Great Throughts Treasury

"Thus, communism violates the sovereignty of the conscience, and equality: the first, by restricting spontaneity of mind and heart, and freedom of thought and action; the second, by placing labor and laziness, skill and stupidity, and even vice and virtue on an equality in point of comfort. For the rest, if property is impossible on account of the desire to accumulate, communism would soon become so through the desire to shirk." - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue." - Albert Einstein

"There will be vice as long as there are men." - Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL

"A conversation should be conducted so that your conversational partners transform themselves from your enemies into your friends and not vice versa." - Pythagoras, aka Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras the Samian NULL

"Every vice has its excuse ready." - Publius Syrus

"What is so hateful to a poor man as the purse-proud arrogance of a rich one? Let fortune shift the scene, and make the poor man rich, he runs at once into the vice that he declaimed against so feelingly; these are strange contradictions in the human character." - Richard Cumberland, Bishop of Peterborough

"This country is run by a war criminal and his vice president, an even bigger war criminal." - Ralph Nader

"Inasmuch as often in this life greater rewards are offered for vice than for virtue, few people would prefer the right to the useful, were they restrained neither by the fear of God nor the expectation of another life." - René Descartes

"You can't say A is made of B or vice versa. All mass is interaction." - Richard Feynman, fully Richard Phillips Feynman

"Such biological ideas as the 'survival of the fittest,' whatever their doubtful value in natural science, are utterly useless in attempting to understand society... The life of a man in society, while it is incidentally a biological fact, has characteristics that are not reducible to biology and must be explained in the distinctive terms of a cultural analysis... the physical well-being of men is a result of their social organization and not vice versa ... Social improvement is a product of advances in technology and social organization, not of breeding or selective elimination... Judgments as to the value of competition between men or enterprises or nations must be based upon social and not allegedly biological consequences; and ... there is nothing in nature or a naturalistic philosophy of life to make impossible the acceptance of moral sanctions that can be employed for the common good." - Richard Hofstadter

"What is virtue but a medicine, and vice but a wound?" - Richard Hooker

"Mission accomplished? The mission in Iraq, as laid out by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, has failed." - Robert Byrd, fully Robert Carlyle Byrd

"The mission in Iraq, as laid out by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, has failed." - Robert Byrd, fully Robert Carlyle Byrd

"LOVE'S SERVILE LOT - LOVE, mistress is of many minds, Yet few know whom they serve ; They reckon least how little Love Their service doth deserve. The will she robbeth from the wit, The sense from reason's lore ; She is delightful in the rind, Corrupted in the core. She shroudeth vice in virtue's veil, Pretending good in ill ; She offereth joy, affordeth grief, A kiss where she doth kill. A honey-shower rains from her lips, Sweet lights shine in her face ; She hath the blush of virgin mind, The mind of viper's race. She makes thee seek, yet fear to find To find, but not enjoy : In many frowns some gliding smiles She yields to more annoy. She woos thee to come near her fire, Yet doth she draw it from thee ; Far off she makes thy heart to fry, And yet to freeze within thee. She letteth fall some luring baits For fools to gather up ; Too sweet, too sour, to every taste She tempereth her cup. Soft souls she binds in tender twist, Small flies in spinner's web ; She sets afloat some luring streams, But makes them soon to ebb. Her watery eyes have burning force ; Her floods and flames conspire : Tears kindle sparks, sobs fuel are, And sighs do blow her fire. May never was the month of love, For May is full of flowers ; But rather April, wet by kind, For love is full of showers. Like tyrant, cruel wounds she gives, Like surgeon, salve she lends ; But salve and sore have equal force, For death is both their ends. With soothing words enthralled souls She chains in servile bands ; Her eye in silence hath a speech Which eye best understands. Her little sweet hath many sours, Short hap immortal harms ; Her loving looks are murd'ring darts, Her song bewitching charms. Like winter rose and summer ice, Her joys are still untimely ; Before her Hope, behind Remorse : Fair first, in fine unseemly. Moods, passions, fancy's jealous fits Attend upon her train : She yieldeth rest without repose, And heaven in hellish pain. Her house is Sloth, her door Deceit, And slippery Hope her stairs ; Unbashful Boldness bids her guests, And every vice repairs. Her diet is of such delights As please till they be past ; But then the poison kills the heart That did entice the taste. Her sleep in sin doth end in wrath, Remorse rings her awake ; Death calls her up, Shame drives her out, Despairs her upshot make. Plough not the seas, sow not the sands, Leave off your idle pain ; Seek other mistress for your minds, Love's service is in vain." - Robert Southwell, also Saint Robert Southwell

"Socialists ignore the side of man that is the spirit. They can provide you shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you're ill, all the things guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don't understand that we also dream." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"An authority should protect those whom he wants to silence." - Ronald A. Heifetz

"True. True talk, said Kim solemnly. Fools speak of a cat when a woman is brought to bed, for instance. I have heard them." - Rudyard Kipling

