Great Throughts Treasury

"The effectiveness of a doctrine must not be understood, but has to be believed in. We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. A doctrine that is understood is shorn of its strength."

"The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist."

"The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass-movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the single-handed defiance of the world."

"The impulse to escape an untenable situation often prompts human beings not to shrink back but to plunge ahead."

"The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders."

"The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination. We cannot pity those we have wronged, nor can we be indifferent toward them. We must hate and persecute them or else leave the door open to self-contempt."

"The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater our desire to be like others."

"There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate whenever they meet."

"There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its least worthy members."

"There is probably nothing more sublime than discontent transmuted into a work of art, a scientific discovery, and so on."

"There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it."

"There is no alienation that a little power will not cure."

"You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy."

"What affects us most is the gain and loss not in substance but in self-esteem."

"Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless."

"Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem."

"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

"It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate."

"Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves"

"It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn."

"Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story — a story that is basically without meaning or pattern."

"Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner."

"Man's only legitimate end in life is to finish God's work - to bring to full growth the capacities and talents implanted in us."

"No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are."

"Our greatest weariness comes from work not done."

"We are what other people say we are. We know ourselves through hearsay."

"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand."

"The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own."

"The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves."

"The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matters."

"A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority. "

"A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor. "

"Children are the keys of paradise. "

"A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. "

"An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head."

"It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents."

"Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are."

"Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation. "

"It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. "

"Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible. "

"It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence. "

"Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect."

"Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something. "

"One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action."

"Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing."

"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life."

"The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. "

"The greatest weariness comes from work not done. "

"The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody. "

"The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves. "