Great Throughts Treasury

"'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'"

"Beauty is lyrical. Ugliness is elegiac."

"Bad faith likes discourse on friendship and loyalty."

"Cats are inquisitive, but hate to admit it."

"Boast quietly, with decorum."

"Children pay little attention to their parents' teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully."

"Children use all their wiles to get their way with adults. Adults do the same with children."

"City people make most of the fuss about the charms of country life."

"Commerce is greedy. Ideology is blood-thirsty."

"Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story."

"Children now expect their parents to audition for approval."

"Consciousness is our only reprieve from Time."

"Complainers change their complaints, but they never reduce the amount of time spent in complaining."

"Courage, determination, and hard work are all very nice, but not so nice as an oil well in the back yard"

"Conscious thought is the tidying up at the end."

"Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is."

"Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead."

"Cruelty is softened by fear, not pity."

"Cynicism is full of naive disappointments."

"Cure for an obsession: get another one."

"Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness."

"Death is frightening, and so is Eternal Life."

"Documents create a paper reality we call proof."

"Denial of one appetite sharpens the others"

"Don't stare into a mirror when you are trying to solve a problem."

"Don't sacrifice yourself for me. I will not be grateful."

"Even boredom has its crises."

"Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual."

"Eternity eludes us, even as a thought."

"Events are called inevitable only after they have occurred"

"Even the most fickle are faithful to a few bad habits."

"Even cats grow lonely and anxious."

"Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed."

"Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word."

"Every book teaches a lesson, even if the lesson is only that one has chosen the wrong book."

"Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better."

"Expensive advertising courts us with hints and images. The ordinary kind merely says, Buy."

"Experience teaches us, but we scarcely know what."

"Families in which nothing is ever discussed usually have a lot not to discuss."

"Fantasy mirrors desire. Imagination reshapes it."

"Fastidious taste makes enjoyment a struggle."

"Fears and lies intensify consciousness."

"Flattery and insults raise the same question: What do you want?"

"Few friendships could survive the moodiness of love affairs."

"Folly always knows the answer."

"Few artists can afford artistic temperament."

"Forget what hurt you but never forget what it thought you."

"First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory."

"For many, immaturity is an ideal, not a defect"

"Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it."