Great Throughts Treasury

"Of all the enemies of idleness, want is the most formidable. Want always struggles against idleness; but want herself is often overcome, and every hour shows some who had rather live in ease than in plenty." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"Great fear of the sicknesses here in the City, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all." - Samuel Pepys

"Every goal, every action, every thought, every feeling one experiences, whether it be consciously or unconsciously known, is an attempt to increase one's level of peace of mind." - Sidney Madwed

"His knowledge was greater than his wisdom, and his powers were far superior to his character." - Arthur Conan Doyle, fully Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

"It is agreed that all sound which is the material of music is of three sorts. First is harmonica, which consists of vocal music; second is organica, which is formed from the breath; third is rhythmica, which receives its numbers from the beat of the fingers. For sound is produced either by the voice, coming through the throat; or by the breath, coming through the trumpet or tibia, for example; or by touch, as in the case of the cithara or anything else that gives a tuneful sound on being struck." - Isidore of Seville, fully Saint Isidore of Seville NULL

"Learning unsupported by grace may get into our ears; it never reaches the heart. But when God's grace touches our innermost minds to bring understanding, his word which has been received by the ear sinks deep into the heart." - Isidore of Seville, fully Saint Isidore of Seville NULL

"A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper." - Stanley Kubrick

"Suspect is like a rival is already cruel, but confess in detail see the love he inspires the woman you love is probably the ultimate pain." - Stendhal, pen name of Marie Henn Beyle or Marie-Henri Beyle NULL

"The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent." - Stendhal, pen name of Marie Henn Beyle or Marie-Henri Beyle NULL

"Narrows, your sense of time stops. You feel alert and alive; effort becomes effortless. You lose yourself in your own voice, in the handling of your tools, in your feeling for the rules. Absorbed in" - Stephan Nachmanovitch

"If I could have those sixty seconds within Bradypus... would I not receive a plea for humans to pause, reassess - and above all, slow down?" - Stephan Jay Gould

"Music blows lyrics up very quickly, and suddenly they become more than art. They become pompous and they become self-conscious ... I firmly believe that lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you not only have the music, but you've got costume, story, acting, orchestra. There's a lot to take in." - Stephen Sondheim, fully Stephen Joshua Sondheim

"Oscar Hammerstein was a surrogate father during all those many days, and weeks and months when I didn't see my own father." - Stephen Sondheim, fully Stephen Joshua Sondheim

"This apparent hurly-burly and disorder turn out, after all, to reproduce real life with its fantastic ways more accurately than the most carefully studied out drama of manners. Every man is in himself all humanity, and if he writes what occurs to him he succeeds better than if he copies, with the help of a magnifying glass, objects placed outside of him." - Théophile Gautier, fully Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier, aka Le Bon Theo

"When you understand the roots of anger in yourself and in the other, your mind will enjoy true peace, joy and lightness." - Thich Nhất Hanh

"That which the sun doth not now see will be visible when the sun is out, and the stars are fallen from heaven." - Thomas Browne, fully Sir Thomas Browne

"And mark the wretch, whose wanderings never knew the world's regard, that soothes, though half untrue; whose erring heart the lash of sorrow bore, but found not pity when it err'd no more. Yon friendless man, at whose dejected eye th' unfeeling proud one looks, and passes condemn'd on penury's barren path to roam, scorn'd by the world, and left without a home." - Thomas Campbell

"Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him." - Thomas Carlyle

"When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." - Thomas Carlyle

"Whoever has sixpence is sovereign over all men,--to the extent of the sixpence; commands cooks to feed him, philosophers to teach him, kings to mount guard over him,--to the extent of sixpence." - Thomas Carlyle

