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

Andrew Carnegie

Most of the troubles of humanity are imaginary and should be laughed out of court. It is folly to cross a bridge until you come to it, or to bid the Devil good-morning until you meet him - perfect folly. All is well until the stroke falls, and even then, nine times out of ten, it is not so bad as anticipated. A wise man is the confirmed optimist.

Devil | Folly | Good | Humanity | Man | Troubles | Wisdom | Wise |

Chinese Family Planning Center Pamphlet NULL

Marriage is not a finished affair. No matter to what age you live, love must be continuously consolidated. Being considerate, thoughtful and respectful without ulterior motives is the key to a satisfactory marriage.

Age | Love | Marriage | Motives | Wisdom |

Clarence Darrow, fully Clarence Seward Darrow

With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.

Association | Character | Education | Honesty | Humanity | Man | Men | Organization | Race | Wisdom | Association |

Maurice Chevalier, fully Maurice Auguste Chevalier

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

Age | Old age | Wisdom |

Russell W. Davenport, fully Russell Wheeler Davenport

Progress in every age results only from the fact that there are some men and women who refuse to believe that what they knew to be right cannot be done.

Age | Men | Progress | Right | Wisdom |

William Congreve

One minute gives invention to destroy; what to rebuild a whole age employ.

Age | Destroy | Invention | Wisdom |

Norman Douglas, aka George Norman Douglas

You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do.

Age | Character | Man | Wisdom |

Betty Edwards

Many adults draw childlike drawings and many children give up drawing at age nine or ten. These children grow up to become the adults who say they never could draw and can't even draw a straight line. The same adults, however, if questioned, often say that they would have liked to learn to draw well, just for their own satisfaction at solving the drawing problems that plagued them as children. But they felt that they had to stop drawing because they couldn't learn how to draw.

Age | Children | Problems | Wisdom | Learn |

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

In youth we learn; in age we understand.

Age | Wisdom | Youth | Youth |

Fyodor Dostoevsky, fully Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky or Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevski

So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship. But man seeks to worship what is established beyond dispute, so that all men would agree at once to worship it. For these pitiful creatures are concerned not only to find what one or the other can worship, but to find something that all would believe and worship; what is essential is that all may be together in it. This craving for community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all humanity form the beginning of time. For the sake of common worship they’ve slain each other with the sword. They have set up gods and challenged one another, “Put away your gods and come and worship ours, or we will kill you and your gods!”

Beginning | Dispute | Humanity | Kill | Man | Men | Nothing | Time | Will | Wisdom | Worship |

Homer Everett

In the book of nature, where every emotional, mental and spiritual quality of humanity may find its correspondence and illustrations, flowers represent good affections. As the flower precedes the fruit, and gives notice of its coming, so good thoughts, affections and intentions precede and give promise of deeds in love to others.

Deeds | Good | Humanity | Love | Nature | Promise | Wisdom | Deeds |

Clifton Fadiman

All children talk with integrity up to about the age of five, when they fall victim to the influences of the adult world and mass entertainment. It is then that they begin, all unconsciously, to become plausible actors. The product of this process is known as maturity, or you and me.

Age | Children | Entertainment | Integrity | Wisdom | World | Victim |

John Monroe Gibson

The great trouble with the skepticism of the age is, that it is not thorough enough. It questions everything but its own foundations.

Age | Enough | Skepticism | Wisdom | Trouble |

Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud

This age of childhood, in which the sense of shame is unknown, seems a paradise when we look back upon it alter, and paradise itself is nothing but the mass-phantasy of the childhood of the individual. This is why in paradise men are naked and unashamed, until the moment arrives when shame and fear awaken; expulsion follows, and sexual life and cultural development begin.

Age | Childhood | Fear | Individual | Life | Life | Men | Nothing | Paradise | Sense | Shame | Wisdom |

Paul Géraldy, pen name of Paul Lefevre

No age or time of life, no position or circumstance, has a monopoly on success. Any age is the right age to start doing!

Age | Life | Life | Position | Right | Success | Time | Wisdom |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We must not take the faults of our youth into our old age, for old age brings with it its own defects.

Age | Defects | Old age | Wisdom | Youth | Youth | Old |