Great Throughts Treasury

"Much misconstruction and bitterness are spared to him who thinks naturally upon what he owes others, rather that on what he ought to expect from them."

"The truly wise man should have no keeper of his secret but himself."

"The study of art is a taste at once engrossing and unselfish, which may be indulged without effort, and yet has the power of exciting the deepest emotions - a taste able to exercise and to gratify both the nobler and softer parts of our nature."

"Prayer is more the mere outburst of the desires or sorrows of the soul, seeking that satisfaction or consolation which it does not find within itself. It is the expression of a faith, instinctive or reflective, obscure or clear, wavering or steadfast, in the existence, the presence, the power and the sympathy of the Being to whom prayer is addressed."

"The universal and insuperable instinct which leads man to prayer is in harmony with this great fact: he who believes in God cannot but have recourse to Him and to pray to Him."

"Modesty is a shining light; it prepares the mind to receive knowledge, and the heart for truth."

"Be not afraid of enthusiasm; you need it; you can do nothing effectually without it."

"Weakness of conduct is but the consequence of weakness of conviction; for the strongest of all the springs of human action is human belief."

"Neither experience nor science has given man the idea of immortality… The ideal of immortality rises from the very depths of his soul - he feels, he sees, he knows that he is immortal."

"The world belongs to optimists. Pessimists are only spectators."

"The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty."