Great Throughts Treasury

"Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone; all her lovely companions are faded and gone."

"To be educated, a person doesn't have to know much or be informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably to the transformative events of an engaged human life."

"To gold and silver nature hath given no use that we may not well lack."

"To love God, which was a thing far excelling all the cunning that is possible for us in this life to obtain."

"To speak plainly my real sentiments, I must freely own that as long as there is any property, and while money is the standard of all other things, I cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily: not justly, because the best things will fall to the share of the worst men; nor happily, because all things will be divided among a few (and even these are not in all respects happy), the rest being left to be absolutely miserable."

"To tell you the truth, though, I still haven't made up my mind whether I shall publish at all. Tastes differ so widely, and some people are so humorless, so uncharitable, and so absurdly wrong-headed, that one would probably do far better to relax and enjoy life than worry oneself to death trying to instruct or entertain a public which will only despise one's efforts, or at least feel no gratitude for them."

"True change takes place in the imagination."

"Twas but for a moment - and yet in that time she crowded the impressions of many an hour; her eye had a glow, like the sun of her clime, which waked every feeling at once into flower!"

"Until you put these things to right, you're not entitled to boast of the justice meted out to thieves, for it's a justice more specious than real or social desirable. You allow these people to be brought up in the worst possible way, and systematically corrupted from their earliest years. Finally, when they grow up and commit the crimes that they were obviously destined to commit, ever since they were children, you start punishing them. In other words, you create thieves, and then punish them for stealing."

"Utopia and sane people, the stars and the sun standing, they are surprised to hurt or indulging in a feeble glimmer of a diamond.ÿ"

"Utopus having understood that before his coming among them the old inhabitants had been engaged in great quarrels concerning religion, by which they were so divided among themselves, that he found it an easy thing to conquer them, since, instead of uniting their forces against him, every different party in religion fought by themselves. After he had subdued them he made a law that every man might be of what religion he pleased, and might endeavour to draw others to it by the force of argument and by amicable and modest ways, but without bitterness against those of other opinions; but that he ought to use no other force but that of persuasion, and was neither to mix with it reproaches nor violence; and such as did otherwise were to be condemned to banishment or slavery."

"We asked him many questions concerning all these things, to which he answered very willingly; we made no inquiries after monsters, than which nothing is more common; for everywhere one may hear of ravenous dogs and wolves, and cruel men-eaters, but it is not so easy to find states that are well and wisely governed."

"We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds."

"We did not ask if he had seen any monsters, for monsters have ceased to be news. There is never any shortage of horrible creatures who prey on human beings, snatch away their food, or devour whole populations; but examples of wise social planning are not so easy to find."

"We may not look at our pleasures to go to heaven in featherbeds; it is not the way, for our Lord Himself went thither with great pain, and by many tribulations, which was the path wherein He walked thither, and the servant may not look to be in better case than his Master."

"We see that this man fareth as one that walked bare-foot upon a field full of thorns, that wotteth not where to tread."

"Were it my father on the one side and the devil on the other, his cause being good, the devil should have his right."

"What is deferred is not avoided."

"What part soever you take upon you, play that as well as you can and make the best of it."

"What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine."

"What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can."

"When a king must distribute all those extraordinary accessions that increase treasure beyond the due pitch, it makes him less disposed to oppress his subjects. Such a king as this will be the terror of ill men, and will be beloved by all the good."

"When absent souls in fancy meet."

"When public judicatories are swayed by avarice or partiality, justice, the grand sinew of society, is lost."

"When Time who steals our years away Shall steal our pleasures too, The mem'ry of the past will stay, And half our joys renew"

"Where there is no malice there can be no offense."

"Where there is room in the heart there is always room in the house."

"While mantling on the maiden's cheek Young roses kindled into thought."

"While there is nothing so neat and witty that will not be made insipid by silly and inconsiderate loquacity, so also there is nothing in itself so insipid, that you cannot season with grace and wit if you give a little thought to it."

"Whoever loveth me, loveth my hound"

"Whoever shall live to try it, shall see this child here waiting at table prove a notable and rare man."

"Why do you suppose they made you king in the first place?' I ask him. 'Not for your benefit, but for theirs. They meant you to devote your energies to making their lives more comfortable, and protecting them from injustice. So your job is to see that they're all right, not that you are - just as a shepherd's job, strictly speaking, is to feed his sheep, not himself."

"Why shouldst thou not take even as much pleasure in beholding a counterfeit stone, which thine eye cannot discern from a right stone?"

"Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery."

"Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before, it was neither rhyme nor reason."

"Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?"

"You have also many infamous houses, and, besides those that are known, the taverns and ale-houses are no better; add to these dice, cards, tables, football, tennis, and quoits, in which money runs fast away; and those that are initiated into them must, in the conclusion, betake themselves to robbing for a supply."

"You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, / But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."

"You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds?.What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can."

"You wouldn't abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn't control the winds."

"Your sheep, that were wont to be so meek and tame and so small eaters, now, as I hear say, be become so great devourers, and so wild, that they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves."