Great Throughts Treasury

"To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know."

"To fly from, need not be to hate mankind."

"To feel for none is the true social art of the world's stoics - men without a heart."

"To fly from, need not be to hate, mankind: all are not fit with them to stir and toil, nor is it discontent to keep the mind deep in its fountain."

"To my extreme mortification, I grow wiser every day."

"To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down."

"To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin."

"Tough times never last, but tough people do."

"To what gulfs A single deviation from the track Of human duties leads even those who claim The homage of mankind as their born due, And find it, till they forfeit it themselves!"

"To the mind, Which is itself, no changes bring surprise."

"Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical."

"To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all."

"Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."

"Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer."

"Troy owes to Homer what whist owes to Hoyle"

"Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction."

"Truth is a gem that is found at a great depth; whilst on the surface of this world all things are weighed by the false scale of custom."

"Tyranny Is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem none rebels except subjects? The prince who neglects or violates his trust is more a brigand than the robber-chief."

"Venice once was dear, The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy."

"Vain, froward child of empire, say, Are all thy playthings snatched away?"

"Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, and help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low: so the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, no more through rolling clouds to soar again, view'd his own feather on the fatal dart, and wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart."

"Upon her face there was the tint of grief, The settled shadow of an inward strife; And an unquiet drooping of the eye, As if its lid were charged with unshed tears."

"Twas blow for blow, disputing inch by inch, For one would not retreat, nor t'other flinch."

"Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb!"

"Voluptuous as the first approach of sleep."

"War, war is still the cry, "War even to the knife!""

"War's a brain-spattering, windpipe-slitting art, unless her cause by right be sanctified."

"We can’t all be Byronic adventurers like you Jude. Have you been wrestling with any brigands in the mountains there? No, but you’ve got to watch the drivers! Funny you should mention the poetic lord. He used to take his holidays down here, you know? What… picking up last-minute bargains with ‘EasyFrigate’?"

"We are all the fools of time and terror: days steal on us and steal from us; yet we live, loathing our life, and dreading still to die."

"We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things."

"We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them."

"We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive."

"We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds."

"We are the fools of Time and Terror: Days steal on us, and steal from us; yet we live, loathing our life, and dreading still to die."

"We of the craft (poets) are all crazy."

"We ne'er forget, tho' there we are forgot."

"We have progressively improved into a less spiritual species of tenderness – but the seal is not yet fixed though the wax is preparing for the impression."

"We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched."

"Well, well, the world must turn upon its axis, and all mankind turn with it, heads or tails, and live and die, make love and pay our taxes, and as the veering winds shift, shift our sails."

"Well didst thou speak, Athena's wisest son!/ All that we know is, nothing can be known."

"We two parted in silence and tears, half broken-hearted to sever for years."

"What a strange thing is the propagation of life! A bubble of seed which may be spilt in a whore's lap, or in the orgasm of a voluptuous dream, might (for aught we know) have formed a Caesar or a Bonaparte -- there is nothing remarkable recorded of their sires, that I know of."

"Were't the last drop in the well, as I gasp'd upon the brink, ere my fainting spirit fell 't is to thee that I would drink."

"What a strange thing is man! and what a stranger Is woman! What a whirlwind is her head, And what a whirlpool full of depth and danger Is all the rest about her."

"What an antithetical mind! -- tenderness, roughness -- delicacy, coarseness -- sentiment, sensuality -- soaring and groveling, dirt and deity -- all mixed up in that one compound of inspired clay!"

"What exile from himself can flee? To zones, though more and more remote, Still, still pursues, where'er I be, The blight of life--the demon Thought."

"What gem hath dropp'd, and sparkles o'er his chain? The tear most sacred, shed for other's pain, That starts at once--bright pure--from Pity's mine, Already polish'd by the hand divine!"

"What is Death, so it be but glorious? 'Tis a sunset; and mortals may be happy to resemble the Gods but in decay."

"What boots the oft-repeated tale of strife, The feast of vultures, and the waste of life? The varying fortune of each separate field, The fierce that vanquish, and the faint that yield? The smoking ruin and the crumbled wall? In this the struggle was the same with all."

"What deep wounds ever closed without a scar? The hearts bleed longest, and but heal to wear That which disfigures it."