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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is a pair of hands, pretty dangerous tools, able to subdue the world or to un-build and destroy much faster than others can build.

Destroy | Man | World |

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.

Health | Time |

Robert Bellah, fully Robert Neelly Bellah

We have to treat others as part of who awe are, rather than as a ‘them’ with whom we are in constant competition.

Awe | Competition |

Richard Bach, fully Richard David Bach

Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, teachers.

Learning |

René Descartes

In the subjects we propose to investigate, our inquiries should be directed, not to what others have thought, nor to what we ourselves conjecture, but to what we can clearly and perspicuously behold and with certainty deduce; for knowledge is not won in any other way.

Knowledge | Thought |

Ronald S. Miller

No matter how idealistic our hopes... we eventually learn that spirituality is not about leaving life's problems behind, but about continually confronting them with honesty and courage. It is about ending our feeling of separation from others by healing our relationships with parents, co-workers, and friends. it is about bringing heightened awareness and compassion to our family life, careers, and community service.

Awareness | Compassion | Courage | Family | Honesty | Life | Life | Parents | Problems | Service | Spirituality | Awareness | Learn |

Robert Kennedy, fully Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Belief | Courage | Daring | Energy | History | Hope | Injustice | Injustice | Man | Oppression | Time |

Robert Quillen, fully Verni Robert Quillen

The one word above all others that makes marriage successful is "ours".

Marriage |

Saint Basil, aka Basil of Caesarea, Saint Basil the Great NULL

Just as transparent substances, when subjected to light, themselves glitter and give off light, so does the soul, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, give light to others and itself become spiritual.

Light | Soul | Spirit |

Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron

It was asked of the sage, In what one virtue are all the rest comprised? Patience, was his answer. And in what single vice are all the others concentrated? Vindictiveness.

Patience | Rest | Vindictiveness | Virtue | Virtue | Vice |

Robert Ingersoll, fully Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll

Justice is the only worship. Love is the only priest. Ignorance is the only slavery. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here, the way to be happy is to make others so.

Good | Happy | Ignorance | Justice | Love | Slavery | Time | Worship | Happiness |

Saint Francis de Sales NULL

Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.

Angels | Good | Praise | Friends |

Robert Ingersoll, fully Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll

My creed is that: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Creed | Good | Happy | Time | Happiness |

William Temple, fully Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet

The best rules to form a young man, are; to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.

Distrust | Little | Man | Value |