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

Robert Southey

The disappointed man turns his thoughts toward a state of existence where his wiser desires may be fixed with the certainty of faith; the successful man feels that the objects which he has ardently pursued fail to satisfy the cravings of an immortal spirit; the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, that he may save his soul alive.

Character | Existence | Faith | Man | Soul | Spirit | Wickedness |

Brooks Atkinson, fully Justin Brooks Atkinson

The humorous man recognizes that absolute purity, absolute justice, absolute logic and perfection are beyond human achievement and that men have been able to live happily for thousands of years in a state of genial frailty.

Absolute | Achievement | Justice | Logic | Man | Men | Perfection | Purity | Wisdom |

Brooke Foss Westcott

How many people ever consider that the lack of certain qualities - such as balance, common sense, tranquillity - affect the physical state of the human body?... Did you ever hear of people being sick because they hated someone? This is not uncommon.

Balance | Body | Character | Common Sense | People | Qualities | Sense | Tranquility |

Daniel Webster

There may be, and there often is, indeed, a regard for ancestry which nourishes only weak pride; as there is also a care for posterity, which only disguises an habitual avarice, or hides the workings of a low and groveling vanity. But there is also a moral and philosophical respect for our ancestors, which elevates the character and improves the heart.

Ancestry | Avarice | Care | Character | Heart | Posterity | Pride | Regard | Respect | Respect |

Charles Wagner

Simplicity is a state of mind.

Character | Mind | Simplicity |

William Jewett Tucker

Be not content with the commonplace in character anymore than with the commonplace in ambition or intellectual attainment. Do not expect that you will make any lasting or very strong impression on the world through intellectual power without the use of an equal amount of conscience and heart.

Ambition | Attainment | Character | Conscience | Heart | Impression | Power | Will | World | Ambition |

Simcha Zissel of Kelm, fully Rabbi imcha Zissel Ziv Broida, aka the Elder of Kelm

When a person focuses on the goals of his life, he is able to overcome the difficulties involved. When one’s focus is on olam haboh [world-to-come], he lives in a state of happiness even though he experiences many inconveniences along his relatively short trip.

Character | Focus | Goals | Life | Life | World | Happiness |

W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden

All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie, the romantic lie in the brain of the sensual man-in-the-street and the lie of Authority whose buildings grope the sky: there is no such thing as the State and no one exists alone; hunger allows no choice to the citizen or the police; we must love one another or die.

Authority | Choice | Hunger | Love | Man | Wisdom |

Edwin Percy Whipple

There is natural disposition with us to judge an author’s personal character by the character of his works. We find it difficult to understand the common antithesis of a good writer and a bad man.

Antithesis | Character | Good | Man | Understand |

Richard T. Williams

Watch a man with scrutiny when his will is crossed, and his desires disappointed. The quality of spirit he reveals at that time will determine the character of that man.

Character | Man | Spirit | Time | Will |

Zeno of Citium NULL

One should seek virtue for its own sake and not from hope or fear, or any external motive. It is in virtue that happiness consists, for virtue is the state of mind which tends to make the whole of life harmonious.

Character | Fear | Hope | Life | Life | Mind | Virtue | Virtue | Happiness |

Edward Young

The man that makes a character makes foes.

Character | Man |

John Todd

A good heart, benevolent feelings, and a balanced mind, lie at the foundation of character. Other things may be deemed fortuitous; they may come and go; but character is that which lives and abides and is admired long after its possessor has left the earth.

Character | Earth | Feelings | Good | Heart | Mind |

Henri Bergson, aka Henri-Louis Bergson

In that continuity of becoming which is reality itself, the present moment is constituted by the quasi-instantaneous section effected by our perception in the flowing mass; and this section is precisely that which we call the material world. Our bodies occupies its centre; it is, in this material world, that part of which we directly feel the flux; in its actual state the actuality of our present lies.

Perception | Present | Reality | Wisdom | World |

Alan Barth

Security is never absolute... The government of a free people must take certain chances for the sake of maintaining freedom which the government of a police state avoids because it holds freedom to be of no value.

Absolute | Freedom | Government | People | Security | Wisdom | Government |

Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones

Life itself is the expression of evolution... Everything that exists is merely matter in motion. In the same way, perfection is always a temporary relative motion. Humanity is relative... We are at such a low expression of consciousness that we have not yet seriously studied ourselves... Development is circular... Everything is constantly moving at higher, faster, more refined, complex levels of being... We will be here as quantitative motion until we reach a state of motion that is qualitative, revolutionary. Then we will be somewhere else!

Consciousness | Evolution | Humanity | Life | Life | Perfection | Will | Wisdom |

Bernard Baruch, fully Bernard Mannes Baruch

During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

Ability | Character | Individual | Need | Wisdom |

Franz Boas, fully Franz Uri Boas

The behavior of an individual is determined not by his racial affiliation, but by the character of his ancestry and his cultural environment.

Ancestry | Behavior | Character | Individual | Wisdom |