Great Throughts Treasury

"A proponent of the Big Bang Theory, at least if he is an atheist, must believe that the universe came from nothing and by nothing." - Anthony Kenny, fully Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny

"America is too great for small dreams." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what comes towards Man, out of the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future. We must look forward with absolute equanimity to everything that may come. And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a world-directive full of wisdom. It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live out of pure trust, without any security in existence - trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world. Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves, every morning and every evening." - Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

"Englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their mothers." - Rudyard Kipling

"The worst of all of this is the lie that condoms really protect against AIDS. The condom failure rate can be as high as 20 percent. Would you get on a plane — or put your children on a plane — if one of five passengers would be killed on the flight? Well, the statistic holds for condoms, folks." - Rush Limbaugh

"The body of the Word, then, being a real human body, in spite of its having been uniquely formed from a virgin, was of itself mortal and, like other bodies, liable to death. But the indwelling of the Word loosed it from this natural liability, so that corruption could not touch it. Thus is happened that two opposite marvels took place at once: the death of all was consummated in the Lord's body; yet, because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished." - Saint Athanasius, aka Athanasius of Alexandria, St. Athanasius the Great, St. Athanasius I of Alexandria, St. Athanasius the Confessor, St. Athanasius the Apostolic NULL

"God is to be worshiped by faith, hope and love." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"He fashioned hell for the inquisitive." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"If all could be perceived in one act of perception, it would obviously give more delight than any of the individual parts." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"Someone who knows enough to become the owner of a tree, and gives thanks to you for the benefits it brings him, is in a better state, even if ignorant of its height in feet and the extent of its spread, than another who measures and counts all its branches but neither owns it nor knows its creator nor loves him." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"To seek the highest good is to live well." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"If we endure things patiently and with gladness thinking on the sufferings of our blessed Lord, and bearing all for the love of Him: herein is perfect joy." - Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone NULL

"Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'til your good is better and your better is best." - Saint Jerome, aka Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymous, Hierom or Jerom NULL

"It is said that God allows the demons to attack us for five reasons. The first is that, through being attacked and fighting back, we should learn to distinguish virtue from sin. The second is that having acquired virtue by struggle and labor we should keep it firm and unalterable. The third, that progressing in virtue we should not think highly of ourselves but learn humility. The fourth, that having experienced in practice the wickedness of sin we should hate it with perfect hatred. Finally, the fifth and most important is that having been freed from the passions we should not forget our weakness and the strength of Him that helped us." - Saint Maximus the Confessor NULL

"The Lord gave clear evidence of His supreme power in what He endured from hostile forces when He endowed human nature with an incorruptible form of generation. For through His passion He conferred dispassion, through suffering repose, and through death eternal life. By His privations in the flesh He re-established and renewed the human state, and by His own incarnation He bestowed on human nature the supra-natural grace of deification." - Saint Maximus the Confessor NULL

"He is justified from sin to whom all sins are remitted through Baptism." - Saint Ambrose, born Aurelius Ambrosius NULL

"The conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, because of the sinfulness of man, revolves around his [man’s] nature." - Saint Ambrose, born Aurelius Ambrosius NULL

"Even if others make war against us, it is right for us to remain in peace." - John Chrysostom, fully Saint John Chrysostom

"When you are praying alone, and your spirit is dejected, and you are wearied and oppressed by your loneliness, remember then, as always, that God the Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter than the sun; also all the angels, your own Guardian Angel, and all the Saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God, and where God is, there are they also. Where the sun is, thither also are directed all its rays. Try to understand what this means." - Saint John of Kronstadt, fully John Il’ich Serguiev, aka Holy Father John of the Kronstadt NULL

"All of the moral precepts belong to the law of nature." - Saint Thomas Aquinas, aka Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis or Doctor Universalis

"Concerning perfect blessedness which consists in a vision of God." - Saint Thomas Aquinas, aka Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis or Doctor Universalis

"The Philosopher [Aristotle] says in Metaphysics VI that good and evil, which are objects of the will, are in things, but truth and error, which are objects of the intellect, are in the mind." - Saint Thomas Aquinas, aka Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis or Doctor Universalis

"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." - Saint Thomas Aquinas, aka Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis or Doctor Universalis

"Things arrange themselves with time. Only God can have everything to His liking; His servants should act as Our Lord did." - Saint Vincent de Paul

"Divine right went out with the American Revolution and doesn't belong to the White House aides. What meat do they eat that makes them grow so great?" - Sam Ervin, fully Samuel James "Sam" Ervin, Jr.

"Government is contemptuous of true religion when it confiscates the taxes of Caesar to finance the things of God." - Sam Ervin, fully Samuel James "Sam" Ervin, Jr.

"I don't think either one of them would have recognized the Bill of Rights if they met it on the street in broad daylight under a cloudless sky." - Sam Ervin, fully Samuel James "Sam" Ervin, Jr.

"When I win, I crow softly, if at all; and when I lose, I weep gently, if at all. I do not consider President Nixon's change of mind a surrender to me. I consider it a victory for the constitutional government in America." - Sam Ervin, fully Samuel James "Sam" Ervin, Jr.

