Great Throughts Treasury

"The first bond of society is marriage."

"The great affairs of life are not performed by physical strength, or activity, or nimbleness of body, but by deliberation, character, expression of opinion. Of these old age is not only not deprived, but, as a rule, has them in a greater degree."

"The good of the people is the chief law."

"The more law the less justice."

"The home is the empire! There is no peace more delightful than one's own fireplace."

"The only excuse for war is that we may live unharmed in peace."

"The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living."

"The life given us by nature is short, but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal."

"The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory."

"The search after truth is peculiar to man."

"The philosopher’s whole life is a preparation for death."

"The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil."

"The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends."

"The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied."

"The true medicine of the mind is philosophy."

"The wise man is always happy, and every good thing is full of joy."

"The whole of virtue consists in its practice."

"There are more men ennobled by study than by nature."

"The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds, by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct."

"There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment. Or rather, may I say that it is enough to get a wrong-doer to repent of his misdeed, so that he may not repeat the offense, and also a means of deterring others from doing wrong."

"There is no mortal whom pain and disease do not reach."

"There is in superstition a senseless fear of God."

"There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence, and this takes the deepest root, and is most discoverable, in the greatest geniuses and most exalted souls."

"This, therefore, is a law not found in books, but written on the fleshy tablets of the heart, which we have not learned from man, received or read, but which we have caught up from Nature herself, sucked in and imbibed; taught, but for which we were made; we received it not by education, but by intuition."

"There is not a moment without some duty."

"Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat."

"Time destroys the groundless conceits of man, but confirms that which is founded on nature and reality."

"True law is right reason comfortably to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil."

"Time is the herald of truth."

"To live is to think... Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth."

"To disregard what the world thinks of us is not only arrogant but utterly shameless."

"We cannot employ the mind to advantage when we are filled with excessive food and drink."

"Whatever that be which thinks, understand, wills, and acts, it is something celestial and divine."

"Nature has instilled [planted] in our minds an insatiable desire to see truth."

"Ability without honor is useless."

"All I can do is to urge you to put friendship ahead of all other human concerns, for there is nothing so suited to man's nature, nothing that can mean so much to him, whether in good times or in bad… I am inclined to think that with the exception of wisdom, the gods have given nothing finer to men than this."

"Control thyself."

"It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own."

"Justice is one: it binds all human society and is based on one law."

"Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability."

"Probabilities direct the conduct of the wise man."

"Let the good of the people be the chief law."

"Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?"

"The more laws, the less justice."

"Advice is generally judged by results, not by intentions. "

"Freedom is participating in power. "

"A great many people do many things that seem to be inspired more by a spirit of ostentation than by heartfelt kindness… Such a pose is nearer akin to hypocrisy than to generosity or moral goodness. "

"In nothing is the uniformity of human nature more conspicuous than in its respect for virtue. "

"Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed. "

"If I err in my belief that the souls of men are immortal, I err gladly, and I do not wish to lose so delightful an error."