Great Throughts Treasury

"Positive views of truth and duty are those that impress the mind and lead to action; negation dwells mostly in cavil and denial."

"Preach not because you have to say something, but because you have something to say."

"Proverbs are somewhat analogous to those medical formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready made up in the chemists' shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct prescription."

"Reason can no more influence the will, and operate as a motive, than the eyes which show a man his road can enable him to move from place to place, or than a ship provided with a compass can sail without a wind."

"Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance."

"Some persons follow the dictates of their conscience only in the same sense in which a coachman may be said to follow the horses he is driving."

"Some persons resemble certain trees, such as the nut, which flowers in February and ripens its fruit in September; or the juniper and the arbutus; which take a whole year or more to perfect their fruit; and others, the cherry, which takes between two an three months."

"Sophistry is like a window curtain"

"That is suitable to a man, in point of ornamental expense, not which he can afford to have, but which he can afford to lose."

"That is, in a great degree, true of all men, which was said of the Athenians, that they were like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one."

"The attendant on William Rufus, who discharged at a deer an arrow, which glanced against a tree and killed the king, was no murderer, because he had no such design. And, on the other hand, a man who should lie in wait to assassinate another, and pull the trigger of a gun with that intent, would be morally a murderer, not the less though the gun should chance to miss fire."

"The best security against revolution is in constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements. It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary."

"The censure of frequent and long parentheses has led writers into the preposterous expedient of leaving out the marks by which they are indicated. It is no cure to a lame man to take away his crutches."

"The dangers of knowledge are not to be compared with the dangers of ignorance. Man is more likely to miss his way in darkness than in twilight; in twilight than in full sun."

"The depreciation of Christianity by indifference is a more insidious and less curable evil than infidelity itself."

"The Eastern monarch who proclaimed a reward to him who should discover a new pleasure, would have deserved well of mankind had he stipulated that it should be blameless."

"The first requisite of style, not only in rhetoric, but in all compositions, is perspicuity."

"The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it."

"The judgment is like a pair of scales, and evidences like the weights; but the will holds the balances in its hand; and even a slight jerk will be sufficient, in many cases, to make the lighter scale appear the heavier."

"The larger the income, the harder it is to live within it."

"The liberality of some men is but indifference clad in the garb of candor."

"The love of admiration leads to fraud, much more than the love of commendation; but, on the other hand, the latter is much more likely to spoil our: good actions by the substitution of an inferior motive."

"The over-formal often impede, and sometimes frustrate business by a dilatory, tedious, circuitous, and fussy way of conducting the simplest transactions. They have been compared to a dog which cannot lie down till he has made three circuits round the spot."

"The relief that is afforded to mere want, as want, tends to increase that want."

"The tendency of party spirit has ever been to disguise and propagate and support error."

"There is a soul of truth in error; there is a soul of good in evil."

"There is no right faith in believing what is true, unless we believe it because it is true."

"They never reason, or, if they do, they either draw correct inferences from wrong premises or wrong inferences from correct premises; and they always poke the fire from the top."

"Those who delight in the study of human nature, may improve in the knowledge of it, and in the profitable application of it by the perusal of the best selected fictions."

"Those who are ambitious of originality, and aim at it, are necessarily led by others, since they seek to be different from them."

"Those who relish the study of character may profit by the reading of good works of fiction, the product of well-established authors."

"To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself."

"To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another."

"To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air."

"Too much attention cannot be bestowed on that important, yet much neglected branch of learning, the knowledge of man's ignorance."

"Tradition, as held by the Romanists, is subordinate to Scripture and dependent on it, about as some parasite plants are on the tree that supports them. The former cling to the latter, and rest upon it; then gradually overspread it with their own foliage, till, by little and little, they weaken, and then smother it."

"Trust, therefore, for the overcoming of a difficulty, not to long-continued study after you have once become bewildered, but to repeated trials at intervals."

"Unless the people can be kept in total darkness, it is the wisest way for the advocates of truth to give them full light."

