Great Throughts Treasury

"The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational person." - Voltaire, pen name of François-Marie Arouet NULL

"What business does a dog have in the shop of the blacksmith." - Turkish Proverbs

"A child born to a black mother in a state like Mississippi . . . has the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for." - Thurgood Marshall

"And at the departure he will say, "Mayst thou rest soundly and quietly, and may the light turf lie easy on thy bones."" - Tibullus, fully Albius Tibullus NULL

"No one has insight into all the ideals. No one should presume to judge them off-hand. The pretension to dogmatize about them in each other is the root of most human injustices and cruelties, and the trait in human character most likely to make the angels weep." - William James

"Let us control ourselves and not be resentful when others disagree with us, for all men have hearts and each heart has its own leanings. The right of others is our wrong, and our right is their wrong. We are not unquestionably sages, nor are they unquestionably fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can anyone lay down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong? For we are all wise sometimes and foolish at others. Therefore, though others give way to anger, let us on the contrary dread our own faults, and though we may think we alone are in the right, let us follow the majority and act like them." - Prince Shōtoku, born Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado or Prince Kamitsumiya

"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

"Education can give you a skill, but a liberal education can give you dignity." - Ellen Key, fully Ellen Karolina Sofia Key

"A new dynasty is never founded without a struggle. Blood makes good manure. It will be a good thing for the Rougon family to be founded on a massacre, like many illustrious families." - Emile Zola

"The Revolution of 1848 found all the Rougons on the lookout, frustrated by their bad luck, and ready to use any means necessary to advance their cause. They were a family of bandits lying in wait, ready to plunder and steal." - Emile Zola

"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. Espousing the former is not defending the latter." - Emily Dickinson, fully Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

"Cleanliness is not next to godliness. It isn't even in the same neighborhood. No one has ever gotten a religious experience out of removing burned-on cheese from the grill of the toaster oven." - Erma Bombeck, fully Erma Louise Bombeck, born Erma Fiste

"We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter, or clothing." - Ernest Shurtleff Holmes

"The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself." - Gore Vidal, fully Eugene Luther Gore Vidal

"One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes." - Gustave Flaubert