Great Throughts Treasury

"Austrian public-opinion pollsters recently reported that those held in highest esteem by most of the people interviewed are neither the great artists nor the great scientists, neither the great statesmen nor the great sport figures, but those who master a hard lot with their heads held high." - Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl

"It is important for a person to remain healthy and sound because a healthy mind dwells in a healthy body." - Rig Veda, or The Rigveda

"A woman should perform the duties of a wife without any complain, give birth to good children and bring them up as ideal citizens." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"If your wish is fulfilled, you revere Me; if it is not, you revile Me. That is how Desire debases you." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"One, who does not cast evil eyes on her 'own' house... who does not have malevolence towards her husband... giver of joy...seeker of family's welfare... who treads on the righteous path... gives happiness to all... serves all... gives birth to good sons... keeps her brother-in-laws satisfied and gives nourishing food...May such a wife help us attain prosperity." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"One, whose mind is stable, pure and chaste is strong mentally as well as morally. Therefore, one should only befriend such people who are kind-hearted, polite and virtuous." - Atharva Veda, or Atharvaveda

"There may be millions of fine thoughts, and the account of the experience on which they are based, all encased within stone walls of acceptable architectural form; but if the scholar can get at only one a week by diligent search, his syntheses are not likely to keep up with the current scene." - Vannevar Bush

"America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal - to discover and maintain liberty among men." - Woodrow Wilson, fully Thomas Woodrow Wilson

"I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire." - Thucydides NULL

"Being once chafed, he cannot be reigned again to temperance; then he speaks what's in his heart, and that is there which looks with us to break his neck. Coliolanus, Act iii, Scene 3" - William Shakespeare

"Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. Julius Caesar, Act iii, Scene 2" - William Shakespeare

"It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose." - William Godwin

"I always say to myself, what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

"With whole-hearted devotion to sew and to weave; to love not gossip and silly laughter; in cleanliness and order to prepare the wine and food for serving guests, may be called the characteristics of womanly work." - Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban

"Well, we never expected this! they all say. No one liked her. They all said she was pretentious, awkward, difficult to approach, prickly, too fond of her tales, haughty, prone to versifying, disdainful, cantankerous, and scornful. But when you meet her, she is strangely meek, a completely different person altogether! How embarrassing! Do they really look upon me as a dull thing, I wonder? But I am what I am." - Murasaki Shikibu, aka Lady Murasaki

"Science has been arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying, everything except itself. It has made possible the tremendous modern development of power of organization which has so multiplied the effective power of human effort as to make the differences from the past seem to be of kind rather than of degree. It has organized itself very imperfectly. Scientific men are only recently realizing that the principles which apply to success on a large scale in transportation and manufacture and general staff work to apply them; that the difference between a mob and an army does not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon human nature; that the effective power of a great number of scientific men may be increased by organization just as the effective power of a great number of laborers may be increased by military discipline." - Elihu Root

"We aim to give a 'wake-up call' to businesses, to alert them to the fact that the next 'fair-haired boy' of their organization just might be a woman." - Elizabeth Dole, fully Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford "Liddy" Dole

"The STATE IDEA, the authoritarian principle, has been proven bankrupt by the experience of the Russian Revolution. If I were to sum up my whole argument in one sentence I should say: The inherent tendency of the State is to concentrate, to narrow, and monopolize all social activities; the nature of revolution is, on the contrary, to grow, to broaden, and disseminate itself in ever-wider circles. In other words, the State is institutional and static; revolution is fluent, dynamic. These two tendencies are incompatible and mutually destructive. The State idea killed the Russian Revolution and it must have the same result in all other revolutions, unless the libertarian idea prevail." - Emma Goldman

"I've seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil." -

"That seemed to handle it. That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another to go off with him. Now go and bring her back. And sign the wire with love. That was it all right. I went in to lunch." -

"Why did I hesitate to put all this glory of the sun on my canvas?" -

"A copy of Dante's Purgatorio excited his especial disgust. "French, eh?" he said. "I guessed as much, and pretty dirty too, I shouldn't wonder. Now just you wait while I look up these here books"—how he said it!—"in my list. Particularly against books the Home Secretary is. If we can't stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside."" -

"Our Creator endowed each one of us with certain rights at birth, among which are the rights to life, liberty, speech, and conscience, to name a few. These are not just human rights; they are divine rights. When these rights are not permitted expression by a nation, that nation becomes inhibited in its progress and development, and its leaders are responsible before God for suffocating sacred rights. This native endowment is what separates man from the animals. It causes men to want to be good and to seek higher aspirations. It creates in man a desire to better his life and his station in life." -

"Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work." - Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound