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

John Dewey

The essential problem of freedom, it seems to me, is the problem of the relation of choice and unimpeded effective action to each other... There is an intrinsic connection between choice as freedom and power of action as freedom. A choice which intelligently manifests individuality enlarges the range of action, and this enlargement in turn confers upon our desires greater insight and foresight, and makes choice more intelligent.

Action | Character | Choice | Foresight | Freedom | Individuality | Insight | Power |

Tyron Edwards

We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things.

Better | Character | Ideals | Improvement | Thought | Thought |

Albert Einstein

By academic freedom I understand the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right implies also a duty: one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.

Character | Duty | Freedom | Right | Search | Teach | Truth | Understand |

Albert Einstein

If men as individuals surrender to the call of their elementary instincts, avoiding pain and seeking satisfaction only for their own selves, the result for them all taken together must be a state of insecurity, of fear, and of promiscuous misery.

Character | Fear | Insecurity | Men | Pain | Surrender |

Philip Doddridge

He is the wisest and happiest man who, by constant attention of thought discovers the greatest opportunity of doing good, and breaks through every opposition that he may improve these opportunities.

Attention | Character | Good | Man | Opportunity | Opposition | Thought | Thought |

Charles Alexander Eastman, first named Ohiyesa

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one’s spiritual balance. Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving. If a child is inclined to be grasping, or to cling to any of his or her little possessions, legends are related about the contempt and disgrace falling upon the ungenerous and mean person... The Indians in their simplicity literally give away all that they have - to relatives, to guests of other tribes or clans, but above all to the poor and the aged, from whom they can hope for no return.

Balance | Beauty | Belief | Character | Children | Contempt | Disgrace | Generosity | Giving | Guests | Hope | Legends | Little | Love | Possessions | Simplicity | Taste | Time | Weakness | Will | Beauty | Child | Happiness | Learn |

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans

Half the sorrows of women would be averted if they could repress the speech they know to be useless - nay, the speech they have resolved not to utter.

Character | Speech |

J. L. M. Curry, fully Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry

A state to prosper, must be built on foundations of moral character, and, this character is the principal element of its strength, and the only guaranty of its permanence and prosperity.

Character | Prosperity | Strength |

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans

There are robberies that leave man and woman forever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer.

Character | Joy | Man | Peace | Woman |

Francis Alexander Durivage

They teach us to remember; why do not they teach us to forget? There is not a man living who has not, some time in his life, admitted that memory was as much of a curse as a blessing.

Character | Life | Life | Man | Memory | Teach | Time |

Alighieri Dante

There is no greater pain than to recall a happy time in wretchedness.

Character | Happy | Pain | Time |

François Fénelon, fully Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

True piety hath in it nothing weak, nothing sad, nothing constrained. It enlarges the heart; it is simple, free and attractive.

Character | Heart | Nothing | Piety |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Of all thieves, fools are the worst; they rob you of time and temper.

Character | Temper | Time |

Immanual Hermann Fichte

Our system of thought and opinion, is often the only history of our heart. Men do not so much will according to their reason, as reason according to their will.

Character | Heart | History | Men | Opinion | Reason | System | Thought | Will | Thought |

Nosson Tzvi Finkel

When we have something for a long time we usually take it for granted. From the day we were born we have breathed air and seen sunlight and the beauty of nature. We have had sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch for such a long time we have lost our appreciation for them. We take our daily pleasures and our intellectual attainments for granted.

Appreciation | Beauty | Character | Day | Nature | Taste | Time | Appreciation | Beauty |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One always has time enough if only one applies it well.

Character | Enough | Time |