Great Throughts Treasury

"The solemn fog; significant and budge; a fool with judges, amongst fools a judge."

"The sounding jargon of the schools."

"The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight."

"The spleen is seldom felt where flora reigns; the low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown, and sullen sadness, that o'ershade, distort, and mar the face of beauty, when no cause for such immeasurable woe appears; these flora banishes, and gives the fair sweet smiles, and bloom less transient than her own."

"The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade pants for the refuge of some rural shade, where all his long anxieties forgot amid the charms of a sequester'd spot, or recollected only to gild o'er and add a smile to what was sweet before, he may possess the joys he thinks he sees, lay his old age upon the lap of ease, improve the remnant of his wasted span. And having lived a trifler, die a man."

"The still small voice is wanted."

"The tear that is wiped with a little address may be followed, perhaps, by a smile."

"The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, and then skip down again, pronounce a text, cry hem; and reading what they never wrote just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, and with a well-bred whisper close the scene!"

"The town is man's world, but this (country life) is of God."

"The twentieth year is well-nigh past; since first our sky was overcast, ah would that this might be the last! My Mary! Thy spirits have a fainter flow, I see thee daily weaker grow— 'twas my distress that brought thee low, my Mary! Thy needles, once a shining store, for my sake restless heretofore, now rust disus'd, and shine no more, my Mary!"

"Their blood is shed in confirmation of the noblest claim - the claim to feed upon immortal truth, to walk with God, and be divinely free."

"Their tameness is shocking to me."

"Then liberty, like day, breaks on the soul, and by a flash from heaven fires all the faculties with glorious joy."

"Then Pope, as harmony itself exact, in verse well disciplined, complete, compact, gave virtue and morality a grace, that, quite eclipsing pleasure's painted face, levied a tax of wonder and applause, even on the fools that trampled on their laws. But he (his musical finesse was such, so nice his ear, so delicate his touch) made poetry a mere mechanic art; and every warbler has his tune by heart."

"Then, shifting his side (as a lawyer knows how)."

"There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk."

"There is a bird who by his coat, and by the hoarseness of his note, might be supposed a crow."

"There is a Book by seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light, on which the eyes of God not rarely look, a chronicle of actions just and bright— there all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine; and since thou own'st that praise, I spare thee mine."

"There is a fountain fill'd with blood drawn from emmanuel's veins; and sinners, plung'd beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains."

"There is a pleasure in poetic pains which only poets know."

"There is mercy in every place, and mercy, encouraging thought! Gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot."

"There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; he does not feel for man."

"There is no grace that the spirit of self can counterfeit with more success than a religious zeal."

"They best can judge a poet's worth, who oft themselves have known the pangs of a poetic birth by labors of their own."

"They fix attention, heedless of your pain, with oaths like rivets forced into the brain; and e'en when sober truth prevails throughout, they swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt."

"They lived unknown, till persecution dragged them into fame, and chased them up to heaven. Their ashes flew no marble tells us whither. With their names no bard embalms and sanctifies his song: and history, so warm on meaner things, is cold on this."

"They love the country, and none else, who seek for their own sake its silence and its shade. Delights which who would leave, that has a heart susceptible of pity, or a mind cultured and capable of sober thought."

"They that fight for freedom undertake the noblest cause mankind can have at stake. Still ending, and beginning still."

"They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed."

"Thieves at home must hang; but he that puts into his over-gorged and bloated purse the wealth of Indian provinces, escapes."

"This cabin, Mary, in my sight appears, built as it has been in our waning years, a rest afforded to our weary feet, preliminary to - the last retreat."

"This folio of four pages, what is it but a map of busy life - its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?"

"This fond attachment to the well-known place whence first we started into life's long race, maintains its hold with such unfailing sway, we feel it e'en in age, and at our latest day."

"Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought."

"Those golden times and those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings, and Sidney, warbler of poetic prose."

"Thou god of our idolatry, the press. . . .thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies like Eden's dread probationary tree, knowledge of good and evil is from thee."

"Though on pleasure she was bent, she had a frugal mind."

"Though peace be made, yet it's interest that keep peace."

"Thousands, careless of the damning sin, kiss the book's outside who ne'er look within."

"Thousands... Kiss the book's outside who ne'er look within."

"Thus always teasing others, and days teas'd, his only pleasure is to be displeas'd."

"Thus first necessity invented stools, convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, and luxury the accomplish'd Sofa last."

"Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose."

"Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own."

"Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound."

"'Tis hard if all is false that I advance a fool must now and then be right, by chance."

"'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are weeds without it."

"'Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, to peep at such a world; to see the stir of the great babel, and not feel the crowd."

"'Tis providence alone secures in every change both mine and yours."

"'Tis revelation satisfies all doubts, explains all mysteries except her own, and so illuminates the path of life, that fools discover it, and stray no more."