Great Throughts Treasury

"Love is enough: cherish life that abideth, lest ye die ere ye know him, and curse and misname him; for who knows in what ruin of all hope he hideth, on what wings of the terror of darkness he rideth? And what is the joy of man's life that ye blame him for his bliss grown a sword, and his rest grown a fire?" - William Morris

"What, are you, crazy?' 'It's a possibility I haven't ruled out yet', said Zaphod quietly. 'I know as much about myself as my mind can work out under its current conditions. And its current conditions are not good." - Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams

"Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it." - Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams

"Why?' is always the most difficult question to answer. You know where you are when someone asks you 'What's the time?' or 'When was the battle of 1066?' or 'How do these seatbelts work that go tight when you slam the brakes on, Daddy?' The answers are easy and are, respectively, 'Seven-thirty in the evening,' 'Ten-fifteen in the morning,' and 'Don't ask stupid questions." - Douglas Adams, fully Douglas Noel Adams

"A good woman is a hidden treasure; who discovers her will do well not to boast about it." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"It is not enough to succeed, others must fail." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"People who think they can live mean penance others lie to ourselves, but those who think other people cannot live without him be wrong again." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"There are certain people fated to be fools; they not only commit follies by choice, but are even constrained to do so by fortune." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"There is many a virtuous woman weary of her trade." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"Wisdom consists, not in stumbling on truth by chance but in marking, learning, and inwardly digesting it." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"O constancy, be strong upon my side, set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue! I have a man's mind, but a woman's might." - William Shakespeare

"O, my sweet sir, news fitting to the night, black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible." - William Shakespeare

"Our army shall in solemn show attend this funeral, and then to Rome. Come, Dolabella, see high order in this great solemnity." - William Shakespeare

"For the faith against tradition, for the truth ‘gainst superstition, for the hope whose glad fruition our waiting eyes shall see." - Edward Scribner Ames

"Punish the evil and reward the good. This was the excellent rule of antiquity. Therefore do not hide the good qualities of others or fail to correct what is wrong when you see it. Flatterers and deceivers are a sharp weapon for the overthrow of the state, and a sharp sword for the destruction of the people. Men of this kind are never loyal to their lord, or to the people. All this is a source of serious civil disturbances." - Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya

"The hanging gate, of something like trelliswork, was propped on a pole, and he could see that the house was tiny and flimsy. He felt a little sorry for the occupants of such a place--and then asked himself who in this world had a temporary shelter." - Murasaki Shikibu, aka Lady Murasaki

"Do we, mad as we all are after riches, hear often enough from the pulpit the spirit of those words in which Dean Swift, in his epitaph on the affluent and profligate Colonel Chartres, announces the small esteem of wealth in the eyes of God, from the fact of His thus lavishing it upon the meanest and basest of His creatures?" - Edwin Percy Whipple

"Humor implies a sure conception of the beautiful, the majestic, and the true, by whose light it surveys and shapes their opposites. It is an humane influence, softening with mirth the ragged inequalities of existence, prompting tolerant views of life, bridging over the spaces which separate the lofty from the lowly, the great from the humble." - Edwin Percy Whipple

"I am happy that in an age of technology there are those who are giving modern interpretation to the dream world which contains the key to the development of the evolution of the race. The dream world, and the world of deep feeling which is interpreted by symbols, relate to us the ancient races, for the dreams of ancient man and modern man are given in the same symbolic language." - Eileen Garrett

"I keep waiting to feel old, to feel like a grown-up, but I don't yet. Do you think that's the big secret adults keep from you? That you never feel like a grown-up?" - Eleanor Brown, fully Nora Eleanor Louisa Hervey Brown

"Work means so many things! So many! Among other things, work also means freedom... Without it even the miracle of love is only a cruel deception." - Eleanora Duse, aka Duse

"Patience is not to clench your teeth and do nothing. It means to be prescient enough to trust the end result of the process. What is patience? It means looking at the thorns and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so myopic as to see the result. Whoever loves God remains patient, because he knows that it takes time incomplete moon to be full." - Elif Safak

"Perhaps it took a stranger to make a woman like her speak her mind." - Elif Safak

"SAMPSON: My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee. GREGORY: How! turn thy back and run? SAMPSON: Fear me not. Gregory: No, marry; I fear thee!" - William Shakespeare