"Partisanship should be kept out of the pulpit... The blindest of partisans are preachers. All politicians expect and find more candor, fairness, and truth in politicians than in partisan preachers. They are not replied to — no chance to reply to them.... The balance wheel of free institutions is free discussion. The pulpit allows no free discussion." - Rutherford B. Hayes, fully Rutherford Birchard Hayes

"He who is filled with love is filled with God himself." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"There is one case of death-bed repentance recorded, that of the penitent thief, that none should despair; and only one that none should presume." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"Wherever there are three persons, even though they are laymen, there is the church. Every man lives by his own faith, and God does not distinguish between classes. Since, in cases of necessity, you have the right to act as a priest, then you must also accept priestly discipline. It is God's will that all of us should be in the right spiritual state, at any time or place, to administer His sacraments." - Saint Augustine, aka Augustine of Hippo, St. Austin, Bishop of Hippo NULL

"Oh, what great happiness and bliss, what exaltation it is to address oneself to the Eternal Father. Always, without fail, value this joy which has been accorded to you by God's infinite grace and do not forget it during your prayers; God, the angels and God's holy men listen to you." - Saint John of Kronstadt, fully John Il’ich Serguiev, aka Holy Father John of the Kronstadt NULL

"It is the manner of gods and prophets to begin: "Thou shalt have none other God or Prophet but me." If I were to start as a God or a prophet I think I should take the line: "Thou shalt not believe in me. Thou shalt not have me for a God. Thou shalt worship any d_____d thing thou likest except me." This should be my first and great commandment, and my second should be like unto it." - Samuel Butler

"The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment." - Samuel Butler

"The great characters of fiction live as truly as the memories of dead men. For the life after death it is not necessary that a man or woman should have lived." - Samuel Butler

"All fear is painful, and when it conduces not to safety, is painful without use. - Every consideration, therefore, by which groundless terrors may be removed, adds something to human happiness." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"Where there is emulation, there will be vanity; where there is vanity, there will be folly." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"A person who feels pleasure in producing pain in someone else in a sexual relationship is also capable of enjoying as pleasure any pain which he may himself derive from sexual relations. A sadist is always at the same time a masochist." - Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

"The world is going mad in mutual bloodshed. And murder, which is considered a crime when people commit it singly, is transformed into a virtue when they do it en masse. The offenders acquire impunity by increasing their ravaging." - Cyprian, aka Saint Cyprian of Carthage, fully Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus NULL

"O my God, teach me to be generous, teach me to serve you as I should, to give without counting the cost, to fight without fear of being wounded, to work without seeking rest, to labor without expecting any reward, but the knowledge that I am doing your most holy will." - Ignatius Loyola, aka Saint Ignatius of Loyola

"You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories." - Stanislaw Lec, fully Stanisław Jerzy Lec, born Baron Stanisław Jerzy de Tusch-Letz

"Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep believing, the dream that you wish will come true." - Stephen LaBerge

"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

"The stupendous Fourth Estate, whose wide world-embracing influences what eye can take in?" - Thomas Carlyle

"It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other." - Thomas Jefferson

"The artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted..." - Thomas Jefferson

"Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each it’s true and due fulfillment." - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"Is not life in itself a thing of goodness, irrespective of whether the course it takes for us can be called a 'happy' one?" - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"Calvinism is the belief (1) That there are three Gods (2) That good works, or the love of our neighbor are nothing (3) That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in its faith (4) That reason in religion" - Thomas Paine

"We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in." - Thomas Paine

"The artist fills space with an attitude. The attitude never comes from himself alone." - Willem de Kooning

"The Ministry in all denominations are the poorest paid workers in the world. They would form a union and demand more pay, but they don’t get enough to pay dues into a union so they can’t form one." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

"The platform will always be the same, promise everything, deliver nothing." - Will Rogers, fully William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers

"The most difficult problem - concerning the use of the language arises in quantum theory. Here we have at first no simple guide for correlating the mathematical symbols with concepts of ordinary language: and the only thing we know from the start is the fact that our common concepts cannot be applied o the structure of the atoms." - Werner Heisenberg, fully Werner Karl Heisenberg

"Those who are truly alive are kindly and unsuspecting in their human relationships and consequently endangered under present conditions. They assume that others think and act generously, kindly and helpfully, in accordance with the laws of life. This natural attitude, fundamental to healthy children as well as primitive man, inevitably represents a great danger in the struggle for a rational way of life as long as the emotional plague subsists, because the plague-ridden impute their own manner of thinking and acting to their fellow men. A kindly man believes that all men are kindly, while one infected with the plague believes that all men lie and cheat and are hungry for power. In such a situation, the living are at an obvious disadvantage. When they give to the plague-ridden they are sucked dry, then ridiculed or betrayed." - Wilhelm Reich

"Over the years, our current businesses, in aggregate, should deliver modest growth in operating earnings. But they will not in themselves produce truly satisfactory gains. We will need major acquisitions to get that job done." - Warren Buffett, fully Warren Edward Buffett, aka Oracle of Omaha

"A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: Whom do you write for? The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author." - W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden

"We apprehend that conscientiousness or benevolence is good with as complete certainty, directness, and self-evidence as we ever apprehend anything." - W. D. Ross, fully Sir William David Ross