Great Throughts Treasury

"One should be selfish enough to be selfless up to a certain point."

"Only those few people who practice it believe in goodness."

"People who chase after ever greater wealth without taking the time to enjoy it are like hungry people who are forever cooking but never sit down to eat."

"People who read only the classics are sure to remain up-to-date."

"Pity is love in undress."

"Prejudice supports thrones, ignorance altars."

"Public opinion is the whore among opinions."

"Rational beings despise nothing so much as that magnanimity that they themselves feel incapable of."

"Silly people say stupid things, clever people do them."

"Since the well-known victory over the hare by the tortoise the descendants of the tortoise think themselves miracles of speed."

"So soon as a fashion is universal, it is out of date."

"Spoiled children ? already get to know in early years the sufferings of the tyrant."

"Spurned pity can turn into cruelty just as spurned love turns into hate."

"That bad manners are so prevalent in the world is the fault of good manners."

"The greatest leveler is politeness; it removes all class distinctions."

"The insignificant labor; the great create."

"The intellect and the heart are on good terms with one another. One often represents the other so perfectly, that it is hard to determine which of the two was at work."

"The moral code which was good enough for our fathers is not good enough for our children."

"The sacrifice which is seemingly most unnecessary and most foolish is still nearer to absolute wisdom than the cleverest action of so-called legitimate egocentricity."

"The scale we measure things by is the measure of our own mind."

"The simplest and commonest truth seems new and miraculous the very moment we first experience it in ourselves."

"The understanding of some men is clear, that of others brilliant. The former illumines its surroundings; the latter obscures them."

"The vain and weak see a judge in everyone; the proud and strong know no judge other than themselves."

"The world belongs to those who possess it, and is scorned by those to whom it should belong."

"The world would be in better shape if people would take the same pains in the practice of the simplest moral laws as they exert in intellectualizing over the most subtle moral questions."

"There are a host of bad habits and inconsiderate acts which mean nothing in themselves but which are terrible as indicators of the true composition of a soul."

"There are intellects that shine and there are those that sparkle. The former illuminate matters, the latter obscure them."

"There are very few honest friends ? the demand is not particularly great."

"There are women who love their husbands as blindly, as enthusiastically, and as enigmatically as nuns their cloister."

"Those who trusted at the wrong time and place will in turn mistrust at the wrong time and place."

"To accept reason is impossible if you don?t already possess it."

"To have and not to give is often worse than to steal."

"Trust is a brave, be faithful is a sign of strength."

"Two very different virtues can attack one another long and viciously. But the time will come when they recognize that they are sisters."

"Unattainable wishes are often "pious." This seems to indicate that only profane wishes are fulfilled."

"Vanity rejects all healthy nourishment and lives exclusively on the poison of flattery."

"Virtue is also an art, and its adherents can be divided into the practicing artists and the mere fans."

"Wags are beggars in the realm of the intellect; they live on alms tossed to them by fortune ? on flashes of wit."

"We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for."

"We are so vain that we value the opinion even of those whose opinions we find worthless."

"We can be wise from goodness and good from wisdom."

"We don't believe in rheumatism and true love until after the first attack."

"We must prepare and study truth under every aspect, endeavoring to ignore nothing, if we do not wish to fall into the abyss of the unknown when the hour shall strike."

"What do people like to call stupid the most? Something sensible that they can?t understand."

"When art finds no temple open, it takes refuge in the workshop."

"When the time comes in which one could, the time has passed in which one can."

"When your absolutely only choice is between an untruth and rudeness, then choose rudeness; if, however, your choice is between an untruth and cruelty, then choose untruth."

"Where would the power of women be, were it not for the vanity of men?"

"Who doesn't know anything, has to believe everything."

"Whoever prefers the material comforts of life over intellectual wealth is like the owner of a palace who moves into the servants' quarters and leaves the sumptuous rooms empty."