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

Thomas Jefferson

Some are whigs, liberals, democrats, call them what you please. Others are tories, serviles, aristocrats, andc. The latter fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society; the former consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent.

Attention | Degeneracy | Evil | Good | Government | Health | Liberty | Little | Mankind | Observation | Public | Punishment | Rights | Sound | Truth | Will | World | Government |

Thomas Jefferson

Let what will be said or done, preserve your sang-froid immovably, and to every obstacle, oppose patience, perseverance, and soothing language.

Harmony | Heart | Intolerance | Land | Liberty | Life | Life | Little | Mankind |

Thomas Jefferson

Men have differed in opinion, and been divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of societies, and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak.

Blessings | Grace | Ignorance | Light | Mankind | Men | Rights | Science | Security | Superstition | Will |

Thomas Jefferson

Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and... he [can] be restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers, confided to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own will.

Ambition | Avarice | Duty | Existence | Faith | Genius | God | Mankind | Men | Misfortune | Opinion | People | Possessions | Rights | Teach | Toleration | Will | Misfortune | Ambition | Following | God |

Thomas Jefferson

The genuine and simple religion of Jesus will one day be restored: such as it was preached and practiced by Himself.

Grace | Light | Mankind | Science | Truth |

Thomas Jefferson

Opinion, and the just maintenance of it, shall never be a crime in my view.

Credit | Mankind | Will |

Thomas Jefferson

Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.

Mankind | Friendship |

Thomas Jefferson

We were laboring under a dropsical fullness of circulating medium. Nearly all of it is now called in by the banks, who have the regulation of the safety-valves of our fortunes, and who condense and explode them at their will. Lands in this State cannot now be sold for a year’s rent; and unless our Legislature have wisdom enough to effect a remedy by a gradual diminution only of the medium, there will be a general revolution of property in this state.

Authority | Battle | Duty | Liberty | Mankind | Nations | Right | War | Friends |

Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

I must tell you that we artists cannot tread the path of Beauty without Eros keeping company with us and appointing himself as our guide.

Art | Enlightenment | Intolerance | Literature | Mankind | Passion | Reason | Rhetoric | Service | Slander | Virtue | Virtue | Slander | Art | Intellect |

Thomas Jefferson

To secure these [inalienable] rights [to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed... Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on suchprinciples, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Age | Danger | Enthusiasm | Freedom | Man | Mankind | Mind | Science | Spirit | Will | World | Youth | Youth | Danger | Think |

Thomas Paine

One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.

Folly | Giving | Mankind | Nature | Ridicule | Right |

Thomas Paine

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

Mankind | Pride | Scripture |

Thomas Paine

It is of the utmost danger to society to make it (religion) a party in political disputes.

Avarice | Mankind | Nature | Passion |

Thomas Paine

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

Determination | Mankind | Means | Service |

Thomas Paine

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

Awe | Balance | Good | Man | Mankind | Means | Neglect | Order | Power | Will | World |

Thomas Paine

Calumny is a vice of curious constitution; trying to kill it keeps it alive; leave it to itself and it will die a natural death.

Family | Man | Mankind | Object | Regard | Religion | Respect | Respect |

Thomas Paine

The character which Mr. Washington has attempted to act in the world is a sort of nondescribable, chameleon-colored thing called prudence. It is, in many cases, a substitute for principle, and is so nearly allied to hypocrisy that it easily slides into it. His genius for prudence furnished him in this instance with an expedient that served, as is the natural and general character of all expedients, to diminish the embarrassments of the moment and multiply them afterwards; for he authorized it to be made known to the French Government, as a confidential matter (Mr. Washington should recollect that I was a member of the Convention, and had the means of knowing what I here state), he authorized it, I say, to be announced, and that for the purpose of preventing any uneasiness to France on the score of Mr. Jay's mission to England, that the object of that mission, and of Mr. Jay's authority, was restricted to that of demanding the surrender of the western posts, and indemnification for the cargoes captured in American vessels.

Cause | Circumstances | Man | Mankind | Nature | Power | Principles | Rights | War | Will |

Thomas Paine

But with respect to religion itself, without regard to names, and as directing itself from the universal family of mankind to the divine object of adoration, it is man bringing to his maker the fruits of his heart; and though these fruits may differ from each other like the fruits of the earth, the grateful tribute of everyone is accepted.

Law | Mankind |

Thomas Paine

When I see throughout this book, called the Bible, a history of the grossest vices and a collection of the most paltry and contemptible tales and stories, I could not so dishonor my Creator by calling it by His name.

Dignity | Enough | Force | Honor | Mankind | Nature | Govern | Happiness |

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Before The Rain - We knew it would rain, for all the morn A spirit on slender ropes of mist Was lowering its golden buckets down Into the vapory amethyst. Of marshes and swamps and dismal fens-- Scooping the dew that lay in the flowers, Dipping the jewels out of the sea, To sprinkle them over the land in showers. We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed The white of their leaves, the amber grain Shrunk in the wind--and the lightning now Is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain!

Good | Grave | Mankind | Perfection | Reading |