Great Throughts Treasury

"An innocent truth can never stand in need of a guilty lie."

"‘Tis the only discipline we are born for; all studies else are but as circular lines, and death the center where they all must meet."

"Death hath a thousand doors to let out life."

"He who knows not guilt knows no fear."

"We have not an hour of life in which our pleasures relish not some pain, our sours, some sweetness."

"To doubt is worse than to have lost; and to despair is but to antedate those miseries that must fall on us."

"He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself."

"A willing mind makes a hard journey easy."

"What's past help is beyond prevention."

"Patience, the beggar’s virtue."

"True dignity is never gained by place, and never lost when honors are withdrawn."

"Ambition, in a private man is a vice, is in a prince the virtue."

"A summer friendship, whose flattering leaves, that shadowed us in our prosperity, with the least gust drop off in the autumn of adversity."

"Before We end our pilgrimage, 'tis fit that we Should leave corruption, and foul sin, behind us, But with wash'd feet and hands, the heathens dar' not Enter their profane temples; and for me To hope my passage to eternity Can be made easy, till I have shook off The burthen of my sins in free confession, Aided with sorrow, and repentance for them, Is against reason."

"As the index tells us the contents of stories and directs to the particular chapter, even so does the outward habit and superficial order of garments (in man or woman) give us a taste of the spirit, and demonstratively point (as it were a manual note from the margin) all the internal quality of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident, palpable, gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dunghilly blood and breeding than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside."

"And, to all married men, be this a caution, Which they should duly tender as their life, Neither to dote too much, nor doubt a wife."

"Be wise; Soar not too high to fall; but stoop to rise."

"Detraction's a bold monster, and fears not To wound the fame of princes, if it find But any blemish in their lives to work on."

"Conscience and wealth are not always neighbors."

"Black detraction will find faults where they are not."

"Cheerful looks make every dish a feast, and it is that which crowns a welcome."

"Equal nature fashion'd us All in one mould… All's but the outward gloss And politic form that does distinguish us."

"Factions among yourselves; preferring such To offices and honors, as ne'er read The elements of saving policy; But deeply skilled in all the principles That usher to destruction."

"From the king To the beggar, by gradation, all are servants; And you must grant, the slavery is less To study to please one, than many. "

"Gold--the picklock that never fails."

"For any man to match above his rank is but to sell his liberty."

"Great minds erect their never-failing trophies on the firm base of mercy."

"He is not valiant that dares die, but he that boldly bears calamity."

"Great men, Till they have gained their ends, are giants in Their promises, but, those obtained, weak pigmies In their performance. And it is a maxim Allowed among them, so they may deceive, They may swear anything; for the queen of love, As they hold constantly, does never punish, But smile, at lovers' perjuries."

"Hard things are compassed oft by easy means."

"He That kills himself to avoid misery, fears it, And, at the best, shows but a bastard valour. This life's a fort committed to my trust, Which I must not yield up, till it be forced: Nor will I. He's not valiant that dares die, But he that boldly bears calamity."

"Honours and great employment are great burdens."

"Honour is Virtue's allowed ascent: honour that clasps All perfect justice in her arms; that craves No more respect than that she gives; that does Nothing but what she'll suffer."

"How sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman! It is so seldom heard that, when it speaks, it ravishes all senses. "

"I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to believe the bosom of a friend will hold a secret mine own could not contain."

"I in my own house am an emperor, and will defend what's mine."

"It is true fortitude to stand firm against all shocks of fate, when cowards faint and die in fear to suffer more calamity."

"Quiet night, that brings best to the laborer is the outlaw's day, in which he rises early to do wrong, and when his work is ended dares not sleep."

"Like a rough orator, that brings more truth than rhetoric, to make good his accusation."

"I will now court her in the conqueror's style; ‘Come, see, and overcome.’"

"Malice, scorned, puts out itself; but, argued, gives a kind of credit to a false accusation."

"Ill news are swallow-winged, but what is good walks on crutches."

"Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal."

"Out, you impostors! Quack salving, cheating mountebanks! your skill is to make sound men sick, and sick men kill. "

"Man was mark'd a friend in his creation to himself, and may, with fit ambition, conceive the greatest blessings, and the highest honors appointed for him, if he can achieve them the right and noble way."

"Petitions, not sweetened with gold, are but unsavory and oft refused; or, if received, are pocketed, not read."

"Nor custom, nor example, nor cast numbers of such as do offend, make less the sin."

"The over curious are not over wise. The sum of all that makes a just man happy consists in the well choosing of his wife: and there, well to discharge it, does require equality of years, of birth, of fortune; for beauty being poor, and not cried up by birth or wealth, can truly mix with neither. And wealth, when there's such difference in years, and fair descent, must make the yoke uneasy."

"That kills himself to avoid misery, fears it; and at the best shows but a bastard valor."

"The almighty dollar! The picklock that never fails."