Great Throughts Treasury

"Pray as if it all depends on God, but work as if it all depends on you."

"And I know that there is nothing more pitiful than meeting the little bodies of those that get no further than their little selves, people who can't get away from the little "I," people who are afflicted with the "I disease," the worst of all the diseases."

"What is the Infinite? It is that silent, small force? It isn't the outer physical contacts. No, it isn't that. The infinite is not confined in the visible world. It is not in the earthquake, the wind, or the fire. It is that still small voice that calls up the fairies."

"Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough."

"Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough."

"There are certain things, often very little things, like the little peanut, the little bit of clay, the little flower, that cause you to look within - and then it is that you see into the soul of things."

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we only will tune in."

"When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way you will command the attention of the world."

"Where there is no vision, there is no hope."

"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses."

"Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater."

"Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable. "

"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God. "

"No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving something behind. "

"If you love it enough, anything will talk with you. "

"There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation - veneer isn't worth anything. "

"The virgin fertility of our soils and the vast amount of unskilled labor have been more of a curse than a blessing to agriculture. This exhaustive system for cultivation, the destruction of forest, the rapid and almost constant decomposition of organic matter, have made our agricultural problem one requiring more brains than of the North, East or West."

"I love to think of nature as having unlimited broadcasting stations, through which God speaks to us every day, every hour and every moment of our lives, if we will only tune in and remain so."

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom"

"A lot of people think we are a total magnet school, ... Really, we are an elementary school with a magnet component. It's kind of like we have two schools under one roof. We have Program A, which is the neighborhood school, and Program B, which is the arts magnet school."

"All my life I have risen regularly at four o'clock and have gone into the woods and talked to God. There He gives me my orders for the day."

"Believe. The promise of God are real. They are as real, as solid, yes infinitely more solid than this table which the materialist so thoroughly believes in. If you would only believe, O ye of little faith."

"God gave them [the discoveries] to me; how can I sell them to someone else?"

"It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success."

"Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. Keep your thoughts free from hate, and you need have no fear from those who hate you."

"I wanted to know the name of every stone and flower and insect and bird and beast. I wanted to know where it got its color, where it got its life - but there was no one to tell me."

"It is simply service that measures success."

"God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless."

"More and more as we come closer and closer in touch with nature and its teachings are we able to see the Divine and are therefore fitted to interpret correctly the various languages spoken by all forms of nature about us."

"Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible."

"Our creator is the same and never changes despite the names given Him by people here and in all parts of the world. Even if we gave Him no name at all, He would still be there, within us, waiting to give us good on this earth."

"Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise."

"Most people search high and wide for the keys to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within."

"One of the things that has helped me as much as any other, is not how long I am going to live, but how much I can do while living."

"Start where you are, with what you have. Make something of it and never be satisfied."

"The beating on the tail of the snake may stop his progress a little, but the more vital parts must be struck before his poisonous death-dealing venom will be wiped out."

"We get closer to God as we get more intimately and understandingly acquainted with the things He has created. I know of nothing more inspiring than that of making discoveries for one's self."

"There is literally nothing that I ever asked to do, that I asked the blessed Creator to help me to do, that I have not been able to accomplish."

"When I was young, I said to God, "God, tell me the mystery of the universe." But God answered, "That knowledge is reserved for me alone." So I said, "God, tell me the mystery of the peanut." Then God said, "Well George, that's more nearly your size." And he told me."

"We have become ninety-nine percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts"

"When our thoughts - which bring actions - are filled with hate against anyone, Negro or white, we are in a living hell. That is as real as hell will ever be."