Great Throughts Treasury

"Perhaps most of us feel that we could accept death for ourselves and for those we love if it did not often seem to come with such untimeliness. But we rebel when it so little considers our wishes or our readiness. But we may well ask ourselves when would we be willing to part with or to part from those we love? And who is there among us whose judgment we would trust to measure out our lives? Such decisions would be terrible for mere men to make. But fortunately we are spared making them; fortunately they are made by wisdom higher than ours. And when death makes its visitations among us, inconsolable grief and rebellious bitterness should have no place. There must be no quarrel with irrevocable facts. Even when death comes by events which seem unnecessary and avoidable. We must learn to accept what we cannot help." - Richard L. Evans, fully Richard Louis Evans

"Nothing matters more to the future of this Nation than insuring that our young men and women learn to believe in themselves and believe in their dreams, and that they develop this capacity-that you develop this capacity, so that you keep it all of your lives.... I believe one of America's most priceless assets is the idealism which motivates the young people of America. My generation has invested all that it has, not only its love but its hope and faith, in yours." - Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon

"We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another -- until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices." - Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon

"We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy." - Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon

"What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. ... If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance." - Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon

"You've got to learn to survive a defeat. That's when you develop character." - Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon

"Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn't breaking. It hurts because it's getting larger. The larger it gets, the more love it holds." - Rita Mae Brown

"A pig can learn more tricks than a dog, but has too much sense to want to do it." - Robertson Davies

"All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it." - Robertson Davies

"But I wonder if people do not attach too much importance to the first-name habit? Every man and woman is a mystery; built like those Chinese puzzles which consist of one box inside another, so that ten or twelve boxes have to be opened before the final solution is found. Not more than two or three people have ever penetrated beyond my outside box, and there are not many people whom I have explored further; if anyone imagines that being on first-name terms with somebody magically strips away all the boxes and reveals the inner treasure he still has a great deal to learn about human nature. There are people, of course, who consist only of one box, and that a cardboard carton, containing nothing at all." - Robertson Davies

"I expect that Hell is very heavily populated with just exactly that sort of person [who feels he's accomplished all his goals early in life] because, you know, somebody who fears that he has exhausted what there is for him to do and what he can do at thirty-five, is a fool. What he means is that he's become the sales manager of International Widgets or some wretched thing. That's not a life, that's not a thing that should occupy a man. People drive themselves terribly hard at these jobs, and they develop a sort of mystique about something which does not admit of a mystique. A thing to have a mystique must necessarily have many aspects, many corridors, many avenues, many things that open up. Well, this is not to be found in the business world, and I've known a lot of first-class businessmen and they all tell you this. People have told me that in their particular business there's nothing to be learned that an intelligent man can't learn in eighteen months. But if you've learned it in eighteen months and if you're exhausted by the time you're thirty-five, it's nobody's fault but your own if you haven't found something else to do." - Robertson Davies

"If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and story-tellers could interpret. Then people like you would have to go to public halls and pay good prices to hear the professionals decode and read the books aloud for you. This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors and I-Married-a-Midget writers who would not have the patience to learn the secret language." - Robertson Davies

"The word religion just means law, the consideration of law and consequence. That's what interests me: what happens as a result of what people do. Also the reluctance people have to learn that certain actions will bring certain consequences ... people don't learn. Over and over again they do the same stupid things without having learned what happens. ... We are not wise because we are always looking for causes for things which are outside ourselves." - Robertson Davies

"A boy can learn a lot from a dog: obedience, loyalty, and the importance of turning around three times before lying down." - Robert Benchley, fully Robert Charles Benchley

"As the moon, though darkened with spots, gives us a much greater light than the stars that sewn all-luminous, so do the Scriptures afford more light than the brightest human authors. In them the ignorant may learn all requisite knowledge, and the most knowing may learn to discern their ignorance." - Robert Boyle

"In the Bible the ignorant may learn all requisite knowledge, and the most knowing may learn to discern their ignorance." - Robert Boyle

"Beautiful must be the mountains whence ye come, and bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, wherefrom Ye learn your song." - Robert Bridges, fully Robert Seymour Bridges

"What? Was man made a wheel-work to wind up, And be discharged, and straight wound up anew? No! grown, his growth lasts; taught, he ne'er forgets; May learn a thousand things, not twice the same." - Robert Browning

"Certainty is not biologically possible. We must learn (and teach our children) to tolerate the unpleasantness of uncertainty. Science has given us the language and tools of probabilities. We have methods for analyzing and ranking opinion according to their likelihood of correctness. That is enough." - Robert Burton

"The market for horsemeat is not an American market ... Horsemeat is shipped abroad. The three slaughterhouses in the U.S. are foreign-owned. Thus, American horses are sold to a foreign company, killed for consumption in a foreign market, and foreign-owned companies profit from the export of horsemeat. Many Americans would be shocked to learn that our animals suffer such a fate, all in order to satisfy the tastes of those living in Europe and Asia." - Robert Byrd, fully Robert Carlyle Byrd