"But was it not true that there were people, certain individuals, whom one found it impossible to picture dead, precisely because they were so vulgar? That was to say: they seemed so fit for life, so good at it, that they would never die, as if they were unworthy of the consecration of death." - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"Has the world ever been changed by anything save the thought and its magic vehicle the Word?" - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"He took in the squeaky music, the vulgar and pining melodies, because passion immobilizes good taste and seriously considers what soberly would be thought of as funny and to be resented." - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"Naphta loathed the bourgeois state and its love of security. He found occasion to express this loathing one autumn afternoon when, as they were walking along the main street, it suddenly began to rain and, as if on command, there was an umbrella over every head. That was a symbol of cowardice and vulgar effeminacy, the end product of civilization. An incident like the sinking of the Titanic was atavistic, true, but its effect was most refreshing, it was the handwriting on the wall. Afterward, of course, came the hue and cry for more security in shipping. How pitiful, but such weak-willed humanitarianism squared very nicely with the wolfish cruelty and villainy of slaughter on the economic battlefield known as the bourgeois state. War, war ! He was all for it – the universal lust or war seemed quite honorable in comparison." - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"Science never makes an advance until philosophy authorizes it to do so." - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"This was love at first sight, love everlasting a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected--in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life." - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"Suppose that my “poverty” be a hunger for spiritual riches: suppose that by pretending to empty myself, pretending to be silent, I am really trying to cajole God into enriching me with some experience - what then? Then everything becomes a distraction. All created things interfere with my quest for some special experience. I must shut them out, or they will tear me apart. What is worst — I, myself am distraction. But, unhappiest of all — if my prayer is centered in myself, if it seeks only an enrichment of my own self, my prayer will be my greatest potential distraction. Full of my own curiosity, I have eaten of the tree of Knowledge and torn myself away from myself and God. I am left rich and alone and nothing can assuage my hunger: everything I touch turns into distraction." - Thomas Merton

"The wise man has struggled to find You in his wisdom, and he has failed. The just man has striven to grasp You in his own justice, and he has gone astray. But the sinner, suddenly struck by the lightning of mercy that ought to have been justice, falls down in adoration of Your holiness: for he had seen what kings desired to see and never saw, what prophets foretold and never gazed upon, what the men of ancient times grew weary of expecting when they died. He has seen that Your love is so infinitely good that it cannot be the object of a human bargain." - Thomas Merton

"Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast. How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me. Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day. Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time." - W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden

"Love is an emotion without limit." - W. J. Dawson. fully William James Dawson

"When early morn walks forth in sober grey, Then to my black-eyed maid I haste away; When evening sits beneath her dusky bow’r, And gently sighs away the silent hour, The village bell alarms, away I go, And the vale darkens at my pensive woe. To that sweet village, where my black-eyed maid Doth drop a tear beneath the silent shade, I turn my eyes; and pensive as I go Curse my black stars and bless my pleasing woe. Oft when the summer sleeps among the trees, Whisp’ring faint murmurs to the scanty breeze, I walk the village round; if at her side A youth doth walk in stolen joy and pride, I curse my stars in bitter grief and woe, That made my love so high and me so low. O should she e’er prove false, his limbs I’d tear And throw all pity on the burning air; I’d curse bright fortune for my mixèd lot, And then I’d die in peace and be forgot." - William Blake

"The Couch of Death - The veiled evening walked solitary down the western hills, and Silence reposed in the valley; the birds of day were heard in their nests, rustling in brakes and thickets; and the owl and bat flew round the darkening trees: all is silent when Nature takes her repose.—In former times, on such an evening, when the cold clay breathed with life, and our ancestors, who now sleep in their graves, walked on the steadfast globe, the remains of a family of the tribes of Earth, a mother and a sister, were gathered to the sick bed of a youth. Sorrow linked them together; leaning on one another’s necks alternately—like lilies dropping tears in each other’s bosom—they stood by the bed like reeds bending over a lake, when the evening drops trickle down. His voice was low as the whisperings of the woods when the wind is asleep, and the visions of Heaven unfold their visitation. ‘Parting is hard and death is terrible; I seem to walk through a deep valley, far from the light of day, alone and comfortless! The damps of death fall thick upon me! Horrors stare me in the face! I look behind, there is no returning; Death follows after me; I walk in regions of Death, where no tree is, without a lantern to direct my steps, without a staff to support me.’ Thus he laments through the still evening, till the curtains of darkness were drawn. Like the sound of a broken pipe, the aged woman raised her voice. ‘O my son, my son, I know but little of the path thou goest! But lo! there is a God, who made the world; stretch out thy hand to Him.’ The youth replied, like a voice heard from a sepulchre, ‘My hand is feeble, how should I stretch it out? My ways are sinful, how should I raise mine eyes? My voice hath used deceit, how should I call on Him who is Truth? My breath is loathsome, how should He not be offended? If I lay my face in the dust, the grave opens its mouth for me; if I lift up my head, sin covers me as a cloak. O my dear friends, pray ye for me! Stretch forth your hands that my Helper may come! Through the void space I walk, between the sinful world and eternity! Beneath me burns eternal fire! O for a hand to pluck me forth!’ As the voice of an omen heard in the silent valley, when the few inhabitants cling trembling together; as the voice of the Angel of Death, when the thin beams of the moon give a faint light, such was this young man’s voice to his friends. Like the bubbling waters of the brook in the dead of night, the aged woman raised her cry, and said, ‘O Voice, that dwellest in my breast, can I not cry, and lift my eyes to Heaven? Thinking of this, my spirit is turned within me into confusion! O my child, my child, is thy breath infected? so is mine. As the deer wounded, by the brooks of water, so the arrows of sin stick in my flesh; the poison hath entered into my marrow.’ Like rolling waves upon a desert shore, sighs succeeded sighs; they covered their faces and wept. The youth lay silent, his mother’s arm was under his head; he was like a cloud tossed by the winds, till the sun shine, and the drops of rain glisten, the yellow harvest breathes, and the thankful eyes of the villagers are turned up in smiles. The traveller, that hath taken shelter under an oak, eyes the distant country with joy. Such smiles were seen upon the face of the youth: a visionary hand wiped away his tears, and a ray of light beamed around his head. All was still. The moon hung not out her lamp, and the stars faintly glimmered in the summer sky; the breath of night slept among the leaves of the forest; the bosom of the lofty hill drank in the silent dew, while on his majestic brow the voice of Angels is heard, and stringed sounds ride upon the wings of night. The sorrowful pair lift up their heads, hovering Angels are around them, voices of comfort are heard over the Couch of Death, and the youth breathes out his soul with joy into eternity." - William Blake

