Great Throughts Treasury

"The job of government and politicians in such a flattening world is more important than ever. It is to embrace globalization and understand that a fairer, more compassionate, and more egalitarian society lies in a web of policies aimed not at strengthening the old welfare state–or in abolishing it and just letting the market rip–but at reconfiguring it to give more Americans the outlook, education, skills, and safety nets they will need to compete against other individuals in the flat world. That is what compassionate flatism stands for, and it is built around five section areas: leadership, muscle, cushioning, social activism, and parenting." - Thomas L. Friedman, fully Thomas Lauren Friedman

"Of course, when all is said, it is not learning but the spirit of service that will give a college place in the public annals of the nation." - Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson

"Human beings are accustomed to think of intellect as the power of having and controlling ideas and of ability to learn as synonymous with ability to have ideas. But learning by having ideas is really one of the rare and isolated events in nature." -

"It has already been shown that in the animal kingdom there is, as we pass from the early vertebrates down to man, a progress in the evolution of the general associative process which practically equals animal intellect, that this progress continues as we pass from the monkeys to man." -

"In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school." - Thucydides NULL

"As a thing is viewed, so it appears." - Tibetan Proverbs

"The most important thing you do in your life is to die." - Timothy Leary, fully Timothy Francis Leary

"The wise person devotes his life exclusively to the religious search — for therein is found the only ecstasy, the only meaning." - Timothy Leary, fully Timothy Francis Leary

"But say, my lord, it were not regist'red, methinks the truth should live from age to age, as 'twere retailed to all posterity, Even to the general all-ending day. King Richard III, Act iii, Scene 1" - William Shakespeare

"Our life is always deeper than we know, is always more divine than it seems, and hence we are able to survive degradations and despairs which otherwise must engulf us." - William James

"Nothing yet proves that continued progress is inevitable, but that it is possible no one but an extreme skeptic or pessimist can doubt." - Edward Scribner Ames

"I observe that there are two entirely different theories according to which individual men seek to get on in the world. One theory leads a man to pull down everybody around him in order to climb up on them to a higher place. The other leads a man to help everybody around him in order that he may go up with them." - Elihu Root

"For the belief in God is merely the outcome of the belief in man. God is the apex of the pyramid, not the base. Man is the corner- stone; and from the true conception of man have the Jewish thinkers risen to the noblest conception of the Deity. Those are shallow who talk of their agnosticism and parade their atheism. No one is an agnostic and no one is an atheist, except he have neither pity for the weak nor charity for the erring; except he have no mercy for those who need its soothing balm." - Emil G. Hirsch, fully Emil Gustav Hirsch

"Perhaps even more than constituted authority, it is social uniformity and sameness that harass the individual most. His very uniqueness, separateness and differentiation make him an alien, not only in his native place, but even in his own home. Often more so than the foreign born who generally falls in with the established." - Emma Goldman

"The vital importance of forgiveness may not be obvious at first sight, but you may be sure that it is not by chance that every great spiritual teacher has insisted so strongly upon it. You must forgive injuries, not just in words, or as a matter of form, but in your heart -- and that is the long and the short of it. You do this, not for the other person's sake, but for your own sake. Resentment, condemnation, anger, desire to see someone punished are things that rot your soul. Such things fasten your troubles to you with rivets. They fetter you to many other problems that actually have nothing to do with the original grievances themselves." - Emmet Fox

"All art is only done by the individual. The individual is all you ever have and all schools only serve to classify their members as failures." - Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

"But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there." - Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

"When you have a child, the world has a hostage." - Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

"It's hard to feel attracted to someone who has abandoned her sense of autonomy. Maybe he can love her, but it's clearly much harder for him to desire her. There's no tension." - Esther Perel

"The united vote of those who toil and have not will vanquish those who have and toil not, and solve forever the problems of democracy." - Eugene V. Debs, fully Eugene Victor Debs

"If you wish to know what justice is, let injustice pursue you. When you cannot be just because of your nature, be so through your pride." - Eugenio Maria de Hostos (y Bonilla)

"There is a cause for all things." - Italian Proverbs

"Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?" - J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

"Don't dip your beard in the foam, Father! They cried to Thorin. It is long enough without watering it!" - J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien