Great Throughts Treasury

"Maintaining one's position can be both wise and foolish, weak and strong, confident and misguided. The wisdom is in knowing when to stand firmly and when to be supple."

"Love is as powerful as profit."

"Maybe once we as an entire planet reach the apex of our potential, when virtues like justice, kindness, and peace reign, I'll know it is then time to be conservative in my social-political belief system. But even that perspective is based on some faulty premises."

"Los Angeles looks more like the City of Demons it seems. As one of the richest nations we can't even feed our poor. The silence where forests dwelled is pierced by screams. Yet we ignore the harsh pounding of danger on our door."

"Man created science. But who created man?"

"Morality is really quite simple. All you have to do is determine what is wrong and not do that; feel free to enjoy anything else!"

"Now that I'm on my third book on values, I feel totally inadequate. I'm using a little bit of Woody Allenesque self-deprecation, but basically, that is true; it is hard to study legends like Twain, Socrates, King, Shaw, Gandhi and Keller and not feel like an underachiever."

"Music is as prestigious as mathematics."

"Money can't make me happy, but I sure would be in a bad mood if I didn't have any."

"Men of war adapt to peace about as readily as men of peace adapt to war."

"More than just silliness or stupidity, a vivid sense of humor can yield insight into a person's modesty, passion, and intelligence."

"My life is a map; proud ink on olde leather. Relief depicts the saga of my life: love is represented by the mountain. The river symbolizes pain. Time is shown by vast grasslands. The symbols make sense to none other than me."

"Of all humanity's creations, the virtues are by far the most sublime."

"Often the knight must fight alone."

"Often we want to try and retain our self, to be confident and courageous. Wisdom is required to determine when is the right time - or it's not confidence, but dogmatism. It is wise to be yourself - but with the realization that your self needs continual improvement. We simply never arrive at perfection - or at least we don't linger there long. And the less you try to cling to that, the more face-saving it is when you discover the need to change."

"Often whatever "unlived life" characterizes our way of living is the reason remembrances of times past are accompanied by chills or tears."

"One day, years from now, if the planet is still inhabited by frail humanity, few if any will remember you. Your life is but a grain of sand on a beach of time. So live! Read what you have written. Listen to wonderful music. Remind yourself often of your goals. Say, "I have been hurt, and I?m going to be hurt by others in the future in all probability, but one thing is certain - either I can live, or fail to do so. I can grab life by the throat and move passionately, or I can be a prisoner to fear of the future and regret from the past. I can make it happen right now, even as I feel my pain, or I can yield to anxiety.""

"One can only see one side of a coin from any given perspective. The knowledge that there is another side to that coin is a potent bit of knowledge indeed."

"One of the greatest contributors to that so-called "fatal" mentality that is a part of me is the notion that, if I am called to duty and fail to act when I ought to have, what good is my life? How many times can one forgo opportunities to uphold one's cherished beliefs and still have a self-image as a "good" person?"

"Only a few among us are able to maintain integrity under excruciating circumstances. Everyone fears something; the only thing that could have caused Orwell's hero Winston to abandon his love was a rat."

"One who intends to do right must take their aspirations very seriously, because those who intend to do wrong certainly take their commitment very seriously. These people do exist; they are educated, wealthy, diabolical, and they have no compunction about snapping rules in order to preserve themselves and perpetuate their goals. It takes no less than heroism to win in a struggle with such people."

"One of the most trenchant questions to analyze our self and our circumstances is,"Would I rather be anyone else?""

"People tend to spend their adult years either reliving or trying to terminate the image they carried in high school."

"Peace may never come to pass until little boys everywhere are encouraged by their parents and develop the desire to play with toy peacemakers rather than toy soldiers."

"Our system says that all's fair in war and business, and then when our people behave in such a way that what is expedient is right, the youth today are claimed to "lack values.""

"Physics, astronomical phenomena, microbiology, and on and on... Are masked in darkness until our senses or reason bring the dawn. Yet we have no direct evidence of God; perhaps one day the skeptical will be awed..."

"Perhaps passion does not negate objectivity, but rather, emboldens it."

"Progressive thinkers have been calling reactionaries heartless and conservatives have termed liberals foolish for centuries. We will all have to grow in order that we may abolish such polarized and pejorative approaches to the problems of the world. But make no mistake; the problems of the world must be solved if we are to be able to grow on into the future."

"Regarding judgment day: if God is indeed just, I fear not. There is always the fabled story, held tightly by innocent girls with sweet eyes... But a wise person must ultimately query whether they have been embracing lies."

"Respect is hard to retain; we tend to see others as either superior or inferior to ourselves - neither of which engenders much respect."

"Seeing the strikingly beautiful sunrise this morning on the way to work, the vivid rays shining through the trees, I pulled over and just felt drawn to looking at it. It filled me; I experienced such a deep feeling of awe and desire to dwell among the security, warmth, light, peace, and solace that I began to cry. The juxtaposition of such beauty with the feelings I feel inside were jarring. I wanted to just dwell in the protection of the sunrise, forever."

"Seizing the day may well result in one's untimely death, but living sheepishly already has."

"Self-esteem is much about the power one had in their home as a child. The more power a child enjoyed in comparison to siblings and parents, the easier the rest of life seems."

"Superstition, ignorance, supposition, and guess account for humans seeing dark shadows move. Science, rationality, and logic serve us best: certain evil is impossible to prove."

"Self-knowledge is, in part, knowing what values you value, which virtues you possess, and what makes you ethically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally unique."

"Strive to see what is not readily apparent to the naked mind."

"Sometimes the noble knight must fight alone, his brothers in arms being bested all around. Of course he feels that fear down to the bone, but his courage and duty keep him bearing down..."

"The absence of a sense of purpose unifying mankind is clearly upon us; suffering, corruption, inequality, and injustice mark present-day earth. Hard laws and hidden cameras have failed to make up for a dearth of trust; can we find in human hearts the means to create a spiritual rebirth?"

"Societal factors and social ecology are shown by powerful public health studies to impact health more than do genes, biology, behavior, and even medical care. We are reluctant to jettison capitalism, but it is exacting a terrible cost. (example: Tarlov & St. Peter)"

"Taking responsibility for change is extraordinarily difficult. It flies in the face of genetics, hormones, engrained synaptic pathways, early childhood development, random events, and other uncontrolled factors. But what else can we do? Keep doing the same dysfunctional acts over and over again, with its associated pain? Commit suicide? Thinking things through is our only hope - at least if God won't save us from our responsibility. Luckily our ancestors spent so much time inadvertently developing the human brain that we have the supreme gift of self-observation."

"The finer things in life are fine, but the meaningful things in life are more meaningful."

"The difference between being a moral pillar versus a moral sheep is a matter of keeping a vigilant watch on oneself and purposely shaping one's behavior - rather than being bumped around by consequences, the opinions of others, fear of punishment, or social convention."

"The fusion of progressive and classical values this book is about is not "radical" compared to let's say Jesus, Jefferson, or King. It's just that certain political factions want to marginalize a value system that does not maintain the status quo in regard to race, class, church/state alliances, and societal responsibilities. Our country needs major work, and so does the world - people are suffering needlessly, and this is not okay. "Values of the wise" are our answer."

"The foundation on which my true self has been built is shaky to the degree that the bricks forming it are lies. Part of the bedrock supporting my pride is silt- I want one to know only truth when gazing in my eyes."

"The only person who has to like who I am is myself."

"The insecurity the wise person must face is extraordinary. Think about not being able to say with true confidence, "I am right," or "this divorce is the best thing for me," or "this candidate is the one," or, "God exists." It is so seductive to sink back into the comfortable idea that you know something, that you are sure. Yet that is the one thing the wise person must hesitate to seize upon. So, metaphorically, the wise person is resigned to lie in bed, but never to fall asleep."

"The legacy of a man is created through a few remarkable situations. What honor lies in philosophizing from one's soporific armchair? ?Tis a world full of pessimists, of mutable morals; indeed, those who show greatness are becoming increasingly rare."

"The problem with moral decision making is not when the big issues are on the line, but rather during the countless, little decisions we are continually faced with. The majority of people can make the "right" decision if someone turns on the spotlight and says, "What are you going to do?" The real question is, what has one been doing from day to day with no one watching?"

"The places I have been emotionally have helped to make me who I am today, as fire is needed to bend steel. The values that move me came into focus for me in part because of the duress of pain I have gone through - and still experience at times."

"The more you know, the more you have truth on your side. It is a sublime power."