Great Throughts Treasury

"An energy is a soul — a something working in us."

"An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones. We should have patience and see whether the incoherency is likely to wear off or to wear on, in which latter case the sooner we get rid of them the better."

"An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possest with an error it is like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty. Whatsoever he lays hold on, like a drowning man, he never loses, though it do but help to sink him the sooner. His ignorance is abrupt and inaccessible, impregnable both by art and nature, and will hold out to the last, though it has nothing but rubbish to defend."

"And dullest nonsense has been found"

"And force them, though it was in spite Of Nature and their stars, to write."

"And poets by their sufferings grow,-- As if there were no more to do, To make a poet excellent, But only want and discontent."

"And prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks."

"And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, was beat with fist instead of a stick."

"And so there is no God but has been in the loins of past gods."

"And wisely tell what hour o' the day The clock does strike, by algebra."

"Animals and plants cannot understand our business, so we have denied that they can understand their own. What we call inorganic matter cannot understand the animals' and plants' business, we have therefore denied that it can understand anything whatever."

"Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it."

"Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well."

"Argument is generally waste of time and trouble. It is better to present one's opinion and leave it to stick or no as it may happen. If sound, it will probably in the end stick, and the sticking is the main thing."

"Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him."

"Art has no end in view save the emphasizing and recording in the most effective way some strongly felt interest or affection."

"As a general rule philosophy is like stirring mud or not letting a sleeping dog lie. It is an attempt to deny, circumvent or otherwise escape from the consequences of the interlacing of the roots of things with one another."

"As if religion was intended For nothing else but to be mended."

"As men of inward light are wont To turn their optics in upon 't."

"As soon as any art is pursued with a view of money, then farewell, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, all hope of genuine good work."

"As the ancients Say wisely, have a care o' th' main chance, And look before you ere you leap; For as you sow, ye are like to reap."

"Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits."

"Be virtuous and you will be vicious."

"Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it, people, to express their regret, will go and leave a lot of money to the very people who will be the first to throw stones at the next person who has anything to say and finds a difficulty in getting a hearing."

"Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance."

"Beside, 't is known he could speak Greek As naturally as pigs squeak; That Latin was no more difficile Than to a blackbird 't is to whistle."

"Birth and death are so closely related that one could not destroy either without destroying the other at the same time. It is extinction that makes creation possible."

"Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them."

"Books should be tried by a judge and jury as though they were crimes."

"Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such."

"Brevity is very good, when we are, or are not, understood."

"Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both."

"But Hudibras gave him a twitch As quick as lightning in the breech, Just in the place where honour 's lodg'd, As wise philosophers have judg'd; Because a kick in that part more Hurts honour than deep wounds before."

"But still his tongue ran on, the less Of weight it bore, with greater ease."

"By a merciful dispensation of Providence university training is almost as costly as it is unprofitable. The majority will thus be always unable to afford it, and will base their opinions on mother wit and current opinion rather than on demonstration."

"'Cause grace and virtue are within Prohibited degrees of kin; And therefore no true saint allows They shall be suffer'd to espouse."

"Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one."

"Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since."

"Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose profession is to hoodwink us about him."

"Compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no mind to."

"Critics generally come to be critics by reason not of their fitness for this but of their unfitness for anything else. Books should be tried by a judge and jury as though they were crimes, and counsel should be heard on both sides."

"Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question."

"Death is only a larger kind of going abroad."

"Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day."

"Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world."

"Doubtless the pleasure is as great of being cheated as to cheat."

"Dullness is so much stronger than genius because there is so much more of it, and it is better organised and more naturally cohesive."

"Each window like a pill'ry appears, With heads thrust thro' nail'd by the ears."

"Eating is touch carried to the bitter end."

"Embryos think with each stage of their development that they have now reached the only condition that really suits them. This, they say, must certainly be their last, inasmuch as its close will be so great a shock that nothing can survive it. Every change is a shock; every shock is a pro tanto death. What we call death is only a shock great enough to destroy our power to recognize a past and a present as resembling one another."