Great Throughts Treasury

"In the end, we must always return to our beliefs. From the mundane to the mystical, they inform us about reality and they shape our future lives. And if the ultimate reality remains a mystery, so much the better, for it is the questions that give us meaning, that drive us forward and fill us with transcendent awe." - Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman

"Be prepared. It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it." -

"Being a Christian in American doesn’t require a great cost. You can be Christian and fully participate in the secular culture. I have a sense that, more and more, being a Christian in this country will require a choice. The Christian will have to be willing to make big sacrifices… Right now, in this culture, you can have your cake and eat it too. But that is an illusion. You cannot be a fat sprinter. If you want to spring to the Kingdom, you had better be lean." - Henri Nouwen, fully Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen

"One ceases to be a child when one realizes that telling one’s trouble does not make it any better." -

"If the happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, we are bound to grow happier as we advance in years, because our minds have more and more interesting thoughts. A well-ordered life is like climbing a tower; the view halfway up is better than the view from the base, and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands." - William Lyon Phelps

"I believe that a country’s first duty is to set its own house in order; and having set its own house in order, it can contribute better to the community of the world. Instead of being a weak link, it should be a strong link." - George Cable Price

"Almost all propaganda is designed to create fear. Heads of governments and their officials know that a frightened people is easier to govern, will forfeit rights it would otherwise defend, is less likely to demand a better life, and will agree to millions and millions being spent on “Defense.”" - J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

"What God sends is better than what men ask for." - Croatian Proverbs

"It is better to build bridges than walls." - Swahili Proverbs

"Better ruined ten times than dead once." - Yiddish Proverbs

"Better to be idle than not well occupied." - John Ray or Wray

"The oppressor must have the cooperation of the oppressed, of those he must feel better than. The oppressed and the damned are placed in an inferior position by force of arms, physical strength, and later, by threats of such force. But the long-time maintenance of power over others is secured by psychological manipulation and seduction." - Patricia Rawlins Robinson

"Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad." -

"We can understand and relate to most people better if you look at them – no matter how impressive they may be – as if they are children. For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much – we simply grow taller. Oh, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tails." -

"Art is an exercise of the whole being of man, not to compete with God but to coincide better with the order of Creation, to love it better, and to reestablish ourselves with it." -

"To quit this troubled world is better than to enter it: the rosebud enters the garden with straightened heart and departs smiling." - Sa’ib of Tabriz, aka Mirza Muhammad Ali Sa'ib, Saib Isfahani or Sa'ib Of Esfahan NULL

"You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity." -

"Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." - Haile Selassie

"Self-discipline never means giving up anything - for giving up is a loss. Our Lord did not ask us to give up the things of earth, but to exchange them for better things." - Fulton Sheen, fully Archbishop Fulton John Sheen

"It is doubtful if a truly good world, a better and a fuller life for man, can ever be established through reason alone." - Edmund Ware Sinnot

"Whosoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." - Jonathan Swift, pen names, M.B. Drapier, Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff

"Ultimate Reality must be at least personal, or perhaps better said, Supra-personal or trans-personal – but not less than personal, and therefore not just non-personal." - Leonard Swindler

"No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it finds therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it and so makes it possible for it to come. the sooner we begin to look within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it will be, for so much sooner will we begin to make conditions within ourselves such that only good may enter." - Ralph Waldo Trine

"Remember that it is far better to follow well than to lead indifferently." - John G. Vance

"Mercy is better than justice." - Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues NULL

"There are not so many lessons in glad times. Adversity is by far the better teacher. Adversity will be a part of almost all our lives. So it is not in escaping adversity, but in answering it, that our character is defined." - Alan Christopher Warren

"Scientists look for four qualities in theory generally… parsimony: the fewer the units and process used to account for the phenomenon, the better… second, generality: the greater the range of phenomena covered by the model, the more likely it is to be true… Consilence: units and process of a discipline that conform with solidly verified knowledge in other disciplines have proven consistently superior in theory and practice to units and processes that do not conform… Predictiveness: those theories endure that are precise in the predictions they make across phenomena and whose predictions are easiest to test by observation and experiment." -

"Men have been urged to pray, when they would have done better to think, observe and act." - H. G. Woods

"Young people, what need have you to follow the trendy slogans of these intellectual leaders? You ought better to gather some comrades and pool together all you energies; go forward in one common impetus, following what appears to be the path of survival. All together you will never be short of strength. If you encounter a deep forest, you can always hack your way through; you can open up the wilderness; you can dig wells in the desert. Why should you stick to old ruts and beg for guidance of these wretched guides?" - Lu Xun, or Lu Hsün, pen name of Zhou Shuren

"The only true happiness is to share in the sufferings of the unhappy… It is much better to have the screaming sensitivity of the soul uncovered by any protective skin than to have tear-proof rhinoceros skin in combination with cold fish blood." -

"The more specific your vision is, the better your chances of making it a reality." - Fred D. Anderson

"Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful. Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people." - Charles Bradlaugh

"No man or woman can be strong, gentle, pure, and good without the world being better for it and without someone being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness." -

"A good heart is better than all the heads in the world." -

"Don't spend your precious time asking "Why isn't the world a better place?" It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is "How can I make it better?" To that there is an answer." -

"Hold on to your dreams for they are, in a sense, the stuff of which reality is made. It is through our dreams that we maintain the possibility of a better, more meaningful life." -

"A more peaceful way to live is to decide consciously which battles are worth fighting and which are better left alone." - Richard Carlson

"I'm the first to admit that I always prefer approval over disapproval. It feels better and it's certainly easier to deal with. The more content I've become, however, the less I depend on it for my sense of well-being." - Richard Carlson

"Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better." - John Carmack, fully John D. Carmack II

"Better to build schoolrooms for the boy than cells for the man." - Eliza Cook

"The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention." -

"People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher or better than themselves." - Tryon Edwards

"Depression, almost invariably, is a reflection of an individual's low estimation of oneself, because the depressed person feels that: "Things are going badly in my life;" and, "I am too weak and inadequate to handle these things or make them better, and therefore I am a pretty bad person."" - Albert Ellis

"It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge." - Enrico Fermi

"One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested." -

"But, on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it." - Benjamin Franklin

"A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble." -

"Be yourself. Who is better qualified?" -

"Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man - who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?" - Maxim Gorky, pen name of Alexei Maximovich Peshkov

"When a man steals your wife there is no better revenge than to let him keep her." - Sacha Guitry, fully Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry