Great Throughts Treasury

"Distrust that man who tells you to distrust; he takes the measure of his own small soul, and thinks the world no larger."

"Day's sweetest moments are at dawn."

"Change is the watchword of progression. When we tire of well-worn ways, we seek for new. This restless craving in the souls of men spurs them to climb, and to seek the mountain view."

"Feast, and your halls are crowded fast, and the world goes by succeed and give, and it helps you live but no man can help you die."

"For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros."

"For this is wisdom- to love and live to take what fate or the Gods may give, to ask no question, to make no prayer, to kiss the lips and caress the hair, speed passion's ebb as we greet its flow, to have and to hold, and, in time--let go."

"Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great; all things give way before it, soon or late."

"Give of thy love, nor wait to know the worth Of what thou lovest; and ask no returning. And wheresoe'er thy pathway leads on earth, There thou shalt find the lamp of love-light burning."

"How does Love speak? In the faint flush upon the telltale cheek, and in the pallor that succeeds it; by the quivering lid of an averted eye-- the smile that proves the parent to a sigh thus doth Love speak."

"Give us that grand word "woman" once again, and let's have done with "lady"; one's a term full of fine force, strong, beautiful, and firm, fit for the noblest use of tongue or pen; and one's a word for lackeys."

"It is a common fate -- a woman's lot -- to waste on one the riches of her soul, who takes the wealth she gives him, but cannot repay the interest, and much less the whole."

"It is easy to be pleasant when life flows by like a song, but the man worthwhile is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, and it always comes with years, and the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through the tears."

"I hold it true that thoughts are things endowed with bodies, breath, and wings, and that we send them forth to fill the world with good results--or ill."

"He who prates of human nature's baseness and deceit looks in the mirror of his heart, and sees his kind therein reflected."

"I like the roar of cities. In the mart, where busy toilers strive for place and gain, I seem to read humanity's great heart, and share its hopes, its pleasures, and its pain."

"I will not doubt, though sorrows fall like rain, and troubles swarm like bees about a hive; I shall believe the heights for which I strive are only reached by anguish and by pain; and though I groan and tremble with my crosses, I yet shall see, through my severest losses, the greater gain."

"I tell you the women who make fervent wives and sweet tender mothers, had Fate been less fair, are the women who might have abandoned their lives to the madness that springs from and ends in despair. As the fire on the hearth which sheds brightness around, neglected, may level the walls to the ground."

"In time the earth will be inhabited by almost god-like beings who shall analyze and discuss the remnants of humanity as we now discuss the chimpanzee."

"Immortal life is something to be earned, by slow self-conquest, comradeship with Pain, and patient seeking after higher truths."

"It has ever been since time began, and ever will be, till time lose breath, that love is a mood - no more - to man, and love to a woman is life or death."

"Life is a garden forever in flower."

"It is easy to tell the toiler how best he can carry his pack but no one can rate a burden's weight until it has been on his back."

"It seemeth such a little way to me across to that strange country -- the Beyond; and yet, not strange, for it has grown to be the home of those of whom I am so fond, they make it seem familiar and most dear, as journeying friends bring distant regions near."

"Life is too short for aught but high endeavor."

"Keep out of the Past! for its highways are damp with malarial gloom; its gardens are sere and its forests are drear, and everywhere moulders a tomb. Who seeks to regain its lost pleasures, finds only a rose turned to dust; and its storehouse of wonderful treasures are covered and coated with rust."

"Lifting and Leaning - There are two kinds of people on earth today, just two kinds of people, no more, I say. Not the good and the bad, for 'tis well understood the good are half bad and the bad are half good. Not the happy and sad, for the swift-flying years brings each man his laughter and each man his tears. Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man's wealth you must first know the state of his conscience and health. Not the humble and proud, for in life's busy span he who puts on vain airs is not counted a man. No! The two kinds of people on earth I mean are the people who lift and the people who lean. Wherever you go you will find the world's masses are ever divided in just two classes. And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I ween, there is only one lifter to twenty who lean. In which class are you? Are you easing the load of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road? Or are you a leaner who lets others bear your portion of worry and labor and care?"

"Life is a Shylock; always it demands the fullest userer's interest for each pleasure. Gifts are not freely scattered by its hands; we make returns for every borrowed treasure."

"Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate; As the voyage along thru life; 'Tis the will of the soul That decides its goal, And not the calm or the strife."

"Love is a spy who is plotting treason, in league with that warm, red rebel, the Heart."

"Love is as bitter as the dregs of sin, as sweet as clover-honey in its cell; love is the password whereboy souls get in to Heaven--the gate that leads, sometimes, to Hell."

"Love is the centre and circumference; the cause and aim of all things--'tis the key to joy and sorrow, and the recompense for all the ills that have been, or may be."

"Love is the crown that glorifies; the curse that brands and burdens; it is life and death. It is the great law of the universe; and nothing can exist without its breath."

"Oh! I know this truth, if I know no other, that passionate Love is Pain's own mother."

"Night was the goddess of satisfaction."

"Resistless change, when powerless to improve, can only mar."

"Love is the only thing that pays for birth, or makes death welcome. Oh, dear God above this beautiful but sad, perplexing earth, pty the hearts that know--or know not--Love!"

"No joy for which thy hungering heart has panted, no hope it cherishes through waiting years, but if thou dost deserve it, shall be granted for with each passionate wish the blessing nears. Tune up the fine, strong instrument of thy being to chord with thy dear hope, and do not tire. When both in key and rhythm are agreeing, Lo! thou shalt kiss the lips of thy desire. The thing thou cravest so waits in the distance, wrapt in the silences, unseen and dumb: essential to thy soul and thy existence-- live worthy of it--call, and it shall come."

"Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes, and men grow better as the world grows old."

"Shake hands with Pain, give greeting unto Grief, those angels in disguise, and thy glad soul from height to height, from star to shining star, shall climb and claim blest immortality."

"Suspect suspicion, and doubt only doubt."

"Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. No path is wholly rough."

"The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer, the headstones thicken along the way; and life grows sadder, but love grows stronger for those who walk with us day by day."

"Thank God, I say, for while I love you so, With that vast love, as passionate as tender, I feel an exultation as I know I have not made you a complete surrender. Here is my body; bruise it, if you will, and break my heart; I have that something still. You cannot grasp it"

"The longer I live and the more I see of the struggle of souls toward the heights above, the stronger this truth comes home to me: that the Universe rests on the shoulders of love; a love so limitless, deep, and broad, that men have renamed it and called it--God."

"The man who radiates good cheer, who makes life happier wherever he meets it, is always a man of vision and faith."

"The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind."

"There is a haunting phantom called Regret, a shadowy creature robed somewhat like woe, but fairer in the face, whom all men know by her said mien, and eyes forever wet. No heart would seek her; but once having met all take her by the hand, and to and fro they wander through those paths of long ago-- those hallowed ways 'twere wiser to forget."

"The loves of men but vary in degrees-- they find no new expression for the flame."

"The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow."

"There is new strength, repose of mind, and inspiration in fresh apparel."