"The biological clock is responsive to light at certain times... Bright light in the morning will tend to advance the clock. In other words, alertness will occur earlier and sleep will occur earlier." - William Dement, fully William Charles Dement

"In the Italian Renaissance… there was no ‘subject-matter’. What we call subject matter now, was then painting itself. Subject matter came later on when parts of those works were taken out arbitrarily, when a man for no reason is sitting, standing or ling down. He became a bather, she became a bather; she was reclining; he just stood there looking ahead. That is when the posing in panting began… For really, when you think of all the life and death problems in the art of Renaissance, who cares if a Chevalier is laughing or that a young girl has a red blouse on." - Willem de Kooning

"Man’s own form in space – his body – was a private prison; and that it was because of this imprisoning misery – because he was hungry and overworked and went to a horrid place called home late at night in the rain, and his bones ached and his head was heavy." - Willem de Kooning

"Watercolors is the first and the last thing an artist does." - Willem de Kooning

"Praises reap not! Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!" - William Blake

"How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude; but grant me still a friend in my retreat, whom I may whisper--solitude it sweet." - William Cowper

"I believe no man was ever scolded out of his sins." - William Cowper

"Not scorned in heaven, though little noticed here." - William Cowper

"Life is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel." - Wilkie Collins, fully William Wilkie Collins

"You feel that, properly, Alexandra's house is the big-out-of-doors, and that it is in the soil that she expresses herself." - Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather

"We declare war with the wages system, which demoralizes alike the hirer and the hired, cheats both, and enslaves the workingman." - Wendell Phillips

"You beg for happiness in life, but security is more important to you, even if it costs you your spine or your life. Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion; when your thinking will be in harmony with your feelings; when the teachers of your children will be better paid than the politicians; when you will have more respect for the love between man and woman than for a marriage license." - Wilhelm Reich

"All space, all time, the stars, the terrible perturbations of the suns, Swelling, collapsing, ending, serving their longer, shorter use, fill'd with eidolons only. The noiseless myriads, the infinite oceans where the rivers empty, the separate countless free identities, like eyesight, the true realities, eidolons. Not this the world, nor these the universes, they the universes, purport and end, ever the permanent life of life, eidolons, eidolons..." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

"I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love if you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean but I shall be good health to you nonetheless and filter and fibre your blood." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

"With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird, comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well, for the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands—and this for his dear sake, lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul, there in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

"Leaders should always expect the very best of those around them. They know that people can change and grow." - Warren Bennis, fully Warren Gamaliel Bennis

"The qualities of creativity and genius are within you, awaiting your decision to match up with the power of intention." - Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer

"All life requires a rhythm of rest." - Wayne Muller