Great Throughts Treasury

"All true science begins in the love, not dissection, of your fellow-creatures; and it ends in the love, not the analysis, of God."

"`Change' is scientific, 'progress' is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy."

"[We blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages."

"Boredom is ... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it."

"All real joy and power of progress in humanity depend on finding something to reverence, and all the baseness and misery of humanity begin in a habit of disdain."

"Do justice to your brother (you can do that, whether you love him or not), and you will come to love him. But do injustice to him because you don’t love him, and you will come to hate him."

"Before the twelfth century the nations were too savage to be Christian, and after the fifteenth too carnal to be Christian."

"Education is the leading human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them; and these two objects are always attainable together, and by the same means; the training which makes men happiest in themselves also makes them most serviceable to others."

"Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them; and these two objects are always attainable together, and by the same means."

"No human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice."

"In politics, religion is now a name; in art, a hypocrisy or affectation."

"The first of possessions, self-possession."

"Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance."

"Real great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man."

"The highest reward for a person’s work is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."

"The laws, the life, and the joy of beauty in the material world of God, are as eternal and sacred parts of His creation as, in the world of spirits, virtue; and in the world of angels, praise."

"There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy and of admiration. That country is richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings."

"This is the true nature of home it is the place of Peace; the shelter, not only from injury, but from all terror, doubt and division."

"There are many religions, but there is only one morality."

"There are perhaps some circumstances of life in which Providence has no intention that people should be content."

"In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes."

"When a person is wrapped up in themself they make a pretty small package."

"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do."

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it."

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives, the cumulative experience of many masters of craftsmanship. Quality also marks the search for an ideal after necessity has been satisfied and mere usefulness achieved."