Great Throughts Treasury

"Let them speak as lewdly as they list of me...as long as they do not hit me, what am I the worse?"

"Like Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, but turn to ashes on the lips!"

"Like ships that have gone down at sea, when heaven was all tranquility."

"Love and enmity, aversation and fear, are notable whetters and quickeners of the spirit of life in all animals."

"Love must shun the path where many rove; one bosom to recline upon, one heart to be his only one, are quite enough for love!"

"Love rules without rules."

"Luxury likewise breaks in apace upon you to set forward your poverty and misery; there is an excessive vanity in apparel, and great cost in diet, and that not only in noblemen?s families, but even among tradesmen, among the farmers themselves, and among all ranks of persons."

"Love was to his impassioned soul, not a mere part of its existence, but the whole, the very life-breath of his heart."

"Man's folly hath enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas nature, like a kind parent, hath freely given us the best things, such as air, earth, and water, but hath hidden from us those which are vain and useless."

"Many a man buyeth hell with so much pain, that he might have heaven with less than the one half."

"Marriage is an Athenic weaving together of families, of two souls with their individual fates and destinies, of time and eternity - everyday life married to the timeless mysteries of the soul."

"Men be so foolish as to have delight and pleasure in the doubtful glistering of a trifling little stone, which may behold any of the stars or else the sun itself."

"Men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in marble; and whoso doth us a good turn, we write it in dust."

"Mirth and cheerfulness are but the due reward of innocence of life."

"More?s earnest character caused him while studying law to aim at the subduing of the flesh, by wearing a hair shirt, taking a log for a pillow, and whipping himself on Fridays."

"Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb."

"My case was such in this matter through the clearness of my own conscience that thought I might have pain I could not have harm, for a man may in such a case lose his head and not have harm."

"My only books were woman's looks, and folly's all they've taught me"

"Naturally, it is a unique master, gold and silver is useless, empty as objects buried very deep;ÿwhereas air, water, soil, have highlighted the good and really helpful with everything in front of your eyes. ÿ"

"No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can."

"No man shall be blamed in the maintenance of his own religion."

"No more like together than is chalke to coles."

"No, do the best you can to make the present production a success - don't spoil the entire play just because you happen to think of another one that you'd enjoy rather more."

"No, there's nothing half so sweet in life As love's young dream"

"Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich - for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?"

"None falleth far but he who climbeth high."

"Nor can they understand why a totally useless substance like gold should now, all over the world, be considered far more important than human beings, who gave it such value as it has, purely for their own convenience."

"Now there was a young gentleman which had married a merchant's wife. And having a little wanton money, which him thought burned out the bottom of his purse, in the first year of his wedding took his wife with him and went over sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and France and ride out one summer in those countries."

"O there are looks and tones that dart an instant sunshine to the heart, as if the soul that minute caught some treasure it through life had sought; as if the very lips and eyes sparkled and spoke before us."

"Oh! blame not the bard."

"Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade, where cold and un-honored his relics are laid."

"Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you where would you hide, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast...and if you cut them down and you're just the man to do it do you really think you could stand upright in the winds which would blow then? Yes, I give the devil benefit of the law for my own safety sake."

"On glory: He who sets his delight on the blast of another man?s mouth feeds himself but with wind, wherein, be he never so full, he has little substance therein."

"On mounting the scaffold, prior to his beheading. I pray you master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down let me shift for myself."

"One man to live in pleasure and wealth, whiles all other weap and smart for it, that is the part not of a king, but of a jailor."

"One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated."

"One rule observed in their council is, never to debate a thing on the same day in which it is first proposed; for that is always referred to the next meeting, that so men may not rashly and in the heat of discourse engage themselves too soon, which might bias them so much that, instead of consulting the good of the public, they might rather study to support their first opinions, and by a perverse and preposterous sort of shame hazard their country rather than endanger their own reputation, or venture the being suspected to have wanted foresight in the expedients that they at first proposed; and therefore, to prevent this, they take care that they may rather be deliberate than sudden in their motions."

"Or can it be thought that they who heap up an useless mass of wealth, not for any use that it is to bring them, but merely to please themselves with the contemplation of it, enjoy any true pleasure in it? The delight they find is only a false shadow of joy. Those are no better whose error is somewhat different from the former, and who hide it, out of their fear of losing it; for what other name can fit the hiding it in the earth, or rather the restoring to it again, it being thus cut off from being useful, either to its owner or to the rest of mankind? And yet the owner having hid it carefully, is glad, because he thinks he is now sure of it. It if should be stole, the owner, though he might live perhaps ten years after the theft, of which he knew nothing, would find no difference between his having or losing it; for both ways it was equally useless to him."

"Our emotional symptoms are precious sources of life and individuality."

"Our purpose is to be the sword and shield for people of faith ... to defend and protect Christians and their religious beliefs in the public square."

"Personal prejudice and financial greed are the two great evils that threaten courts of law, and once they get the upper hand they immediately hamstring society, by destroying all justice."

"Plants that wake when others sleep. Timid jasmine buds that keep their fragrance to themselves all day, but when the sunlight dies away let the delicious secret out to every breeze that roams about."

"Plato by a goodly similitude declareth, why wise men refrain to meddle in the commonwealth. For when they see the people swarm into the streets, and daily wet to the skin with rain, and yet cannot persuade them to go out of the rain, they do keep themselves within their houses, seeing they cannot remedy the folly of the people."

"Playful blushes, that seem but luminous escapes of thought."

"Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office; my neck is very short; take heed therefore thou strike not awry, for saving of thine honesty."

"Pray for me, as I will for thee, that we may merrily meet in heaven."

"Pride measures her prosperity not by her own goods but by others' wants."

"Pride measures prosperity not by her own advantages but by the disadvantages of others. She would not even wish to be a goddess unless there were some wretches left whom she could order about and lord it over, whose misery would make her happiness seem all the more extraordinary, whose poverty can be tormented and exacerbated by a display of her wealth. This infernal serpent, pervading the human heart, keeps men from reforming their lives, holding them back like a suckfish."

"Pride thinks its own happiness shines the brighter, by comparing it with the misfortunes of other persons; that by displaying its own wealth they may feel their poverty the more sensibly."

"Providence would only initiate mankind into the useful knowledge of her treasures, leaving the rest to employ our industry, that we might not live like idle loiterers."