Great Throughts Treasury

"It seems the part of wisdom."

"John Gilpin was a citizen of credit and renown, a train-band captain eke was he of famous London town."

"Joint-stools were then created; on three legs up borne they stood. Three legs upholding firm a massy slab, in fashion square or round. On such a stool immortal Alfred sat."

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face."

"Judgment falls asleep upon the bench, while Imagination, like a smug, pert counselor, stands chattering at the bar."

"Just knows, and knows no more, her bible true - a truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew."

"Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much wisdom is humble that he knows no more."

"Labor was the primal curse, but it was softened into mercy, and made the pledge of cheerful days, and nights without a groan."

"Lands, intersected by a narrow frith, abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd make enemies of nations, who had else, like kindred drops, been mingled into one."

"Learning itself, received into a mind by nature weak, or viciously inclined, serves but to lead philosophers astray, where children would with ease discern the way."

"Let her pass, and charioted along in guilty splendor, shake the public ways!"

"Lights of the world, and stars of human race. And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) the lie that flatters I abhor the most."

"Like Eden's dead probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee."

"Lives spent in indolence, and therefore sad."

"Lord, it is my chief complaint, that my love is weak and faint yet I love thee and adore, oh for grace to love thee more"

"Low ambition and the thirst of praise."

"Made poetry a mere mechanic art and every warbler has his tune by heart."

"Made poetry a mere mechanical art. I know that Thou art infinitely gracious, but what will become of me?"

"Man disavows, and Deity disowns me; Hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore Hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me. Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers, weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors, I'm called, if vanquished, to receive a sentence worse than Abiram's. Him the vindictive rod of angry Justice sent quick and howling to the centre headlong; I, fed with judgment, in a fleshy tomb, am buried above ground."

"Man in society is like a flow'r, blown in its native bed. 'Tis there alone his faculties expanded in full bloom shine out, there only reach their proper use."

"Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will."

"Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd."

"Man, in society, is like a flower blown in its native bud. It is there only that his faculties, expanded in full bloom, shine out, there only reach their proper use."

"Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, the substitute for genius, sense, and wit."

"Mansions once knew their own masters, and laborious hinds, that had surviv'd the father, serv'd the son. Now the legitimate and rightful lord is but a transient guest, newly arrived, and soon to be supplanted. He that saw his patrimonial timber cast its leaf, sells the last scantling, and transfers the price to some shrewd sharper ere it buds again. Estates are landscapes, gazed upon awhile, then advertised and auctioneer'd away."

"Marble and recording brass decay, and, like the 'graver's memory, pass away; the works of man inherit, as is just, their author's frailty, and return to dust; but truth divine forever stands secure, its head as guarded, as its base is sure; fixes in the rolling flood of endless years, the pillar of the eternal plan appears; the waving storm and dashing wave defies, built by that architect who built the skies."

"May I but meet thee on that peaceful shore, the parting word shall pass my lips no more!"

"Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost."

"Me, therefore, studious of laborious ease, not slothful, happy to deceive the time, not waste it, and aware that human life’s but a loan to be repaid with use."

"Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books."

"Men deal with life as children with their play, who first misuse, then cast their toys away."

"Men engage in it compell'd by force, and fear, not courage, is its proper source, the fear of tyrant custom, and the fear lest fops should censure us, and fools should sneer… am I to set my life upon a throw because a bear is rude and surly? A moral, sensible, and well-bred man will not affront me, and no other can."

"Mercy to him that shows it is the rule."

"Mine is an unchanging love, higher than the heights above, deeper than the depths beneath, free and faithful, strong as death."

"Misery still delights to trace its semblance in another's case."

"Misses the tale that I relate - this lesson seems to carry - choose not alone a proper mate, but proper time to marry."

"Mortals, whose pleasures are their only care, first wish to be imposed on, and then are."

"Most satirists are indeed a public scourge; their mildest physic is a farrier's purge; their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd, the milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, by lean despair upon an empty purse."

"Mountains interpos'd make enemies of nations, who had else, like kindred drops, been mingled into one."

"Mr. Grenville squeezed me by the hand again, kissed the ladies, and withdrew. He kissed likewise the maid in the kitchen, and seemed upon the whole a most loving, kissing, kind-hearted gentleman."

"My friends, do they now and then send a wish or a thought after me? O tell me I yet have a friend, though a friend I am never to see."

"My God, till I received thy stroke, how like a beast was I! So unaccustomed to the yoke, so backward to comply."

"My hat and wig will soon be here, they are upon the road."

"My Mother! when I learnt that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed? Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, wretch even then, life's journey just begun?"

"My sin and judgment are alike peculiar. I am a castaway, deserted and condemned."

"My sister and my sister's child, myself and children three, will fill the chaise: so you must ride on horseback after me."

"My soul is sick with every day's report of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled."

"Nature inanimate employs sweet sounds, but animated nature sweeter still, to soothe and satisfy the human ear."

"Nature, exerting an unwearied power, forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower; spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads the dancing naiads through the dewy meads."

"Necessity invented stools, convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, and luxury the accomplish'd sofa last."