Great Throughts Treasury

"Almost always the most indigent are the most generous."

"It is hardly possible to suspect another without having in one's self the seeds of the baseness the other is accused of."

"Conscience warns us as a friend before it punishes as a judge."

"Good humor is the health of the soul; sadness its poison."

"Misers are very good people. They amass wealth for those who wish their death."

"Have the courage to face a difficulty lest it kick you harder than you bargain for."

"How many persons fancy they have experience simply because they have grown old!"

"Is it not astonishing that the love of repose keeps us in continual agitation?"

"To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting."

"What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little"

"Science when well-digested is nothing but good sense and reason."

"In a war of ideas, it is people who get killed."

"Religion has nothing more to fear than not being sufficiently understood."

"A well-read fool is the most pestilent of blockheads; his learning is a flail which he knows not how to handle, and with which he breaks his neighbor?s shins as well as his own. Keep a fellow of this description at arm?s length, as you value the integrity of your bones."

"Affectation discovers sooner what one is than it makes known what one would fain appear to be."

"Don't trust the heart, it wants your blood."

"First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent."

"Gaiety is the soul?s health; sadness is its poison."

"Genius speaks only to genius."

"I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable to suffer great misfortunes than to do great things."

"I know no real worth but that tranquil firmness which seeks dangers by duty, and braves them without rashness."

"In a war of ideas it is people who get killed."

"Mankind deserves sacrifice - but not of mankind."

"Never lie when the truth is more profitable."

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible."

"None are rash when they are not seen by anybody."

"Nothing but religion is capable of changing pains into pleasures."

"Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?"

"It is having in some measure a sort of wit, to know how to use the wit of others."

"Long ailments wear out pain, and long hopes, joy."

"Politeness has been defined to be artificial good-nature; but we may affirm, with much greater propriety, that good-nature is natural politeness."

"Sometimes something worth doing is worth overdoing."

"Telling lies does not work in advertising."

"The earliest desire of succeeding is almost always a prognostic of success."

"The first requisite for immortality is death."

"The instability of our tastes is the occasion of the irregularity of our lives."

"The pleasure of reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."

"The prejudices of youth pass away with it. Those of old age last only because there is no other age to be hoped for."

"The weakest link in a chain is the strongest because it can break it."

"People find life entirely too time-consuming."

"The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper."

"The Word of God proves the truth of religion; the corruption of man, its necessity; government, its advantages."

"There are few defects in our nature so glaring as not to be veiled from observation by politeness and good breeding."

"There are few persons of greater worth than their reputation; but how many are there whose worth is far short of their reputation!"

"Those who ought to be secure from calumny are generally those who avoid it least."

"Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don't bite everybody."

"To be vain of one?s rank or place is to disclose that one is below it."

"To make good use of life, one should have in youth the experience of advanced years, and in old age the vigor of youth."

"Value your words. Each one may be the last."

"We rise to fortune by successive steps; we descend by only one."