Great Throughts Treasury

"Before him he saw two roads, both equally straight; but he did see two; and that terrified him--he who had never in his life known anything but one straight line. And, bitter anguish, these two roads were contradictory."

"Before undergoing a serious surgical operation, put your affairs in order - you may survive."

"Beside this door were a dung-hill, mattocks and shovels, some carts, an old well with its flagstone and iron pulley, a frisky colt, a strutting turkey, a chapel topped by a little steeple, an espaliered pear tree in bloom, against the wall of the chapel; such was the court whose conquest was Napoleon's dream. This bit of earth, if he could have taken it, would perhaps have given him the world."

"Blessed be Providence which has given to each his toy: the doll to the child, the child to the woman, the woman to the man, the man to the devil!"

"Books, those undemanding but faithful friends."

"Brahma once asked of Force, Who is stronger than thou? She replied, Address."

"But alas, if I have not maintained my victory, it is God's fault for not making man and the devil of equal strength."

"But is laughter a synonym for joy? To give one's entire talent to a production is the greatest triumph that anyone can achieve."

"But when ill indeed, Even dismissing the doctor don't always succeed."

"But, reverend master, it is not sufficient to pass one's life, one must earn the means for life."

"By putting forward the hands of the clock you shall not advance the hour."

"By virtue of being a philosopher, he lacked somewhat in wisdom."

"Can you not see that to decide to do nothing is the most wretched of all decisions?"

"Certainly I approve of political opinions, but there are people who do not know where to stop."

"Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots."

"Children instantly accept joy and happiness with quick familiarity, being happy and joyful by nature."

"Children instantly and familiarly accept rejoicing and happiness, because this is their natural element."

"Citizens, cried Enjolras, and in his voice there was almost an angry tremor, the Republic is not rich enough in men to incur useless expenditures. Vainglory is a waste. If it is duty of some to leave, that duty should be performed as well as any other."

"Citizens, in the future there shall be neither darkness nor thunderbolts, neither ferocious ignorance nor blood for blood... In the future no man will slay his fellow, the earth will be radiant, the human race will love. It will come, citizens, that day when all shall be concord, harmony, light, joy, and life."

"Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?"

"Civilization is humanity developing itself outward from within."

"Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit."

"Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of education."

"Common sense is not wisdom, neither is it reason; it is a little of one and a little of the other, with a dash of egoism."

"Concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life."

"Conscience is God present in man."

"Conscience is the amount of inner knowledge that we possess."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it"

"Curiosity is gluttony. To see is to devour."

"Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery."

"Cuvier, with one eye on the book of Genesis and the other on nature, was endeavoring to calm reactionary bigotry by reconciling fossils with texts and making the mastodons support Moses."

"Danger for danger’s sake is senseless."

"Daring is the price of progress. All splendid conquests are the prize of boldness."

"Dark Error's other hidden side is truth."

"Dear God! how beauty varies in nature and art. In a woman the flesh must be like marble; in a statue the marble must be like flesh."

"Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men touch that unknown thing?"

"Death has its own way of embittering victory, and its glory is followed by pestilence. Typhus comes with triumph."

"Desiring always to be in mourning, he clothed himself with night."

"Despair is surrounded by fragile walls, which all open into vice or crime."

"Despotism is a long crime."

"Despotism violates the moral frontier just as foreign invasion violates the geographical frontier."

"Despots play their part in the works of thinkers. Fettered words are terrible words. The writer doubles and trebles the power of his writing when a ruler imposes silence on the people. Something emerges from that enforced silence, a mysterious fullness which filters through and becomes steely in the thought. Repression in history leads to conciseness in the historian, and the rocklike hardness of much celebrated prose is due to the tempering of the tyrant."

"Destiny never opens one door without shutting another."

"Destroy the cave Ignorance, and you destroy the mole Crime...The only social peril is darkness."

"Diamonds are found only in the dark bowels of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought. It seemed to him that after descending into those depths after long groping in the blackest of this darkness, he had at last found one of these diamonds, one of these truths, and that he held it in his hand; and it blinded him to look at it."

"discovered so far as they are concerned; they are no longer anything more than the two boundaries of the same destiny; they are no longer anything but the two wings of the same spirit. Love, soar."

"Do not ask the name of the person who seeks a bed for the night. He who is reluctant to give his name is the one who most needs shelter."

"Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone."

"Do you hear the people sing lost in the valley of the night? It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light. For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies. Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise."

"Do you know what friendship is... it is to be brother and sister; two souls which touch without mingling, two fingers on one hand."