Great Throughts Treasury

"There is a loneliness more precious than life. There is a freedom more precious than the world. Infinitely more precious than life and the world is that moment when one is alone with God." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"We should ask God to help us toward manners. Inner gifts do not find their way to creatures without just respect." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"None of what Barack Obama is doing or wants to do to this country is anything the rest of the world hasn't seen before and already failed at." - Rush Limbaugh

"Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them." - Russell H. Conwell, fully Russell Herman Conwell

"Eleven Dos and Don’ts of Proven Entrepreneurial Success - 1. Don’t be burdened with personal debt. a. Car payment b. House payment c. Establish a nest egg d. Live simple 2. Start early as a teenager. Concentrate on what brings you happiness in your career. Have a tremendous want to – determination. 3. Sacrifice material things. Reward yourself later. 4. Shortcut to success: Observe what is working in the lives of others. Teenagers, observe mature individuals. 5. Don’t try to please all people. 6. Set priorities in the proper order. 7. Expand cautiously. Grow your business cautiously. 8. Franchising may or may not be good for your particular business. Use it cautiously. 9. Be prepared for disappointments. Many successful individuals experience failure. 10. Be kind to people. Courtesy is very cheap but brings great dividends. 11. Invite God to be involved in every decision. God gives us a brain to use – common sense. You can do it if you want to. God has given each of us a talent. Maybe yours is yet to be discovered. We honor God with our success. He designed us to be winners." - S. Truett Cathy

"In order that we might receive that love whereby we should love, we were ourselves loved, while as yet we had it not." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"Such is the strength of the burden of habit. Here I have the power to be but do not wish it. There I wish to be but lacks the power. On both grounds, I'm in misery." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"Until the Lord shall have completely purged it after the manner that He wills, no means or remedy is of any service or profit for the relief of this affliction… The soul is powerless. Spiritual things in the soul believes that, if trials come to it, that it will never escape from them. And if spiritual blessings come, the soul believes its troubles are now over." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"It is not possible without temptations for a man to grow wise in spiritual warfare, to know his Provider and perceive his God, and to be secretly confirmed in his faith, save by virtue of the experience which he has gained." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL

"We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble." - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL

"Through the seas of dreams and the seas of fantasies, through the seas of solitudes and vacancies, and through myself, the deepest of the seas, I strive to thee, Nirvana." - Sidney Lanier

"We have to believe in a God who is like the true God in everything except that he does not exist, since we have not reached the point where God exists." - Simone Weil

"Delusion and wisdom don’t coexist very well." - Stephan Bodian

"Eternal vigilance, as they say, is the price of freedom. Add intellectual integrity to the cost basis." - Stephan Jay Gould

"Natural selection can only produce adaptation to immediately surrounding (and changing) environments. No feature of such local adaptation should yield any expectation of general progress (however such a vague term be defined). Local adaptation may as well lead to anatomical simplification as to greater complexity. As an adult, the famous parasite Sacculina, a barnacle by ancestry, looks like a formless bag of reproductive tissue attached to the underbelly of its crab host (with ‘roots’ of equally formless tissue anchored within the body of the crab itself)—a devilish device to be sure (at least by our aesthetic standards), but surely less anatomically complex than a barnacle on the bottom of your boat, waving its legs through the water in search of food." - Stephan Jay Gould

"Natural selection is a theory of local adaptation to changing environments. It proposes no perfecting principles, no guarantee of general improvement," - Stephan Jay Gould

"As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on Earth. As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change... There’s a realization that we are changing our climate for the worse. That would have catastrophic effects. Although the threat is not as dire as that of nuclear weapons right now, in the long term we are looking at a serious threat." - Stephen Hawking

"It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining." - Stephen Hawking

"People who boast about their IQ are losers." - Stephen Hawking

"There are something like ten million million million million million million million million million million million million million million (1 with eighty zeroes after it) particles in the region of the universe that we can observe. Where did they all come from? The answer is that, in quantum theory, particles can be created out of energy in the form of particle/antiparticle pairs. But that just raises the question of where the energy came from. The answer is that the total energy of the universe is exactly zero. The matter in the universe is made out of positive energy. However, the matter is all attracting itself by gravity. Two pieces of matter that are close to each other have less energy than the same two pieces a long way apart, because you have to expend energy to separate them against the gravitational force that is pulling them together. Thus, in a sense, the gravitational field has negative energy. In the case of a universe that is approximately uniform in space, one can show that this negative gravitational energy exactly cancels the positive energy represented by the matter. So the total energy of the universe is zero." - Stephen Hawking

"You cannot understand the glories of the universe without believing there is some Supreme Power behind it." - Stephen Hawking

"There might finally emerge a human animal of rare sensitivity whose curiosity could sense the existence of environments no longer physical, where the adaption required of all the species was a subtle change of consciousness." - Theodore Roszak

"Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful." - Thich Nhất Hanh

"You can practice deep listening in order to relieve the suffering in us, and in the other person. That kind of listening is described as compassionate listening. You listen only for the purpose of relieving suffering in the other person." - Thich Nhất Hanh

"Such as have made a considerable improvement of their gifts and graces, have hearts as large as their heads; whereas most men's heads have outgrown their hearts." - Thomas Brooks

"Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them." - Thomas Jefferson

"The deep secrecy of my own being is often hidden from me by my own estimate of what I am. My idea of what I am is falsified by my admiration for what I do. And my illusions about myself are bred by contagion from the illusions of other men. We all seek to imitate one another’s imagined greatness." - Thomas Merton

"When affection only speaks, truth is not always there." - Thomas Middleton

"Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all." - Thomas Paine

"Margaritae Sorori - A late lark twitters from the quiet skies: And from the west, Where the sun, his day's work ended, Lingers as in content, There falls on the old, gray city An influence luminous and serene, A shining peace. The smoke ascends In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires Shine and are changed. In the valley Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun, Closing his benediction, Sinks, and the darkening air Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night-- Night with her train of stars And her great gift of sleep. So be my passing! My task accomplish'd and the long day done, My wages taken, and in my heart Some late lark singing, Let me be gather'd to the quiet west, The sundown splendid and serene, Death." - William Henley, fully William Ernest Henley

"My Gift - What shall I give to you , my friend, To express my love and goodwill: Shall it not be a part of myself? Then let it be the very best part, which is the secret of all my gladness. The rarest treasure I possess is the conviction that life is good: that it had abundant compensation for every trouble that may come; that it has possibilities beyond all you have ever dreamed; that among even the very least are capacities beyond the greatest yet expressed within our ken; that great surges of power and joy are eager to course through us and reveal a life transcendent. Tears of joy often fill my eyes, a wonderful feeling at my throat, thrills that almost pain my bosom, and my heart sings to the stars. If I could make you feel that way and hold it through all the years, that would be my gift to you. May your year unfold in surprising asnd lovely ways." - Waldo Pondray Warren

"A Farmhouse on the Wei River - In the slant of the sun on the country-side, Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane; And a rugged old man in a thatch door Leans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herdboy. There are whirring pheasants, full wheat-ears, Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves. And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders, Hail one another familiarly. ...No wonder I long for the simple life And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again." - Wang Wei, aka Wang Youcheng

"I heard an Angel singing When the day was springing: ‘Mercy, Pity, Peace Is the world’s release.’ Thus he sang all day Over the new-mown hay, Till the sun went down, And haycocks lookèd brown. I heard a Devil curse Over the heath and the furze: ‘Mercy could be no more If there was nobody poor, ‘And Pity no more could be, If all were as happy as we.’ At his curse the sun went down, And the heavens gave a frown. [Down pour’d the heavy rain Over the new reap’d grain; And Misery’s increase Is Mercy, Pity, Peace.]" - William Blake

"The grave is Heaven's golden gate, and rich and poor around it wait; O Shepherdess of England's fold, behold this gate of pearl and gold!" - William Blake

"Say, did you read what this writer just dug up in George Washington's diary? I was so ashamed I sat up all night reading it." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

"Yes, and because we grow old we become more and more the stuff our forbears put into us. I can feel his savagery strengthen in me. We think we are so individual and so misunderstood when we are young; but the nature our strain of blood carries is inside there, waiting, like our skeleton." - Willa Cather, fully Willa Sibert Cather

"The press is the exclusive literature of the million; to them it is literature, church, and college." - Wendell Phillips

"The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention." - Walt Kelley, fully Walter Crawford "Walt" Kelly, Jr.

