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

Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

Arrogance | Character | Prosperity | Receive | Wealth |

Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and a vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.

Body | Character | Fame | Fortune | Judgment | Life | Life | Oblivion | Perception | Soul | Time |

Antoinette Du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières

No one is ever satisfied with his fortune or dissatisfied with his understanding.

Character | Fortune | Understanding |

Tyron Edwards

To rejoice in another’s prosperity is to give content to your own lot; to mitigate another’s grief is to alleviate or dispel your own.

Character | Grief | Prosperity |

Euripedes NULL

Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends.

Character | Prosperity | Wisdom | Friendship |

Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler

Envy comes from focusing on the few moments of good fortune in the life of another person, while ignoring his years of misfortune.

Character | Envy | Fortune | Good | Life | Life | Misfortune |

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

On this earth all is temptation. Crosses tempt us by irritating our pride, and prosperity by flattering it. Our life is a continual combat... We must pass on unmoved, while temptations rage around us, as the traveler, overtaken by a storm, simply wraps his cloak more closely about him, and pushes on more vigorously toward his destined home.

Character | Earth | Life | Life | Pride | Prosperity | Rage | Temptation |

Benjamin Franklin

Calamity and Prosperity are the Touchstones of Integrity.

Calamity | Character | Integrity | Prosperity |

Samson Raphael Hirsch

In general, one cannot judge the true extent of a person’s fortune by outward appearances. The little a righteous man has may be far better than the noisy abundance in which many lawless delight. The modest possessions of a righteous man make him much happier than the great fortunes of many evildoers about which so much ado is made in the world.

Abundance | Better | Character | Fortune | Little | Man | Possessions | World |

Rabbi Yannai or Jannai Jannai

We are unable to explain either the prosperity of the wicked or the afflictions of the righteous.

Character | Prosperity |

Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla

Actually, you will never have more potential for prosperity and wholeness than you have now.

Character | Prosperity | Wholeness | Will |

Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla

The key to prosperity is the realization that prosperity doesn’t come by getting more. It comes by giving more... You do not deprive someone else when you prosper, as the Source is unlimited.

Character | Giving | Prosperity |

Walter Savage Landor

Goodness does not more certainly make men happy, than happiness makes them good. We must distinguish between felicity and prosperity; for prosperity leads often to ambition, and ambition to disappointment; the course is then over, the wheel turns round but once; while the reaction of goodness and happiness is perpetual.

Ambition | Character | Distinguish | Good | Happy | Men | Prosperity | Ambition | Happiness |

Baron de Montesquieu, fully Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu

Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a mixture of prosperous and adverse fortune that inspire us with lenity and pity.

Character | Excess | Fortune | Mediocrity | Men | Pity | Witness | Happiness |

Cornelius Nepos

Every man's fortune is moulded by his character.

Character | Fortune | Man |

Periander, aka Periander The Great NULL

If fortune smiles, beware of being exalted; if fortune thunders, beware of being overwhelmed.

Character | Fortune |

Sallust, full name Carus Valerius Sailustius Crispus NULL

Truly prosperity tries the souls even of the wise.

Character | Prosperity | Wise |