"Shine comforts from the east, That I may back to Athens by daylight From these that my poor company detest; And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company." - William Shakespeare

"And what will I be able to do tomorrow that I cannot yet do today?" - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Creative people always suffer from depression because we're so super sensitive and special?" - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Has become my thoughts more like neighbors veterans, annoying, but they have become dear, there is room for all of us in this neighborhood." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"I always thought we only had two choices in our lives when it came to pizza crust—thin and crispy, or thick and doughy. How was I to have known there could be a crust in this world that was thin and doughy? Holy of holies! Thin, doughy, strong, gummy, yummy, chewy, salty pizza paradise." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"I knew then that this is how God loves us all and receives us all, and that there is no such thing in this universe as hell, except maybe in our own terrified minds. Because if even one broken and limited human being could experience even one such episode of absolute forgiveness and acceptance of her own self, then imagine—just imagine!—what God, in all His eternal compassion, can forgive and accept." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"I think I deserve something beautiful." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"I tried so hard to fight the endless sobbing. I remember asking myself one night, while I was curled up in the same old corner of my same old couch in tears yet again over the same old repetition of sorrowful thoughts, Is there anything about this scene you can change, Liz? And all I could think to do was stand up, while still sobbing, and try to balance on one foot in the middle of my living room. Just to prove that - while I couldn’t stop the tears or change my dismal interior dialogue - I was not yet totally out of control. At least I could cry hysterically while balanced on one foot. Hey, it was a start." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"I wondered why have I been chasing happiness my whole life when bliss was here the entire time?" - Elizabeth Gilbert

"I'd like to go to Sicily because of what Goethe said: Without seeing Sicily, one can not have a clear idea of Italy ." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"It's just your ego, which seeks to retain power. Holds and the feeling of ambivalence, trying to convince you that you are deficient, disturbed and lonely rather than complete. If you keep the spiritual path, your ego will soon be out of business, and all decisions will make your heart. Replied attention. Instead of trying to force izgurnuti thoughts from his mind, give him something healthier, which can be played. For example, love." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth, there also exists in a human being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One, you can see; one, you cannot. One is made of bones and teeth and flesh; the other is made of energy and memory and faith. But both are equally true." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Marriage becomes hard work once you have poured the entirety of your life’s expectations for happiness into the hands of one mere person. Keeping that going is hard work." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Please go to this pizzeria. Order the margherita pizza with double mozzarella. If you do not eat this pizza when you are in Naples, please lie to me and tell me that you did." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"The health of the planet is affected by the health of every individual on it!" - Elizabeth Gilbert

"There is no choice more intensely personal, after all, than whom you choose to marry; that choice tells us, to a large extent, who you are." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Traditionally, I have responded to the transcendent mystics of all religions. I have always responded with breathless excitement to anyone who has ever said that God does not live in a dogmatic scripture or in a distant throne in the sky, but instead abides very close to us indeed- much closer than we can imagine, breathing right through our own hearts." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Wanting to get married, for me, is all about a desire to feel chosen. She went on to write that while the concept of building a life together with another adult was appealing, what really pulled at her heart was the desire for a wedding, a public event that will unequivocally prove to everyone, especially to myself, that I am precious enough to have been selected by somebody forever." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"We all seem to get this idea that, in order to be sacred, we have to make some massive, drastic change of character that we have to renounce our individuality. To know God, you only need to renounce one thing - your sense of division from God" - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Well, just remember--all your misery will be waiting for you at the door upon your exit, should you care to pick it up again when you leave." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Few cultures have not produced the idea that in some past era the world ran better than it does now." - Elizabeth Janeway, born Elizabeth Ames Hall

"It is the acceptance of death that has finally allowed me to choose life." - Elizabeth Lesser

"O rose, who dares to name thee? No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet, but pale, and hard, and dry, as stubblewheat,-- kept seven years in a drawer, thy titles shame thee." - Elizabeth Browning, fully Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Men never fail to dwell on maternity as a disqualification for the possession of many civil and political rights. Suggest the idea of women having a voice in making laws and administering the Government in the halls of legislation, in Congress, or the British Parliament, and men will declaim at once on the disabilities of maternity in a sneering contemptuous way, as if the office of motherhood was undignified and did not comport with the highest public offices in church and state. It is vain that we point them to Queen Victoria, who has carefully reared a large family, while considering and signing..." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton