Great Throughts Treasury

"True generosity does not consist in obeying every impulse of humanity, in following blind passion for our guide, and impairing our circumstances by present benefactions, so as to render us incapable of future ones."

"Vain, very vain is my search to find; that happiness which only centers in the mind."

"Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale, And guide my lonely way To where you taper cheers the vale With hospitable ray."

"Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue; nor is there on earth a more powerful advocate for vice than poverty."

"True generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed on us by law. - It is a rule imposed by reason, which should be the sovereign law of a rational being."

"Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture."

"Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray."

"We shall find our expectation of the future to be a gift more distressful even than the former. To fear an approaching evil is certainly a most disagreeable sensation; and in expecting an approaching good we experience the inquietude of wanting actual possession."

"We take greater pains to persuade others that we are happy, than in endeavoring to be so ourselves."

"We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown."

"Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's disasters in his morning face."

"We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors."

"What cities, as great as this, have . . . promised themselves immortality! Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some. The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others others. . . . Here stood their citadel, but now grown over with weeds; there their senate-house, but now the haunt of every noxious reptile; temples and theatres stood here, now only an undistinguished heap of ruins."

"What I have observed with regard to natural philosophy I would extend to every other science whatsoever. We should teach them as many of the facts as were possible, and defer the causes until they seemed of themselves desirous of knowing them. A mind thus leaving school, stored with all the simple experiences of science, would be the fittest in the world for the college course; and though such a youth might not appear so bright or so talkative as those who had learned the real principles and causes of some of the sciences, yet he would make a wiser man, and would retain a more lasting passion for letters, than he who was early burdened with the disagreeable institution of effect and cause."

"What if in Scotland's wilds we viel'd our head, Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed; Where the rug's two-fold use we might display, By night a blanket, and a plaid by day."

"What real good does an addition to a fortune already sufficient procure? Not any. Could the great man by having his fortune increased increase also his appetites, then precedence might be attended with real amusement."

"Whatever be the motives which induce men to write, whether avarice or fame, the country becomes most wise and happy in which they most serve for instructors."

"Whatever mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of others is a just criterion of lewdness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity. One should not quarrel with a dog without a reason sufficient to vindicate one through all the courts of morality."

"Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity."

"Whatever may be the merits of the English in other sciences, they seem particularly excellent in the art of healing. There is scarcely a disorder incident to humanity against which our advertising doctors are not possessed with a most infallible antidote. The professors of other arts confess the inevitable intricacy of things; talk with doubt, and decide with hesitation: but doubting is entirely unknown in medicine: the advertising professors here delight in cases of difficulty."

"When a person has no need to borrow they find multitudes willing to lend."

"When I consider the assiduity of this profession, their benevolence amazes me. They not only, in general, give their medicines for half-value, but use the most persuasive remonstrances to induce the sick to come and be cured. Sure there must be something strangely obstinate in an English patient, who refuses so much health upon such easy terms! Does he take a pride in being bloated with a dropsy? does he find pleasure in the alternations of an intermittent fever? or feel as much pleasure in nursing up his gout as he found pleasure in acquiring it? He must! otherwise he would never reject such repeated assurances of instant relief. What can be more convincing than the manner in which the sick are invited to be well? The doctor first begs the most earnest attention of the public to what he is going to propose; he solemnly affirms the pill was never found to want success: he produces a list of those who have been rescued from the grave by taking it. Yet, notwithstanding all this, there are many here who now and then think proper to be sick:?only sick did I say? there are some who even think proper to die!? though they might have purchased the health-restoring specific for half a crown at every corner."

"When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy, what art can wash her guilt away?"

"When I see a young profligate squandering his fortune in bagnios, or at the gaming table, I cannot help looking on him as hastening his own death, and in a manner digging his own grave."

"Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry."

"When the person is buried, the next care is to make his epitaph: they are generally reckoned best which flatter most: such relations, therefore, as have received most benefits from the defunct, discharge this friendly office, and generally flatter in proportion to their joy. When we read these monumental histories of the dead, it may be justly said that all men are equal in the dust; for they all appear equally remarkable for being the most sincere Christians, the most benevolent neighbors, and the honestest men, of their time. To go through an European cemetery, one would be apt to wonder how mankind could have so basely degenerated from such excellent ancestors: every tomb pretends to claim your reverence and regret; some are praised for piety, in these inscriptions, who never entered the temple until they were dead; some are praised for being excellent poets, who were never mentioned except for their dullness, when they were living; others for sublime orators, who were never noted except for their impudence; and others still for military achievements, who were never in any other skirmishes but with the watch."

"Where commerce and capitalism are involved, often times, morality and honor sink to the bottom-Oliver Goldsmith paraphrased"

"Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound. And news much older than their ale went round."

"Where wealth accumulates, men decay."

"Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails, and honor sinks where commerce long prevails."

"Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, my heart untraveled, fondly turns to thee; Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain, And drags at each remove a lengthening chain."

"While resignation gently slopes the way; And, all his prospects brightening to the last, His heaven commences ere the world be past."

"Winter, lingering, chills the lap of May."

"Whether love be natural or no, replied my friend, gravely, it contributes to the happiness of every society into which it is introduced. All our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals: love is a method of protracting our greatest pleasure; and surely that gamester who plays the greatest stake to the best advantage will, at the end of life, rise victorious."

"Who can direct when all pretend to know?"

"Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end."

"Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth; If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt."

"With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive."

"Women and music should never be dated."

"Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better."

"Women famed for their valor, their skill in politics, or their learning, leave the duties of their own sex, in order to invade the privileges of ours. I can no more pardon a fair one for endeavoring to wield the club of Hercules, than I could a man for endeavoring to twirl her distaff."

"Writers of every age have endeavored to show that pleasure is in us, and not in the objects offered for our amusement. If the soul be happily disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name. Every occurrence passes in review, like the figures of a procession: some may be awkward, others ill-dressed; but none but a fool is for this enraged with the master of the ceremonies."

"Yet still the English are far behind us in this charming art; their designs have not yet attained a power of uniting instruction with beauty. An European will scarcely conceive any meaning, when I say that there is scarcely a garden in China which does not contain some fine moral couched under the general design, where one is not taught wisdom as he walks, and feels the force of some noble truth, or delicate precept, resulting from the disposition of the groves, streams, or grottoes."

"You, that are going to be married, think things can never be done too fast: but we that are old, and know what we are about, must elope methodically, madam."