Great Throughts Treasury

"Conceit is God's gift to little men."

"As the years accumulate do you find yourself more sympathetic and tolerant, with a higher reverence for the nobility of your fellow men? That is the essential test of growth."

"If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality - that single spark of divinity that sets you apart and makes you different from every other living creature."

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance."

"Obstinacy and vehemency in opinion are the surest proofs of stupidity."

""Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why," may be a good enough motto for men who are on their way to be shot. But from such men expect no empires to be built, no inventions made, no great discoveries brought to light."

"If you give your son only one gift, let it be enthusiasm."

"When you are through changing, you are through."

"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things."

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared to believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance."

"Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand."

"What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage."