Great Throughts Treasury

"What you keep by you, you may change and mend; but words, once spoken, can never be recalled." - Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon

"Kind words are benedictions. They are not only instruments of power, but of benevolence and courtesy; blessings both to the speaker and hearer of them." - Frederic Saunders

"Prove your words by your deeds." -

"Words should be scattered like seed; no matter how small the seed may be, if it has once found favorable ground, it unfolds its strength." -

"There are words that strike even harder than blows." - Samuel Smiles

"Two weeks before his death, a friend asked him half-jokingly if he had discovered any meaning in life. 'Yes,' he replied, ' there is a meaning, at least for me, there is one thing that matters - to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people.'" - Logan Pearsall Smith

"Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words." -

"Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power of men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more easily than their words." -

"The ultimate aim of Government is not to rule or restrain by fear, not to exact obedience, but on the contrary, to free every man from fear, that he may live in all possible security; in other words to strengthen his natural right to exist and work without injury to himself and others. The object of government is not to hang men from rational beings into puppets, but to enable them to develop their minds and bodies in security, and to employ their reason unshackled... The true aim of Government is liberty." -

"It is the little things in life that are the sublime things. It is the minor parts of the great drama which make up the whole. The handclasp, the smile, the words of confidence or encouragement; these are the strength and bulwark of society, business, religion - and home life. Without them, there would be no trust; without trust, our world would collapse." - John Randolph Stidman

"The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence." -

"Things are distinct not in their essence but in their appearance; in other words, in their relation to one to whom they appear. This is art, the truth of which is not in substance or logic, but in expression. Abstract truth may belong to science and metaphysics, but the world of reality belongs to art." -

"O guard thy roving thoughts with jealous care, for speech is but the dialplate of thought; and every fool reads plainly in thy words what is the hour of thy thought." - Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, Commonly called Alfred Lord Tennyson

"It becomes a wise man to try words before arms." - Terence, full Latin name Publius Terentius Afer NULL

"Every creation is subject to recurrence. Every thing you meet had a previous existence: whatever you have lost will come again. Every thing comes a second time: all things return to a settled position when they have gone away, all things begin when they have ceased to be. They are brought to an end in order that they may come into being: nothing is lost except that it may be recovered. All this revolving order of things, therefore, is evidence of the resurrection of the dead. God ordained it in works before He commanded it in writing, He proclaimed it by strength before he proclaimed it in words. He first sent you nature as teacher, intending to send you prophecy also, in order that having learnt from nature, you may the more easily believe prophecy." - Tertullian, fully Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian NULL

"When a man is dying his words are worth listening to." - Zengzi, aka Master Zeng, Tsang, Tsengtzu, Tseng Tsu, born Zeng Shen, courtesy name iyu NULL

"Few and precious are the words which the lips of Wisdom utter. To what shall their rarity be likened? What price shall count their worth? Perfect and much to be desired, and giving joy with riches, no lovely thing on earth can picture all their beauty." -

"The history of thought can be summarized in these words: It is absurd by what it seeks, great by what it finds." - Paul Valéry, fully Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry

"The mind is the soul's eye, not its source of power. That lies in the heart, in other words, in the passions." -

"Eventually we'll have to confront the fact that world suffering is the result of ill-conceived thoughts taking form through misdirected action. If we're going to survive as a species, we must relinquish - to unprecedented levels, - qualities such as greed, hatred, and delusion. In other words, our very survival depends on accelerated levels of psychological and spiritual maturation." - Roger N. Walsh

"If reality flows like a stream, then knowledge of such reality also becomes fluid, a process rather than a set of fixed truths. And because all knowledge is produced, displayed, communicated and applied in thought; then thought too must be seen as part of the same eternal tide... Thought is, in essence, a response of memory. It consists of a repetition of some image or sensation, or it involves a combination or reorganisation of such repetition in a new and useful way. So, in the end, intelligence turns out to be part of the flow. It is not grounded in cells or molecules, but drawn from the same moving stream as reality. In other words, mind and matter are ultimately inseparable." - Lyall Watson

"There are around half a million words in the English language, but a recent statistical study of telephone speech discovered that 96 percent of all conversation over the wires consists of just 737 words." - Lyall Watson

"The whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill, or, in other words, in learning what we do not know from what we do." - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, sometimes called "The Iron Duke"

"It is quite possible, and not uncommon, to read most laboriously, even so as to get by heart the words of a book, without really studying it at all - that is, without employing the thoughts on the subject." - Richard Whately

"Every author, indeed, who really influences the mind, who plants in it thoughts an sentiments which take root and grow, communicates his character. Error and immorality - two words for one thing, for error is the immorality of the intellect, and immorality the error of the heart - these escape from him if they are in him, and pass into the recipient mind through subtle avenues invisible to consciousness." - Edwin Percy Whipple

"Human beings live - literally live, as if life is equated with the mind - by symbols, particularly words, because the brain is constructed to process information almost exclusively in their terms." - E. O. Wilson, fully Edward Osborne "E.O." Wilson

"The knowledge of words is the gate of scholarship." -

"Words can and do limit our abilities to think." - Greta Woodrew, Pseud. for Greta Andron Smolowe

"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not words. Trust movement." -

"In symbols there is a meaning that words cannot define." - Ibn Ibn Al-Fāriḍ

"Be what you wish others to become. Let yourself and not your words preach for you." - Henri Frédéric Amiel

"The inner and unconscious ideal which guides [the parents’] lives is precisely what touches the child; their words, their remonstrances, their punishments, their bursts of feeling even, are for him merely thunder and comedy; what they worship, that it is which his instinct divines and reflects." - Henri Frédéric Amiel

"I hold it to be of the highest importance for our interests that we should think rather of what we shall do than what we shall say. When we have decided upon that, it will be easy to accommodate our words to our acts." - Annius NULL

"One should not (seek to) please others in an improper way, not be lavish of his words... To cultivate one’s person and fulfill one’s word is called good conduct. When the conduct is (thus) ordered, and the words are accordant with the (right) course, we have the substance of the rules of propriety... The course (of duty), virtue, benevolence, and righteousness cannot be fully carried out without the rules of propriety... nor can the clearing up of quarrels and discriminating in disputes be accomplished." - Book of Li, aka Book of Rites or Record of Rites or Classic Rites NULL

"[Last Words] It is the nature of all things that take form to dissolve again. Strive with your whole being to attain perfection." -

"Always remember that the people are not fighting for ideas, nor for what is in men’s minds. The people fight and accept the sacrifices demanded by the struggle in order to gain material advantages, to live better and in peace, to benefit from progress, and for the better future of their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence are hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into real improvement of living conditions." - Amilcar Cabral

"Lives can be changed if you say the right thing at the right time at the right place with the right spirit… Words of encouragement, spoken or written, have a dramatic effect on a person…Well-intended words, even though they are correct, can damage relationships if they are not perceived as being offered with good will." - S. Truett Cathy

"Better than a thousand meaningless words is one word of sense which brings the hearer peace." - Dhammapada NULL

"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do if you do not act upon them?" - Dhammapada NULL

"A covenant is a contract. When two people enter into a covenant, it means that one party undertakes to do certain things provided the other party does certain other things. Thus it is a mutual agreement… If you think only kindly, , optimistic, and constructive thoughts, if you will speak only positive and helpful words at all times, if you will do only good and constructive deeds, you will be fulfilling your side of the great covenant – and in no circumstances could God fail to fulfill His." - Emmet Fox

"Words may show a man’s wit, but actions, his meaning." - Benjamin Franklin

"Words can become idols, and machines can become idols; leaders, the state, power, and political groups may also serve. Science and the opinion of one’s neighbors can become idols, and God has become an idol for many." - Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm

"Words cannot describe everything. The heart’s message cannot be delivered in words. If one receives words literally, he will be lost. If he tries to explain with words, eh will not attain enlightenment in this life." - Mu-mon Gensen, also Mumon Gensen

"Some of the most sacred promises are made without words in the silent sanctuary of the soul." - Sidney Greenberg

"Responsibility . . . requires that a person think, speak and act as if personally accountable to all who may be affected by his or her thoughts, words and deeds… Awareness is important… Am I moving in the right direction? Is my sense of responsibility growing, deepening, becoming sharper and more insistent?.. A sense of responsibility is an attitude, a feeling." - Robert K. Greenleaf

"The poet’s language is constructed not for the purpose of being understood but to be heard; it is an intermediary language between music and words, yet close to music than to words." - Ahmet Haşim

"Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving." - O. Henry, pen name for William Sydney Porter

"The secret of happiness is only a few words; yet we will not accept it from anyone, but must learn it from a lifetime of experience, when it is far too late." - Mohammad Ḥejāzi, Moḥammad Moṭiʿ-Al-Dawla

"Any conflict which prevents the personality from attaining wholeness is a hindrance: all taboos against considering any part of the universe in relation to man and his destiny are hindrances; so, too, are all restrictions upon the free use of reason, or the free appeal of conscience. In other words, any religion which is not an affirmation of the ultimate value of truth and knowledge, beauty and its expression, and goodness and moral action, which ever sets itself up against these, is in that respect a false, low and incomplete religion." - Julian Huxley, fully Sir Julian Sorell Huxley

"Biology… has thus revealed man’s place in nature. Hs is the highest form of life produced by the evolutionary process on this planet, the latest dominant type, and the only organism capable of further advance or progress. Whether he knows it or not, whether he wishes it or not, he is now the main agency for the further evolution of the earth and its inhabitants. In other words, his destiny is to realize new possibilities for the whole terrestrial sector of the cosmic process, to be the instrument of further evolutionary progress on this planet." - Julian Huxley, fully Sir Julian Sorell Huxley