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

Che Guevara, fully Ernesto “Che” Guevara

As Marxists we have maintained that peaceful coexistence among nations does not encompass coexistence between the exploiters and the exploited, between the oppressors and the oppressed.

Heart | Rest |

Che Guevara, fully Ernesto “Che” Guevara

When it was all of us realist impossible dream, but in my heart do not throw.

Oppression | Peace | Power |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

The present consumer society is like a drug addict who, no matter how miserable he may fell, finds it extremely difficult to get off the hook. The problem children of the world – from this point of view and in spite of many other considerations that could be adduced – are the rich societies and not the poor.

Power | Sympathy |

Che Guevara, fully Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery.

Appearance | Government | Power | Struggle | Government |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

It is necessary, therefore, that at least an important part of the development effort should by-pass the big cities and be directly concerned with the creation of an "agro-industrial structure" in the rural and small-town areas.

Growth | Power | World |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

If our intellectual leaders treat work as nothing but a necessary evil soon to be abolished as far as the majority is concerned, the urge to minimize it right away is hardly a surprising reaction, and the problem of motivation becomes insoluble.

Envy | Greed | Inevitable | Man | Nothing | Power | Problems |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

The way in which we experience and interpret the world obviously depends very much indeed on the kind of ideas that fill our minds.

Discipline | Force | Freedom | Life | Life | Power | Problems |

Ernest Shurtleff Holmes

There was a time when a man was so convinced that the world was round that he was determined to prove it.

Power |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

It is only when we can see the world as a ladder, and when we can see man's position on the ladder, that we can recognize a meaningful task for man's life on earth.

Little | Man | Rest | Terrorism |

Ester and Jerry Hicks

Some say that you should not want money at all because the desire for money is materialistic and not spiritual. But we want you to remember that you are here in this very physical world where Spirit has materialized. You cannot separate yourself from the aspect of yourself that is spiritual, and while you are here in these bodies, you cannot separate yourselves from that which is physical or material. All the magnificent things of a physical nature that are surrounding you are Spiritual in nature.

Individual | Power | Right | World | Wrong |

Ethiopian Proverbs

A man who is too modest goes hungry.

Rest | Will |

Etty Hillesum, formally Ester "Etty" Hillesum

The thinking heart of the barracksÂ…

Day | Important | Rest |

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

Music must naturally have been criticized in proportion as it improved, especially if its progress was considerable and subitaneous: for then it differs most from the sounds to which our ear is accustomed. But if we begin to be used to it, then it pleases, and it is prejudice any longer to oppose it.

Circumstances | Order | Power | Present |

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

We judge the objects to touch only because we have learned to judge. In fact, if we consider the size of an object, we see that it is relative to that of other objects, so we have to compare it with and judge the extent to which these differ from them, if we want to get an idea of its size, and so for ideas of substance, of shape and weight. In other words, all the ideas that come from touch presuppose the comparison and judgment.

Action | Rest |

Eugene Peterson

The Bible never refers to the past as “the good old days.”

Bible | Genius | Story | Time | Bible |

Eugen Herrigel

This, then, is what counts: a lightning reaction which has no further need of conscious observation. In this respect at least the pupil makes himself independent of all conscious purpose.

Aims | Art | Awareness | Experience | Individual | Meaning | Means | Mind | Nothing | Power | Practice | Present | Reflection | Spirit | Work | Art | Awareness |

Eugen Herrigel

Your question is already answered by the fact that I made you take a test. You have now reached a stage where teacher and pupil are no longer two persons, but one. You can separate from me any time you wish. Even if broad seas lie between us, I shall always be with you when you practice what you have learned. I need not ask you to keep up your regular practicing, not to discontinue it on any pretext whatsoever, and to let no day go by without your performing the ceremony, even without bow and arrow, or at least without having breathed properly. I need not ask you because I know that you can never give up this spiritual archery. Do not ever write to me about it, but send me photographs from time to time so that I can see how you draw the bow. Then I shall know everything I need to know.

Choice | Difficulty | Right | Will |

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

And yet, let the nature of these perceptions be what it will, and let them be produced as they will, if we look amongst them for the idea of extension, for instance, of a line, of an angle, and any other figure, we shall find it in that repository very clearly and distinctly.

Abstract | Circumstances | Mind | Perception | Power | Think |

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac

I distinguish three sorts of signs: 1. Accidental signs, or the objects which particular circumstances have connected with some of our ideas, so as to render the one proper to revive the other. 2. Natural signs, or the cries which nature has established to express the passions of joy, of fear, or of grief, 3. Instituted signs, or those which we have chosen ourselves, and bear only an arbitrary relation to our ideas.

Distinction | Distinguish | Experience | Impression | Play | Rest |

Eugene O'Neill, fully Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

But I suppose life has made him like that, and he can't help it. None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to be, and you've lost your true self forever.

Rest | Spirit |