"Vices and frailties correct each other, like acids and alkalies. If each vicious man had but one vice, I do not know how the world could go on."

"We may print, but not stereotype, our opinions."

"Weak arguments are often thrust before my path; but although they are most unsubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more difficult feat known than to cut through a cushion with a sword."

"When men have become heartily wearied of licentious anarchy, their eagerness has been proportionately great to embrace the opposite extreme of rigorous despotism."

"Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest."

"?Atheism did never perturb States.? [Bacon?s Essay, Of Superstition.] It may perhaps be inferred from this remark that Bacon entertained an opinion, held by some, that persons indifferent about all religion are the most likely to be tolerant of all, and to be averse to persecution and coercion. But this is a mistaken notion. Many persons, indeed, perhaps most, are tolerant or intolerant according to their respective tempers, and not according to their principles. But as far as principles are concerned, certainly the latitudinarian is the more likely to be intolerant, and the sincerely conscientious tolerant. A man who is careless about religious sincerity may clearly see and appreciate the political convenience of religious uniformity, and if he has no religious scruples of his own, he will not be the more likely to be tender of the religious scruples of others: if he is ready himself to profess what he does not believe, he will see no reason why others should not do the same."

"?He that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds will hardly be preserved from decay.? [Bacon?s Essay, Of Expense.] Obviously true as this is, yet it is apparently completely overlooked by the imprudent spendthrift, who, finding that he is able to afford this, or that, or the other, expense, forgets that all of them together will ruin him. This is what, in logical language, is called the ?Fallacy of Composition.?"

"?Some natural dispositions which have better grace in youth than in age, such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech.? [Bacon?s Essay, Of Youth and Age.] It is remarkable that, in point of style of writing, Bacon himself, at different periods of life, showed differences just opposite to what most would have expected. His earlier writings are the most unornamented; and he grew more ornate as he advanced. So also Burke. His earliest work, On the Sublime [A Vindication of Natural Society appeared first], is in a brief, dry, philosophical style; and he became florid to an excess as he grew older."

"?Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.? [Bacon?s Essay, Of Studies.] We should, then, cultivate, not only the corn-fields of our minds, but the pleasure-grounds also. Every faculty and every study, however worthless they may be, when not employed in the service of God,?however debased and polluted when devoted to the service of sin,?become ennobled and sanctified when directed, by one whose constraining motive is the love of Christ, towards a good object. Let not the Christian then think ?scorn of the pleasant land.? That land is the field of ancient and modern literature,?of philosophy, in almost all its departments,?of the arts of reasoning and persuasion. Every part of it may be cultivated with advantage, as the Land of Canaan when bestowed upon God?s peculiar people. They were not commanded to let it lie waste, as incurably polluted by the abominations of its first inhabitants; but to cultivate it, and dwell in it, living in obedience to the divine laws, and dedicating its choicest fruits to the Lord their God."

"A ?positive? precept concerns a thing that is right because it is commanded; a moral respects a thing commanded because it is right. A Jew was bound to honour his parents, and also to worship at Jerusalem: the former was commanded because it was right, and the latter was right because it was commanded."

"?This public envy seemeth to bear chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings.? [Bacon.] This is a very just remark, and it might have suggested an excellent argument (touched on in the Lessons on the British Constitution) in favour of hereditary Royalty. It is surely a good thing that there should be some feeling of loyalty unalloyed by envy, towards something in the government. And this feeling concentrates itself among us, upon the Sovereign. But in a pure Republic, the abstract idea of the State?the Commonwealth itself?is too vague for the vulgar mind to take hold of with any loyal affection. The President, and every one of the public officers, has been raised from the ranks; and the very circumstance of their having been so raised on the score of supposed fitness, makes them (as was observed above) the more obnoxious to envy, because their elevation is felt as an affront to their rivals."

"A benevolent disposition is, no doubt, a great help towards a course of uniform practical benevolence; but let no one trust to it, when there are other strong propensities, and no firm good principle."