Great Throughts Treasury

"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."

"A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses."

"A man of great common sense and good taste -- meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage."

"A man without an address is a vagabond; a man with two addresses is a libertine."

"A man who has no office to go to -- I don't care who he is -- is a trial of which you can have no conception."

"A married man forms married habits and becomes dependent on marriage just as a sailor becomes dependent on the sea."

"A man who is not a communist at the age of twenty is a fool. Any man who is still communist at the age of thirty is an even bigger one."

"A modern gentleman is necessarily the enemy of his country. Even in war he does not fight to defend it, but to prevent his power of preying on it from passing to a foreigner."

"A mind of the caliber of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows."

"A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody."

"A solider always assumes that he is going to shoot, not to be shot."

"A moderately honest man with a moderately faithful wife, moderate drinkers both, in a moderately healthy house : that is the true middle-class unit."

"A nap, my friend, is a brief period of sleep which overtakes superannuated persons when they endeavor to entertain unwelcome visitors or to listen to scientific lectures."

"A nation should always be healthily rebellious; but the king or prime minister has yet to be found who will make trouble by cultivating that side of the national spirit. A child should begin to assert itself early, and shift for itself more and more not only in washing and dressing itself, but in opinions and conduct; yet as nothing is so exasperating and so unlovable as an uppish child, it is useless to expect parents and schoolmasters to inculcate this uppishness. Such unamiable precepts as Always contradict an authoritative statement, Always return a blow, Never lose a chance of a good fight, When you are scolded for a mistake ask the person who scolds you whether he or she supposes you did it on purpose, and follow the question with a blow or an insult or some other unmistakable expression of resentment, Remember that the progress of the world depends on your knowing better than your elders, are just as important as those of The Sermon on the Mount; but no one has yet seen them written up in letters of gold in a schoolroom or nursery."

"A perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."

"A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell."

"A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most. On Other Peoples Expectations: The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me."

"A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it."

"A photographer is like a cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity."

"A wise mother knows: It is her state of consciousness that matters. Her gentleness and clarity command respect. Her love creates security."

"A vegetarian is not a person who lives on vegetables, any more than a Catholic is a person who lives on cats"

"A writer is a person to whom books are not enough of others."

"A yawn is an honest opinion."

"A veteran journalist has never had time to think twice before he writes."

"A thing that nobody believes cannot be proved too often."

"A true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art."

"A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere - no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift to articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton."

"A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does NOT triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him."

"Activity is the only road to knowledge."

"Advice is like kissing: It costs nothing and it’s a pleasant thing to do."

"Affection between adults - if they are really adult in mind and not merely grown up children - and creatures so relatively selfish and cruel as children necessarily are without knowing it or meaning it, cannot be called natural."

"Again, there is the illusion of "increased command over Nature," meaning that cotton is cheap and that ten miles of country road on a bicycle have replaced four on foot. But even if man's increased command over Nature included any increased command over himself (the only sort of command relevant to his evolution into a higher being), the fact remains that it is only by running away from the increased command over Nature to country places where Nature is still in primitive command over Man that he can recover from the effects of the smoke, the stench, the foul air, the overcrowding, the racket, the ugliness, the dirt which the cheap cotton costs us."

"Ah-ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-oo-oo!!! I ain't dirty: I washed me face and hands afore I come, I did!"

"Age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing."

"After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere."

"Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life."

"All classes in proportion to their lack of travel and familiarity with foreign literature are bellicose, prejudiced against foreigners, fond of fighting as a cruel sport -- in short, dog-like in their notions of foreign policy."

"All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of all censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell."

"Alcohol is a very necessary article. It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning."

"All I'm asking for is what I want!"

"All my life affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it."

"All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct."

"All problems are finally scientific problems."

"All dress is fancy dress, is it not, except our natural skins?"

"All government is cruel; for nothing is so cruel as impunity."

"All professions are a conspiracy against the country."

"All professions are conspiracies against the laity."

"All sorts of bodily diseases are produced by half used minds."

"All religions begin with a revolt against morality, and perish when morality conquers them."

"All the sweetness of religion is conveyed to the world by the hands of story-tellers and image-makers. Without their fictions the truths of religion would for the multitude be neither intelligible nor even apprehensible; and the prophets would prophesy and the teachers teach in vain."