Great Throughts Treasury

"Death stamps the characters and conditions of men for eternity. As death finds them in this world, so will they be in the next."

"Be short in all religious exercises. Better leave the people longing than loathing."

"Don't despair of a student if he has one clear idea."

"He is a learned man that understands one subject; a very learned man who understands two."

"I could never think well of a man’s intellectual or moral character if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments."

"It is a very serious duty, perhaps of all duties the most serious, to look into one's own character and conduct, and accurately read one's own heart. It is virtually looking into eternity, and all its vast and solemn realities, which must appear delightful or awful, according as the heart appears to be conformed or not conform to God."

"Reading should be in proportion to thinking, and thinking in proportion to reading."

"The highest graces of music flow from the feelings of the heart."

"The weakest spot in every man is where he thinks himself to be the wisest."

"Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters."

"Make no display of your talents or attainments; for every one will clearly see, admire, and acknowledge them, so long as you cover them with the beautiful veil of modesty."

"Just definitions either prevent or put an end to a dispute."

"Insanity destroys reason, but not wit."

"Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than by a thousand arguments."

"How vast is eternity! - It will swallow up all the human race; it will collect all the intelligent universe; it will open scenes and prospects wide enough, great enough, and various enough to fix the attention, and absorb the minds of all intelligent beings forever."

"One principal reason why men are so often useless is, that they divide and shift their attention among a multiplicity of objects and pursuits."

"Great objects from great minds."

"It is easy to learn something about everything, but difficult to learn everything about anything."

"Selfishness is the root and source of all natural and moral evils."

"We are apt to overlook the hand and heart of God in our afflictions, and to consider them as mere accidents, and unavoidable evils. This view makes them absolute and positive evils, which admit of no remedy or relief. If we view our troubles and trials aside from the divine design and agency in them, we cannot be comforted."

"How vast is eternity!—It will swallow up all the human race; it will collect all the intelligent universe; it will open scenes and prospects wide enough, great enough, and various enough to fix the attention, and absorb the minds of all intelligent beings forever."

"The gospel in all its doctrines and duties appears infinitely superior to any human composition.—It has no mark of human ignorance, imperfection, or sinfulness, but bears the signature of divine wisdom, authority, and importance, and is most worthy of the supreme attention and regard of all intelligent creatures.."

"Real holiness has love for its essence, humility for its clothing, the good of others as its employment, and the honor of God as its end."

"In moral lessons the understanding must be addressed before the conscience, and the conscience before the heart, if we would make the deepest impressions."

"There is no vice in nature more debasing and destructive to men than intemperance. It robs them of their reason, reputation, and interest. It renders them unfit for human society. It degrades them below the beasts that perish, and justly exposes them to universal odium and contempt."