"First, O songs, for a prelude, lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum, pride and joy in my city, how she led the rest to arms—how she gave the cue, how at once with lithe limbs, unwaiting a moment, she sprang; (O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless! O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steel!) How you sprang! how you threw off the costumes of peace with indifferent hand; how your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were heard in their stead; how you led to the war, (that shall serve for our prelude songs of soldiers,) How Manhattan drum-taps led." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

"In our sun-down perambulations, of late, through the outer parts of Brooklyn, we have observed several parties of youngsters playing "base", a certain game of ball...Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms...the game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

"Your true soul and body appear before me. Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem, I whisper with my lips close to your ear, I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you. O I have been dilatory and dumb, I should have made my way straight to you long ago, I should have blabb'd nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing but you. I will leave all and come and make the hymns of you, none has understood you, but I understand you, none has done justice to you, you have not done justice to yourself, none but has found you imperfect, I only find no imperfection in you, none but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you, I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits instrinsically in yourself. O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you! You have not known what you are, you have slumber'd upon yourself all your life, your eyelids have been the same as closed most of the time. I pursue you where none else has pursued you. Conceal you from others or from yourself, they do not conceal you from me. I give nothing to anyone except I give the like carefully to you. These immense meadows, these interminable rivers, you are immense and interminable as they, these furies, elements, storms, motions of Nature, throes of apparent dissolution, you are he or she who is master or mistress over them, Master or mistress in your own right over Nature, elements, pain, passion, dissolution." - Walt Whitman, fully Walter "Walt" Whitman

"Since you have forsaken the world and turned wholly to God, you are symbolically dead in the eyes of men; therefore, let your heart be dead to all earthly affections and concerns… For you must be well aware that if we make an outward show of conversion to God without giving Him our hearts, it is only a shadow and pretense of virtue, and no true conversion. Any man or woman who neglects to maintain inward vigilance, and only makes an outward show of holiness in dress, speech, and behavior, is a wretched creature. For they watch the doings of other people and criticize their faults, imagining themselves to be something when in reality they are nothing. In this way they deceive themselves. Be careful to avoid this, and devote yourself inwardly to His likeness by humility, charity, and other spiritual virtues. In this way you will be truly converted to God." - Walter Hilton

"Great Groups need to know that the person at the top will fight like a tiger for them." - Warren Bennis, fully Warren Gamaliel Bennis

"Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them." - Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer

"Motivation is when you get hold of an idea ... inspiration is the reverse - when an idea gets hold of you." - Wayne Dyer, fully Wayne Walter Dyer

"It is only the artificial ego that suffers. The man who has transcended his false ‘me’ no longer identifies with his suffering." - Wei Wu Wei, pen name for Terence James Stannus Gray

"What do nations care about the cost of war, if by spending a few hundred millions in steel and gunpowder they can gain a thousand millions in diamonds and cocoa?" - W. E. B. Du Bois, fully William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

"The Supreme Power is not a Mind, but something higher than a Mind… not a Being, but something higher than a Being, something for which we have no words, something for which we have no ideas." - W. Winwood Reade, fully William Winwood Reade

"Christians talk about the horror of sin, but they have overlooked something. They keep talking as if everyone were a great sinner, when the truth is that nowadays one is hardly up to it. There is very little sin in the depths of the malaise. The highest moment of a malaisian's life can be the moment when he manages to sin like a proper human (Look at us, Binx — my vagabond friends as good as cried out to me — we're sinning! We're succeeding! We're human after all!)" - Walker Percy

"The second I left my old life's cowpath, I discovered I didn't need a drink. It became possible to stand still in the dark under the oaks, hands at my sides, and watch and wait." - Walker Percy