"To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"Up and with my wife to church, where Mr. Mills made an unnecessary sermon on Original Sin, neither understood by himself, nor the people." - Samuel Pepys

"Patience and perseverance are never more thoroughly Christian graces than when features of prayer." - Samuel I. Prime, fully Samuel Irenaeus Prime

"There is no denying that Hitler and Stalin are alive today... they are waiting for us to forget, because this is what makes possible the resurrection of these two monsters." - Simon Wiesenthal

"Bourgeois society is infected by monomania: the monomania of accounting. For it, the only thing that has value is what can be counted in francs and centimes. It never hesitates to sacrifice human life to figures which look well on paper, such as national budgets or industrial balance sheets." - Simone Weil

"Ready-made phrases and the ritual of etiquette were unknown to him; his thoughtfulness was pure improvisation, and it resembled the little inventions affection inspires." - Simone de Beauvoir, fully Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir

"I cannot put in danger the lives of my two children, my musicians and my technicians, so I have decided to cancel this concert." - Sinéad O’Connor, fully Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor

"‘I wonder!’ said he, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. ‘Perhaps there are points which have escaped your Machiavellian intellect. Let us consider the problem in the light of pure reason.’" - Arthur Conan Doyle, fully Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

"It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull." - Arthur Conan Doyle, fully Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

"The conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, because of the sinfulness of man, revolves around his [man’s] nature." - Ambrose, aka Saint Ambrose, fully Aurelius Ambrosius NULL

"We are free to be ignorant [about the day on which angels were created] because we neither must nor can know." - Ambrose, aka Saint Ambrose, fully Aurelius Ambrosius NULL

"He pitilessly punishes himself, and, in his heart, performs the same cruel office which Divine Justice reserves for the chastisement of the greatest criminal." - Cyprian, aka Saint Cyprian of Carthage, fully Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus NULL

"No one is safe by his own strength, but he is safe by the grace and mercy of God." - Cyprian, aka Saint Cyprian of Carthage, fully Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus NULL

"The envious man is cruel, proud, unfaithful, impatient, and quarrelsome; and, what is strange, when this vice gains the mastery, he is no longer master of himself, and he is unable to correct his many faults. If the bond of peace is broken, if the rights of fraternal charity are violated, if truth is altered or disguised, it is often envy that hurries him on to crime." - Cyprian, aka Saint Cyprian of Carthage, fully Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus NULL

"Even now I know it: yes, all my hopes will be fulfilled... yes... the Lord will work wonders for me which will surpass infinitely my immeasurable desires." - Thérèse de Lisieux, fully Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin NULL

"God's love is revealed just as much in the most simple soul who does not resist His graces as in the most sublime." - Thérèse de Lisieux, fully Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin NULL

"But in the case of man, hard as it is for him to learn how to submit to rule, it seems far harder to know how to rule over men, and hardest of all, with this rule of ours, which leads them by the divine law, and to God, for its risk is, in the eyes of a thoughtful man, proportionate to its height and dignity. For, first of all, he must, like silver or gold, though in general circulation in all kinds of seasons and affairs, never ring false or alloyed, or give token of any inferior matter, needing further refinement in the fire; or else, the wider his rule, the greater evil he will be. Since the injury which extends to many is greater than that which is confined to a single individual… nothing is so easy as to become evil, even without any one to lead us on to it; while the attainment of virtue is rare and difficult, even where there is much to attract and encourage us." - Gregory Nazianzen, aka Saint Gregory of Nazianzus or Gregory the Theologian

"We should always be prepared so as never to err to believe that what I see as white is black, if the hierarchic Church defines it thus." - Ignatius Loyola, aka Saint Ignatius of Loyola

"You wish to reform the world: reform yourself, otherwise your efforts will be in vain." - Ignatius Loyola, aka Saint Ignatius of Loyola

"As we discern a fine line between crank and genius, so also (and unfortunately) we must acknowledge an equally graded trajectory from crank to demagogue. When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown." - Stephan Jay Gould

"I have long recognized the theory and aesthetic of such comprehensive display: show everything and incite wonder by sheer variety. But I had never realized how powerfully the decor of a cabinet museum can promote this goal until I saw the Dublin [Natural History Museum] fixtures redone right… The exuberance is all of one piece—organic and architectural. I write this essay to offer my warmest congratulations to the Dublin Museum for choosing preservation—a decision not only scientifically right, but also ethically sound and decidedly courageous. The avant-garde is not an exclusive locus of courage; a principled stand within a reconstituted rear unit may call down just as much ridicule and demand equal fortitude. Crowds do not always rush off in admirable or defendable directions." - Stephan Jay Gould

"God is a Spirit infinitely happy, therefore we must approach to him with cheerfulness; he is a Spirit of infinite majesty, therefore we must come before him with reverence; he is a Spirit infinitely holy, therefore we must address him with purity; he is a Spirit infinitely glorious, we must therefore acknowledge his excellency in all that we do, and in our measures contribute to his glory, by having the highest aims in his worship; he is a Spirit infinitely provoked by us, therefore we must offer up our worship in the name of a pacifying Mediator and Intercessor." - Stephen Charnock