"The mind-is not the heart. I may yet live, as I know others live, To wish in vain to let go with the mind- Of cares, at night, to sleep; but nothing tells me That I need learn to let go with the heart." - Robert Frost

"These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten): 1. Share everything. 2. Play fair. 3. Don't hit people. 4. Put thngs back where you found them. 5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS. 6. Don't take things that aren't yours. 7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody. 8. Wash your hands before you eat. 9. Flush. 10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. 11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some. 12. Take a nap every afternoon. 13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. 14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Stryrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. 15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. 16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first workd you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK." - Robert Fulghum, fully Robert Lee Fulghum

"I like Texas and Texans. In Texas, everything is bigger. When Texans win, they win big. And when they lose, it's spectacular. If you really want to learn the attitude of how to handle risk, losing and failure, go to San Antonio and visit the Alamo. The Alamo is a great story of brave people who chose to fight, knowing there was no hope of success against overwhelming odds. They chose to die instead of surrendering. It's an inspiring story worthy of study; nonetheless, it's still a tragic military defeat. They got their butts kicked. A failure if you will. They lost. So how do Texans handle failure? They still shout, "Remember the Alamo!" That's why I like Texans so much. They took a great failure and turned it into a tourist destination that makes them millions. Texans don't bury their failures. They get inspired by them. They take their failures and turn them into rallying cries. Failure inspires Texans to become winners. But that formula is not just the formula for Texans. It is formula for all winners." - Robert Kiyosaki, fully Robert Toru Kiyosaki

"The path to Heaven is narrow, rough and full of wearisome and trying ascents, nor can it be trodden without great toil; and therefore wrong is their way, gross their error, and assured their ruin who, after the testimony of so many thousands of saints, will not learn where to settle their footing." - Robert Southwell, also Saint Robert Southwell

"Children sense insincerity in exaggerated praise, and soon learn to discount it." - Robert W. Fuller, fully Robert Works Fuller

"One reason the Golden Rule is so popular is that it seems to require no specific faith and no specific religious beliefs. Men may argue over many questions, but often they can agree on the Golden Rule. Religious teachers all over the world, many of them long before Jesus, taught one form or another of the Golden Rule. Look at a few examples. 1. The Hindu Mahabharata teaches: "Men gifted with intelligence and purified souls should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated." 2. A Jainist writing, also from India, says: "A man should wander about treating all creatures in the world as he himself would be treated." 3. When Confucius was asked for a single word to sum up the rules of life, he answered: "Is not reciprocity such a word ? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." 4. The Taoists taught: "Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and regard your neighbor's loss as your own loss." 5. In the generation before Jesus a man asked the great Rabbi Hillel to teach him the Law while standing on one foot. Hillel answered: "What thou thyself hatest, do not to thy neighbor. This is the whole Law. The rest is commentary. Go and learn it."" - Roger L. Shinn, fully Roger Lincoln Shinn

"People have to be responsible for their thoughts, so they have to learn to control them. It may not be easy, but it can be done." - Rolling Thunder, born Louis Belmont Newell NULL

"Because poetry is the language of felt thought and utterance… of admissions and oaths as sacred as life itself, it is evident in an economy by its absence. As long as people are perceived in economic terms alone, poetry (and all the other arts, for that matter) will be regarded as ornamental or irrelevant or simply dispensable… the disregard of poetry will be as fatal to their spiritual lives as the deprivation of oxygen would be to their physical lives. Why? Because poetry tells us who we are, what our surroundings mean to us, and what waits to be discovered beneath the apparent.…It is the language of the heart…It is at the same time the language of the senses." - Samuel J. Hazo, fully Samuel John Hazo

"As dew leaves the cobweb lightly Threaded with stars, Scattering jewels on the fence And the pasture bars; As dawn leaves the dry grass bright And the tangled weeds Bearing a rainbow gem On each of their seeds; So has your love, my lover, Fresh as the dawn, Made me a shining road To travel on, Set every common sight Of tree or stone Delicately alight For me alone. " - Sara Teasdale, born Sara Trevor Teasdale, aka Sara Teasdale Filsinger

"22 Investment Maxims [paraphrased] - 1. For all long-term investors, theres is only one objective— “maximum total return after taxes.” 2. Achieving a good record takes much study and work, and is a lot harder than most people think. Many people doubt that this is even possible on a consistent basis. I’m on the fence on this one. I see proof that it can be done but realize that most people won’t be able to do it. 3. It is impossible to produce a superior performance unless you do something different from the majority. 4. The time of maximum pessimism is th ebest time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell. Sounds like something Warren Buffett would say. 5. To put “Maxim 4″ in somewhat different terms, in the stock market the only way to get a bargain is to buy what most investors are selling. 6. To buy when others are despondently selling and to sell wehn others are greedily buying requires the greatest fortitude, even while offering the greatest reward. This is so true. 7. Bear markets have always been temporary. Share prices turn upward from one to twelve months before the bottom of the business cycle. Bull markets are temporary too. 8. If a particular industry or type of security becomes popular with investors, that popularity will always prove temporary and, when lost, won’t return for many years. Interesting. The NASDAQ Composite Index comes to mind. 9. In the long run, the stock market indexes fluctuate around the long-term upward trend of earnings per share. 10. In free-enterprise nations, the earnings on stock market indexes fluctuate around the replacement book value of the share of the index. 11. If you buy the same securities as other people, you will have the same results as other people. 12. The time to buy a stock is when the short-term owners have finished their selling, and the time to sell a stock is often when short-term owners have finished their buying. Not quite sure how you’re supposed to know when this is. 13. Share prices fluctuate much more widely than values. Therefore, index funds will never produce the best total return performance. I always thought that this was true because the goal of the index is to capture the market’s return, minus fees. 14. Too many investors focus on “outlook” and “trends.” Therefore, more profit is made by focusing on value. 15. If you search worldwide, you will find more bargains and better bargains than by studying only one nation. Also, you gain the safety of diversification. Unless of course the nation you are studying is heavily dependent on exports to another country that is in trouble. 16. The fluctuation of share prices is roughly proportional to the square-root of the price. 17. The time to sell an asset is when you have found a much better bargain to replace it. 18. When any method for selecting stocks becomes popular, then switch to unpopular methods. As has been suggested in “Maxim 3,” too many investors can spoil any share-selection method or any market-timing formula. 19. Never adopt permanently any type of asset or any selection method. Try to stay flexible, open-minded and sekptical. Long-term top results are achieved only by changing from popular to unpopular the types of securities you favor and your methods of selection. 20. The skill factor in slection is largest for the common-stock part of your investments. 21. The best performance is produced by a person, not a committee. Interesting that he would say this. 22. If you begin with prayer, you can think more clearly and make fewer stupid mistakes." - John Templeton, fully Sir John Marks Templeton

"No, I'm just a man committed to great ideas." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"This administration is totally colorblind." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"To grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence of successful leadership - not only on the movie set where I learned it, but everywhere." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"It should be obvious from reflecting on our daily lives that authority relationships are enormously productive. The human capacity for generating complex systems of authority is essential to our extraordinary adaptability and creativity as social creatures." - Ronald A. Heifetz

"The myth of leadership is the myth of the lone warrior; the solitary individual whose heroism and brilliance enable him to lead the way." - Ronald A. Heifetz

"Thus, authoritative action will tend to reduce stress, while inaction will increase it. This may be true regardless of the content of the action." - Ronald A. Heifetz

"The more that social democracy develops, grows, and becomes stronger, the more the enlightened masses of workers will take their own destinies, the leadership of their movement, and the determination of its direction into their own hands." - Rosa Luxemburg, aka Rosalia Luxemburg, "Bloody Rosa"

"There is no democracy without Socialism and No Socialism without Democracy" - Rosa Luxemburg, aka Rosalia Luxemburg, "Bloody Rosa"

"To a woman the first kiss is just the end of the beginning but to a man it is the beginning of the end." - Helen Rowland

"Confronted with any marital problem, the only question that leads to a constructive solution is, What can I do?" - Rudolf Driekurs

"A body, in effect, is only part and parcel of another body, but the self, the ‘I’ of man exists in and by itself alone — I am I." - Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

"Each individual is a species unto him/herself." - Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

"Receive children in reverence; educate them in love; let them go forth in freedom." - Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

"We must emphasize again and again that the anthroposophical world-conception fosters a consciousness of the common source of art, religion and science. During ancient periods of evolution these three were not separated; they existed in unity. The Mysteries which fostered that unity were a kind of combination art institute, church and school. For what they offered was not a one-sided sole dependence upon language. The words uttered by the initiate as both cognition and spiritual revelation were supported and illustrated by sacred rituals unfolding, before listening spectators, in mighty pictures" - Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

"What each individual really needs can only be known by himself; what he should contribute he can determine through his insight into the situation as a whole." - Rudolf Steiner, fully Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner

"They change their skies above them, But not their hearts that roam!" - Rudyard Kipling

"Birdsong brings relief to my longing. I am just as ecstatic as they are, but with nothing to say." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"Indeed envy is a defect; worse than any other." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"Since Love has made ruins of my heart The sun must come and illumine them. Such generosity has broken me with shame." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"The way the night knows itself with the moon, be that way with me. Or, alternately translated, Union is a raging river running toward the sea. Tonight the moon kisses the stars. O beloved, be like that to me." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL