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

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Hate |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

If Wall Street really wants to dispose of John L. Lewis, let it invite him to a swell feed, hand him a fifty-cent cigar with a torpedo in it, and so burn off his eyebrows.

Hate | Time | Will |

Gustave Flaubert

There was an air of indifference about them, a calm produced by the gratification of every passion; and through their manners were suave, one could sense beneath them that special brutality which comes from the habit of breaking down half-hearted resistances that keep one fit and tickle one?s vanity?the handling of blooded horses, the pursuit of loose women.

Day | Fate | God | Hate | Life | Life | Nothing | Fate | God |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again next time.

Fear | Need |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Every bachelor is a hero to some married woman.

Fear | Reason |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.

Hate | Little | Think |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

In the duel of sex, woman fights from a dreadnought and man from an open raft.

Hate |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Fear | Good |

Italian Proverbs

Still water breeds vermin.

Fear | Future | Hope | Think |

Italian Proverbs

No one is bound to do impossibilities.

Care | Hate | Health |

Italian Proverbs

One is never too old to yearn.

Hate | Love | Philosophy | Reform | Will |

Italian Proverbs

There's no getting to heaven in a coach.

Censor | Fear | People | Think |

Italian Proverbs

The mother of idiots is always pregnant.

Fear |

Italian Proverbs

Who hath little shame the world is all his own.

Danger | Extreme | Fear | Danger |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run i'll.

Hate |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

A tree there tower Tall and branching That house upholding The hall's wonder Its leaves their hangings Its limbs rafters Its mighty bole In the midst standing.

Fear | Love | Right |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

A principal source of happiness to them was their shared love for their family...Tolkien was immensely kind and understanding as a father, never shy of kissing his sons in public even when they were grown men, and never reserved in his display of warmth and love.

Evidence | Example | Failure | Fear | Friend | Relationship | Remorse | War | Failure |

J. B. Priestly, fully John Boynton Priestly

Most writers enjoy two periods of happiness - when a glorious idea comes to mind and, secondly, when a last page has been written and you haven't had time to know how much better it ought to be.

Experience | Fear | Illusion | World |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

A small oversight, but it proved fatal. Small oversights often do.

Dreams | Goals | Hate | Love | Need | Pain | People | Regret | Forgive | Learn |

J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

I am old, Gandalf. I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed! Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something.

Fear |