Great Throughts Treasury

"Silence is the ecstatic bliss of souls, that by intelligence converse."

"Clocks will go as they are set, but man, irregular man, is never constant, never certain."

"Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes; dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart."

"Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life; dear as these eyes, that weep in fondness o’er thee."

"Honest men are the soft easy cushions on which knaves repose and fatten."

"Happy a while in Paradise they lay; but quickly woman longed to go astray: some foolish new adventure needs must prove, and the first devil she saw, she chang'd her love: to his temptations, lewdly she inclined her soul, and, for an apple, damn'd mankind."

"Honesty needs no disguise or ornament."

"Justice is lame as well as blind, amongst us."

"If we must part forever, give me but one kind word to think upon and please myself with, while my heart's breaking."

"Let us embrace, and from this very moment vow an eternal misery together."

"Let us swear an eternal friendship."

"No praying, it spoils business."

"Oh woman! lovely woman! nature made thee To temper man; we had been brutes without you; Angels are painted fair to look like you; There's in you all that we believe of heaven, Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, Eternal joy, and everlasting love."

"O woman, woman! when to ill thy mind Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend."

"O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee to temper man: we had been brutes without you. Angels are painted fair, to look like you: there ’s in you all that we believe of heaven,— amazing brightness, purity, and truth, eternal joy, and everlasting love."

"What mighty ills have not been done by woman! Who was ’t betrayed the Capitol?—A woman! Who lost Mark Antony the world?—A woman! Who was the cause of a long ten years’ war, and laid at last old Troy in ashes?—Woman! Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!"

"Shining through tears, like April suns in showers, that labor to overcome the cloud that loads em."

"Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment."

"Avoid the politic, the factious fool, the busy, buzzing, talking harden'd knave; the quaint smooth rogue that sins against his reason, calls saucy loud sedition public zeal, and mutiny the dictates of his spirit."

"Base natures ever judge a thing above them, and hate a power they are too much obliged to."

"Children blessings seem, but torments are."

"Could my griefs speak, the tale would have no end."

"Cowards are scared with threatenings; boys are whipped into confession; but a steady mind acts of itself, ne'er asks the body counsel."

"Dame Fortune, like most others of the female sex, is generally most indulgent to the nimble-mettled blockheads."

"Greatness, thou gaudy torment of out souls, the wise man's fetter, and the rage of fools."

"Honesty needs no disguise nor ornament; be plain."

"Indeed, you thanked me; but a nobler gratitude rose in her soul, for from that hour she loved me."

"Fine speeches are the instruments of fools or knaves, who use them when they want good sense; but honesty needs no disguise or ornament."

"False as the adulterate promises of favorites in power when poor men court them."

"How many men have spent their blood in their dear country's service, yet now pine under want; while selfish slaves, that even would cut their throats whom now they fawn on, like deadly locusts, eat the honey up, which those industrious bees so hardly toil'd for."

"Love reigns a very tyrant in my heart."

"I know not how to tell thee! Shame rises in my face, and interrupts the story of my tongue!"

"Like conquering tyrants you our breasts invade, where you are pleas'd to ravage for awhile; but soon you find new conquests out and leave the ravag'd province ruinate and bare."

"Revenge, the attribute of gods! they stamped it with their great image on our natures."

"No flatt'ry, boy! An honest man can't live by't; it is a little sneaking art, which knaves Use to cajole and soften fools withal. If thou hast flatt'ry in thy nature, out with't; or send it to a court, for there 'twill thrive."

"My eyes won't lose the sight of thee, but languish after thine, and ache with gazing."

"The queen of night shines fair with all her virgin stars about her."

"The pain is in my head; 'tis is in my heart; 'tis everywhere; it rages like a madness, and I most wonder how my reason holds."

"She who has beauty might ensnare a conqueror's soul, and make him leave his crown at random, to be scuffed for by slaves."