distinguishing, accursed brand. Under its standard gather violence, malignity, rage, fraud, perfidy, rapacity, and lust. If it only slew man, it would do little. It turns man into a beast of prey."

"Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual."

"Poetry reveals to us the loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of youthful feelings, reviews the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the springtime of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human mature, by vivid delineations of its tenderest and softest feelings, and through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life."

"Perhaps in our presence, the most heroic deed on earth is done in some silent spirit, the loftiest purpose cherished, the most generous sacrifice made, and we do not suspect it. I believe this greatness to be most common among the multitude, whose names are never heard."

"Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is this, that the Bible is a book written for men, in the language of men, and that its meaning is to be sought in the same manner as that of other books. We believe that God, when he speaks to the human race, conforms, if we may so say, to the established rules of speaking and writing. How else would the Scriptures avail us more, than if communicated in an unknown tongue?"

"The essential and unbounded mercy of my Creator is the foundation of my hope, and a broader and surer the universe cannot give me."

"The great hope of society is in individual character"

"The home is the chief school of human virtues."

"The hills are reared, the seas are scooped in vain."

"The divine attributes are first developed in ourselves, and thence transferred to our Creator. The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own spiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity. In ourselves are the elements of the Divinity."

"The more a person analyzes his inner self, the more insignificant he seems to himself. This is the first lesson of wisdom. Let us be humble, and we will become wise. Let us know our weakness, and it will give us power."

"The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny.... In war, then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges."

"The less of government the better, if society were kept in peace and prosperity."

"The only God whom our thoughts can rest on, our hearts cling to, and our conscience can recognize, is the God whose image dwells in our own souls."

"The only distinctions which should be recognized are those of the soul, of strong principle, or incorruptible integrity, of usefulness, of cultivated intellect, of fidelity in seeking the truth."

"The reveries of youth, in which so much energy is wasted, are the yearnings of a Spirit made for what it has not found but must forever seek as an Ideal."

"The wise only possess ideas, the great part of mankind are possessed by them."

"The world is governed by opinion."

"The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts."

"There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. These are periods when...to dare is the highest wisdom."

"To be prosperous is not to be superior, and should form no barrier between men. Wealth ought not to secure the prosperous the slightest consideration. The only distinctions which should be recognized are those of the soul, of strong principle, of incorruptible integrity, of usefulness, of cultivated intellect, of fidelity in seeking the truth."

"Through the vulgar error of undervaluing what is common, we are apt indeed to pass these by as of little worth. But as in the outward creation, so in the soul, the common is the most precious."

"There are periods when to dare is the highest wisdom."

"To do God's will as fast as it is made known to us, to inquire hourly ? I had almost said each moment ? what He requires of us, and to leave ourselves, our friends, and every interest at His control, with a cheerful trust that the path which He marks out leads to our perfection and to Himself, ? this is at once our duty and happiness; and why will we not walk in the plain, simple way?"

"To extinguish the free will is to strike the conscience with death, for both have but one and the same life."

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion: to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to have an oratory in my own heart, and present spotless sacrifices of dignified kindness in the temple of humanity; to spread no opinions glaringly out like show-plants, and yet leave the garden gate ever open for the chosen friend and the chance acquaintance: to make no pretenses to greatness; to seek no notoriety; to attempt no wide influence; to have no ambitious projects; to let my writings be the daily bubbling spring flowing through constancy, swelled by experiences, into the full, deep river of wisdom; to listen to stars and buds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never? in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony."

"To give a generous hope to a man of his own nature, is to enrich him immeasurably."

"True love is the parent of humility."

"To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly ... to listen to stars and buds, to babes and sages, with open heart; await occasions, hurry never ... this is my symphony."

"Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself."

"War will never yield but to the principles of universal justice and love."

"We do not pretend to know the whole nature and properties of God, but still we can form some clear ideas of him, and can reason from these ideas as justly as from any other. The truth is, that we cannot be said to comprehend any being whatever, not the simplest plant or animal. All have hidden properties. Our knowledge of all is limited."

"We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure."

"We grow by love ... others are our nutriment."

"We ought, indeed, to expect occasional obscurity in such a book at the Bible.... God's wisdom is a pledge that whatever is necessary for us, and necessary for salvation, is revealed too plainly to be mistaken."

"We look forward to the time when the power to love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace."

"What is mysterious, secret, unknown, cannot at the same time be known as an object of faith."