Great Throughts Treasury

"Custom is king over all."

"Envy, the attendant of the empty mind."

"Disclose not to stranger your burden of care."

"Even genius is tied to profit."

"Dull satiety blunts all eagerness of expectation."

"For the just, Time is the best of champions."

"Full oft is silence the wisest thing for a man to heed."

"Even success softens not the heart of the envious."

"Every gift, though it be small, is in reality great if given with affection."

"Learn what you are, and be such."

"Someone has said of a find and honorable old age, that it was the childhood of immortality."

"To self-interest even wisdom yields. [Even wisdom has to yield to self-interest.]"

"I will not steep my speech in lies; the test of any man lies in action."

"Many a time the thing left silent makes for happiness."

"The test of any man lies in action."

"To each thing belongs its measure. Occasion is best to know."

"We are things of a day. What are we? What are we not? The shadow of a dream is man, no more."

"What is God? Everything."

"To know the fitting moment is the best aim of knowledge."

"To seize on high adventure brooks no timid hand."

"When men succeed, even their neighbors think them wise."

"My soul, do not seek immortal life, but exhaust the realm of the possible."

"Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed."

"A graceful and honorable old age is the childhood of immortality. "

"Finding that the middle condition of life is by far the happiest, I look with little favor upon that of princes."

"He is gifted with genius who knoweth much by natural inspiration."

"Point thy tongue on the anvil of truth."

"My soul, do not seek eternal life, but exhaust the realm of the possible. "

"Become what you are by learning who you are."

"I hate the miser, whose unsocial breast Locks from the world his useless stores. Wealth by the bounteous only is enjoyed, whose treasures, in diffusive good employed, the rich return of fame and friends procure, and ‘gainst a sad reverse a safe retreat secure. "

"Every noble deed dieth, if suppressed in silence."

"Seek not, my soul, the life of the immortals but enjoy to the full the resources that are within thy reach. "

"O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible. "

"Steer your boat with justice: forge a tongue on truth's anvil. "

"The best of healers is good cheer."

"The race of gods and men is one, and from one mother we both draw our breath. Yet all the difference in our power holds us apart, so that man is nothing, but the brazen floor of heaven is eternally unshakable."

"The present will not long endure."

"To be envied is a nobler fate than to be pitied. "

"There are indeed many wonders, and with regard to the stories people tell one another, it may be that such tales go beyond the true account and, embellished with iridescent lies, beguile them. "

"Sweet is war to those who know it not. "

"War is sweet to those who have no experience of it. But the experienced man trembles exceedingly in his heart at its approach. "

"To our own sorrows serious heed we give, But for another’s we soon cease to grieve. "

"Very distasteful is excessive fame to the sour palate of the envious mind, who hears with grief his neighbors good by name, and hates the fortune that he ne’er shall find. "

"Whatever is beautiful is beautiful by necessity."

"Youth is a blossom whose fruit is love; happy is he who plucks it after watching it slowly ripen. "

"Wrapt up in error is the human mind, and human bliss is ever insecure; Know we what fortune yet remains behind? Know we how long the present shall endure?"

"Words have a longer life than deeds. "

"Best of all things is water; but gold, like a gleaming fire by night, outshines all pride of wealth beside. But, my heart, would you chant the glory of games, look never beyond the sun by day for any star shining brighter through the deserted air, nor any contest than Olympia greater to sing. It is thence that the song winds strands in the hearts of the skilled to celebrate the son of Kronos. They come their ways to the magnificent board of Hieron, who handles the scepter of dooms in Sicily, rich in flocks, reaping the crested heads of every excellence. There his fame is magnified in the splendor of music, where we delight at the friendly table. Then take the Dorian lyre from its peg, if any glory of Pisa or Pherenikos slide with delight beneath your heart, when by Alpheus waters he sped his bulk, with the lash laid never on, and mixed in the arms of victory his lord, king of Syracuse, delighting in horses; and his fame shines among strong men where Lydian Pelops went to dwell, Pelops that he who clips the earth in his great strength, Poseidon, loved when Klotho lifted him out of the clean cauldron, his shoulder gleaming ivory. Great marvels in truth are these, but tales told and overlaid with elaboration of lies amaze men's wits against the true word. "

"The great danger never descends upon a man without strength; but if we are destined to die, why should one sit to no purpose in darkness and find a nameless old age without any part of glory his own ? So my way lies this hazard; yours to accomplish the end." He spoke, with words not wide of the mark. "

"Grace, who brings to fulfilment all things for men's delight, granting honor again, many a time makes things incredible seem true. Days to come are the wisest witnesses. It is better for a man to speak well of the gods; he is less to blame. "