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

Yeruchem Levovitz, aka The Mashgiach

People become so used to being unhappy they are unaware of the needless misery they cause themselves. They imprison themselves by filling their minds with thoughts of resentment, hatred, envy, and desires. It is amazing how they tolerate living such a life. The only reason they do tolerate it is because they have become so used to living with such thoughts they fell it is the normal picture of life. They mistakenly think it is impossible for life to be any different.

Cause | Character | Envy | Life | Life | People | Reason | Resentment | Think |

John Locke

All virtue lies in a power of denying our own desires where reason does not authorize them.

Character | Power | Reason | Virtue | Virtue |

John Locke

The knowledge of our own being we have by intuition. The existence of a God, reason clearly makes known to us, as has been shown. The knowledge of existence of any other thing we can have only by sensation: for there being no necessary connection of real existence with any idea a man hath in his memory; nor of any other existence but that of God with the existence of any particular man: no particular man can know the existence of any other being but only when, by actual operating upon him, it makes itself perceived by him. For, the having the idea of anything in our mind, no more proves the existence of that thing, than the picture of a man evidences his being in the world, or the visions of a dream make thereby a true history.

Character | Existence | God | History | Intuition | Knowledge | Man | Memory | Mind | Reason | World | God |

Maier NULL

I consider the subordination of reason to the authority of any person to be idolatry.

Authority | Character | Reason | Wisdom |

John Homer Miller

Discover what you want most of all in this world, and set yourself to work on it.

Character | Work | World |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that reason is weak.

Argument | Character | Noise | Reason |

Jacques Maritain

Since man is endowed with intelligence and determines his own ends, it is up to him to put himself in tune with the ends necessarily demanded by his nature. This means that there is, by very virtue of human nature, an order or a disposition which human reason can discover and according to which the human will must act in order to attune itself to the necessary ends of the human being. The unwritten law, or natural law, is nothing more than that.

Character | Ends | Human nature | Intelligence | Law | Man | Means | Nature | Nothing | Order | Reason | Virtue | Virtue | Will |

Madame de Motteville, Françoise Bertaut de Motteville

Without speech no reason, without reason no speech.

Character | Reason | Speech |

B. N. Mills

Dreamers and doers - the world, generally divides men into those two general classifications, but the world is often wrong. There are men who win the admiration and respect of their fellowmen. They are the men worth while. Dreaming is just another name for thinking, planning, devising - another way of saying that a man exercises his soul. A steadfast soul, holding steadily to a dream ideal, plus a sturdy will determined to succeed in any venture, can make any dream come true. Use your mind and your will. They work together for you beautifully if you'll only give them a chance.

Admiration | Chance | Character | Man | Men | Mind | Respect | Soul | Thinking | Will | Work | World | Worth | Wrong | Respect |

Guiseppe Mazzini

Great revolutions are the work rather of principles than of bayonets, and are achieved first in the moral, and afterwards in the material sphere.

Character | Principles | Wisdom | Work |

Thomas Middleton

Charity is never lost: it may meet with ingratitude, or be of no service to those on whom it was bestowed, yet it ever does a work of beauty and grace upon the heart of the giver.

Beauty | Character | Charity | Grace | Heart | Ingratitude | Service | Wisdom | Work | Beauty |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Vice leaves repentance in the soul like an ulcer in the flesh, which is always scratching and lacerating itself; for reason effaces all other griefs and sorrows, but it begets that of repentance, which is so much the more grievous, by reason it springs within, as the cold and hot of fevers are more sharp than those that only strike upon the outward skin.

Character | Reason | Repentance | Soul |

Thomas Merton

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.

Character | Existence | God | Love | Reason | God |

National Commission on Excellence in Education NULL

Help your children understand that excellence in education cannot be achieved without intellectual and moral integrity coupled by hard work and commitment.

Character | Children | Commitment | Education | Excellence | Integrity | Work | Excellence | Understand |

Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge. We try all the ways that can lead us to it. When reason fails us, we use experience.. which is a weaker and less dignified means. But truth is so great a thing that we must not disdain any medium that will lead us to it.

Character | Desire | Disdain | Experience | Knowledge | Means | Reason | Truth | Will |

J. R. Miller, fully James Russell Miller

It is not enough to begin; continuance is necessary. Mere enrollment will not make one scholar; the pupil must continue in the school through the long course, until he masters every branch. Success depends upon staying power. The reason for failure in most cases is lack of perseverance.

Character | Enough | Failure | Perseverance | Power | Reason | Scholar | Success | Will | Failure |

Robert M. Pirsig

So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one’s self from one’s surroundings. When that is done successfully, then everything else follows naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.

Character | Mind | Peace | Reflection | Right | Self | Serenity | Will | Work |