Great Throughts Treasury

"How many fools does it take to make up a public?"

"I admire the man who exclaimed, I have lost a day! because he had neglected to do any good in the course of it; but another has observed that the most lost of all days, is that in which we have not laughed; and, I must confess, that I feel myself greatly of his opinion."

"I once read that there's nothing worse for everyone concerned than a reign that's lasted too long. I've also heard that God is eternal."

"I only study the things I like; I apply my mind only to matters that interest me. They'll be useful—or useless—to me or to others in due course, I'll be given—or not given—the opportunity of benefiting from what I've learned. In any case, I'll have enjoyed the inestimable advantage of doing things I like doing and following my own inclinations."

"In cities the old are more corrupt than the young."

"It is safe to wager that every public idea and every accepted convention is sheer foolishness, because it has suited the majority."

"Love, a pleasant folly; ambition, a serious stupidity."

"Love, as it exists in society, is nothing but the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins."

"Men of reason have endured; men of passion have lived."

"Money is the greatest concern for small characters, but is nothing but the smallest for great characters."

"Most social institutions seem to be designed to keep man in a state of intellectual and emotional mediocrity that makes him more fit to govern or be governed."

"Most anthologists of poetry or quotations are like those who eat cherries or oysters, first picking the best and ending by eating everything."

"Petty souls are more susceptible to ambition than great ones, just as straw or thatched cottages burn more easily than palaces."

"Prudence replaces strength by saving the man who has the misfortune of not possessing it from most occasions when it's needed."

"Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid."

"Secrecy is best taught by starting with ourselves."

"Society is composed of two great classes, those that have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners."

"Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste; some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery."

"Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before."

"My whole life is woven of threads which are in blatant contrast to my principles. … I love self-chosen poverty, and live among rich people; I avoid all honors, and yet some have come to me. … I believe that illusions are necessary to man, yet live without illusion; I believe that the passions are more profitable than reason, and yet no longer know what passion is."

"People are always annoyed by men of letters who retreat from the world; they expect them to continue to show interest in society even though they gain little benefit from it. They would like to force them be present when lots are being drawn in a lottery for which they have no tickets."

"Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent."

"Sometimes apparent resemblance of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact."

"The art of the parenthesis is one of the great secrets of eloquence in Society."

"Stubbornness equals character roughly as lust equals love."

"Society is not, as is commonly supposed, the development of nature, but rather her dismantling and entire recasting. It is a second building made from the ruins of the first."

"The public is governed as it reasons; its own prerogative is foolish speech and that of its governors is foolish action."

"The things you know best are: first, those you know intuitively; second, those you've learned from experience; third, those you've learned not from but through books and the ideas they've inspired in you; and finally, those you've learned in books and from your teachers."

"The days most wasted are those during which we have not laughed."

"The only thing that stops God sending a second Flood is that the first one was useless."

"The best way to put the shortcomings of society, and, indeed, the whole of mankind, in their proper place is to joke about them. Joking allows you to avoid compromising yourself; it's a proof of your superiority over … the things you're poking fun at, without causing any offense to anyone except people who are surly or uncouth."

"The naïve comments of a well-born child sometimes express a very attractive philosophy."

"There are moments when society people seem ready to be assessed at their true value. I've often noticed that they appreciate those who show little regard for them, which seems a sort of invitation to express your contempt openly, providing you do it sincerely, without affectation of ignorance, and from the heart."

"There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom."

"There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools."

"There is a kind of harmful modesty which … sometimes affects men of superior character to their detriment by keeping them in a state of mediocrity. I am reminded of the remark that a certain gentleman of acknowledged eminence once made at luncheon to some persons of the Court, How bitterly I regret the time I wasted merely to learn how superior I am to all of you!"

"Unfortunately for mankind—and perhaps fortunately for tyrants—the poor and downtrodden lack the instinct or pride of the elephant, who refuses to breed in captivity."

"Your intelligence often bears the same relation to your heart as the library of a château does to its owner."

"What I admire in the ancient philosophers is their desire to make their lives conform to their writings, a trait which we notice in Plato, Theophrastus and many others. Practical morality was so truly their philosophy's essence that many, such as Xenocrates, Polemon, and Speusippus, were placed at the head of schools although they had written nothing at all. Socrates was none the less the foremost philosopher of his age, although he had not composed a single book or studied any other science than ethics."

"We must start human society from scratch; as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding."

"There aren't many benefactors who don't say, like Satan: All these things will I give you if you bow down and worship me."

"A devout and na‹ve Christian was admonishing those who questioned the articles of faith. ?A true Christian must never examine the things he's told to believe, gentlemen,? he said. ?It's like taking a pill: if you chew it, it's so bitter you'll never get it down.?"

"A man is not clever simply because he has many ideas, just as he is not necessarily a good general because he has many soldiers."

"A man of intellect without energy added to it is a failure."

"A man without nobility cannot have kindliness; he can only have good nature."

"A person of intellect without energy added to it, is a failure."

"A witty woman once told me something which may well be the genuine secret of her sex: that in choosing a lover each one of her kind takes more account of how other women regard him than of how she regards him herself."

"After a certain age, any new friends we make in our attempt to replace the ones we've lost are like glass eyes, false teeth and wooden legs."

"All that I've learned, I've forgotten. The little that I still know, I've guessed."

"All passions are exaggerated, otherwise they would not be passions."