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

Roy L. Smith, aka Mr. Methodist

The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of the person.

Ability | Responsibility |

Seneca the Younger, aka Seneca or Lucius Annaeus Seneca NULL

The primary indication… of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.

Ability | Man | Mind |

Susan Taylor, fully Susan L. Taylor

Our greatest problems in life come not so much from the situations we confront as from our doubts about our ability to handle them.

Ability | Life | Life | Problems |

Obert C. Tanner, fully Obert Clark Tanner

Perhaps the clearest and deepest meaning of brotherhood is the ability to imagine yourself in the other person’s position, and then treat that person as if you were him. This form of brotherhood takes a lot of imagination, a great deal of sympathy, and a tremendous amount of understanding.

Ability | Brotherhood | Imagination | Meaning | Position | Sympathy | Understanding |

Donald Woods Winnicott

Creativity is the retention throughout life of something that belongs properly to infant experience: the ability to create the world. . . . By creative living I mean not getting killed or annihilated all the time by compliance or by reacting to the world that impinges; I mean seeing everything afresh all the time… When we are surprised at ourselves we are being creative, and we find we can trust our own unexpected originality.

Ability | Compliance | Creativity | Experience | Life | Life | Originality | Time | Trust | World |

David Bohm, fully David Joseph Bohm

What is essential here is the presence of the spirit of dialogue, which is the ability to hold many points of view in suspension, along with a primary interest in the creation of common meaning.

Ability | Meaning | Spirit |

Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman

It is no longer enough to be smart — all the technological tools in the world add meaning and value only if they enhance our core values, the deepest part of our heart. Acquiring knowledge is no guarantee of practical, useful application. Wisdom implies a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential.

Ability | Enough | Guarantee | Heart | Integration | Knowledge | Meaning | Wisdom | World | Value |

Henry Ford

If there is any secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as from your own.

Ability | Success |

Thomas Edison, fully Thomas Alva Edison

The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it.

Ability | Effort | Focus | Labor | People | Success | Thinking | Will |

Og Mandino

Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future.

Ability | Better | Confidence | Courage | Defeat | Endurance | Future | Opportunity | Struggle | Success | Obstacle |

Alice Beal Parsons

The value and force of a man's judgment can be measured by his ability to think independently of his temperamental leanings.

Ability | Force | Judgment | Man | Think | Value |

Og Mandino

Each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence."

Ability | Confidence | Courage | Defeat | Endurance | Struggle |