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

Arthur Aughey

Cheerfulness is the friend and helper of all good graces, and the absence of it is certainly a vice.

Absence | Character | Cheerfulness | Friend | Good |

Gamaliel Bailey

There is no surer mark of the absence of the highest moral and intellectual qualities than a cold reception of excellence.

Absence | Character | Excellence | Qualities |

Richard Maurice Bucke, often called Maurice Bucke

The simple truth is, that there has lived on the earth, “appearing at intervals,” for thousands of years among ordinary men, the first faint beginnings of another race; walking the earth and breathing the air with us, but at the same time walking another earth and breathing another air of which we know little or nothing, but which is, all the same, our spiritual life, as its absence would be our spiritual death. This new race is in act of being born from us, and in the near future it will occupy and possess the earth.

Absence | Character | Death | Earth | Future | Life | Life | Little | Men | Nothing | Race | Time | Truth | Will |

G. K. Chesterton, fully Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.

Absence | Character | Dogma | Thought |

William Newton Clarke

We communicate happiness to others not often by great acts of devotion and self-sacrifice, but by the absence of fault-finding and censure, by being ready to sympathize with their notions and feelings, instead of forcing them to sympathize with ours.

Absence | Censure | Character | Devotion | Fault | Feelings | Sacrifice | Self | Self-sacrifice | Happiness |

G. K. Chesterton, fully Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Virtue is not the absence of vices or the voidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.

Absence | Character | Pain | Virtue | Virtue |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The absence of temptation is the absence of virtue.

Absence | Character | Temptation | Virtue | Virtue | Temptation |

Thomas Hobbes

For... what liberty is; there can no other proof be offered but every man’s own experience, by reflection on himself, and remembering what he useth in his mind, that is, what he himself meaneth when he saith an action... is free. Now he that reflecteth so on himself, cannot but be satisfied... that a free agent is he that can do if he will, and forbear if he will; and that liberty is the absence of external impediments. But to those that out of custom speak not what they conceive, but what they heard, and are not able, or will not take the pains to consider what they think when they hear such words, no argument can be sufficient, because experience and matter of fact are not verified by other men’s arguments, but by every man’s own sense and memory.

Absence | Action | Argument | Character | Custom | Experience | Liberty | Man | Memory | Men | Mind | Reflection | Sense | Will | Words | Think |

John-Roger & Peter McWilliams NULL

Courage, contrary to popular belief, is not the absence of fear. Courage is the wisdom to act in spite of fear.

Absence | Belief | Character | Courage | Fear | Wisdom |

William James

Faith is one of the forces by which men live, and the total absence of it means collapse.

Absence | Character | Faith | Means | Men |

Yeruchem Levovitz, aka The Mashgiach

Peace of mind is essential for obtaining many virtues. Its absence leads to all types of shortcomings. When you have peace of mind, you can use your mind constructively. Lack of peace of mind breeds anger and resentment. The quality of one’s prayers and blessings is dependent on the mastery of one’s thoughts... Only when a person has peace of mind can he really feel love for humanity. Lack of peace of mind leads to animosity towards others. Peace of mind leads to love.

Absence | Anger | Blessings | Character | Humanity | Love | Mind | Peace | Resentment |

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Desire is the uneasiness a man finds in himself upon the absence of anything whose present enjoyment carries the idea of delight with it.

Absence | Character | Desire | Enjoyment | Man | Present |

Charles Reade

Judicious absence is a weapon.

Absence | Character |

Noah benShea

Strength is not the absence of weaknesses but how we wrestle with our weaknesses.

Absence | Character | Strength |

Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave.

Absence | Character | Courage | Fear |

Leonard M. Zunin

I believe that courage is all too often mistakenly seen as the absence of fear... Courage is seeing your fear, in a realistic perspective, defining it, considering alternatives and choosing to function in spite of risks.

Absence | Character | Courage | Fear |

Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We have really no absent friends.

Absence | Better | Heart | People | Wisdom | Think |