Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Juvenal, fully Decimus Junius Juvenalis NULL

"Every fault of the mind becomes more conspicuous and more guilty in proportion to the rank of the offender" - Persons in high station are not only answerable for their own conduct, but for the example they may hold out to others. This, joined to their advantages of education, aggravates their vices and loads them with a greater share of responsibility.

Character | Conduct | Education | Example | Fault | Mind | Rank | Responsibility | Fault | Guilty |

Mustapha Mahmoud

At first glance, life appears meaningless, futile, full of contradictions and absurdities. But a deeper, meditating look uncovers beauty, order and harmony, revealing life as a supreme accomplishment of eternal wisdom... All of creation is an act of love and providence, a drama imbued with meaning... In simple words: Life is a mission of awareness and awakening and deep enlightenment. We are here to sense this divine presence beyond all phenomena. We are here to recognize a deep urge in our hearts to act in harmony, in conformity and in love with these divinities.

Accomplishment | Awakening | Awareness | Beauty | Character | Conformity | Enlightenment | Eternal | Harmony | Life | Life | Love | Meaning | Mission | Order | Phenomena | Providence | Sense | Wisdom | Words | Awareness |

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Those who speak always and those who never speak are equally unfit for friendship. A good proportion of the talent of listening and speaking is the base of social virtues.

Character | Good | Listening | Talent |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

Character | Doubt | Men |

Tom Morris, fully Thomas V. "Tom" Morris

We are here to attempt to give more to this life than we take from it, a task that, if undertaken properly, is impossible. The more we give, the more we get. But that’s the point. We are here to discover, develop and cultivate, in loving stewardship of our world, our neighbors and ourselves. Each of us is intended to grow and flourish within the power of our talents on every dimension of worldly existence: the Intellectual, the Aesthetic and the Moral - the great I Am - in such a way as to find our place in the overarching realm of the Spiritual, the ultimate context of it all. There is more to life than meets the eye. Much is required. But more is offered. We are participants in a grand enterprise, not called upon to consume with endless desire, but rather to care and create in such a way as to free the spirit of this vast creation to love and glorify its creator forever. Why? Because it is good. And that’s good enough for me.

Aesthetic | Care | Character | Desire | Enough | Existence | Good | Life | Life | Love | Power | Spirit | Stewardship | World |

Austin Phelps

In the destiny of every moral being there is an object more worthy of God than happiness. It is character. And the grand aim of man's creation is the development of grand character - and grand character is, by its very nature, the product of probationary discipline.

Character | Destiny | Discipline | God | Man | Nature | Object | God |

Theodore Parker

Our reverence for the past is just in proportion to our ignorance of it.

Character | Ignorance | Past | Reverence |

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The mind grows narrow in proportion as the soul grows corrupt.

Character | Mind | Soul |

Albert Schweitzer

To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation - this is the difficult task which confronts our age.

Age | Character | Love | Think |

Alan William Smolowe

People can only exhibit freedom in proportion to their comprehension of existence and grander realities.

Character | Existence | Freedom | People |