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

Gustavo GutiƩrrez

Charity is today a 'political charity.'. . . it means the transformation of a society structured to benefit a few who appropriate to themselves the value of the work of others. This transformation ought to be directed toward a radical change in the foundation of society, that is, the private ownership of the means of production.

Age | Light |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

In every unbeliever's heart there is an uneasy feeling that, after all, he may awake after death and find himself immortal. This is his punishment for his unbelief. This is the agnostic's Hell.

Gustave Flaubert

The music was still throbbing in her ears, and she forced herself to stay awake in order to prolong the illusion of this luxurious life she would so soon have to be leaving... She longed to know all about their lives, to penetrate into them, to be part of them.

Wisdom |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance.

Gustave Flaubert

You don't make art out of good intentions.

Fun |

Gustavo GutiƩrrez

Is the Church fulfilling a purely religious role when by its silence or friendly relationships it lends legitimacy to dictatorial and oppressive government?

Children | Will |

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.

Gustave Flaubert

There is no truth except in its relation, that is to say, the fashion in which we perceive the objects.

Life | Life |

Gustave Flaubert

You ask me whether the Orient is up to what I imagined it to be. Yes, it is; and more than that, it extends far beyond the narrow idea I had of it. I have found, clearly delineated, everything that was hazy in my mind. Facts have taken the place of suppositions - so excellently so that it is often as though I were suddenly coming upon old forgotten dreams.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.

Love | Mother |

Gustave Flaubert

The disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands.

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

In the duel of sex, woman fights from a dreadnought and man from an open raft.

Hate |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me - has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.

Friend |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

The only obligation I recognize in this world is my duty to my immediate family

Will |

Haile Selassie

There are good men and wicked. The former should be made use of and the latter punished, without attempting to understand why the ones are good and the others wicked.

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

Liar: (a) One who pretends to be very good; (b) One who pretends to be very bad.

Haile Selassie

The United Nations continues to sense as the forum where nations whose interests clash may lay their cases before world opinion. It still provides the essential escape valve without which the slow build-up of pressures would have long since resulted in catastrophic explosion.

Day |

H. L. Mencken, fully Henry Louis Mencken

The worst man hesitates when choosing a mother for his children. And hesitating, he is lost.

Haile Selassie

The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjugation of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security. But these, too, as were the phrases of the Covenant, are only words; their value depends wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give them content and meaning. The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act ? and if necessary, to suffer and die ? for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns from other than its own bitter experience. This Organization and each of its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb the wisdom of history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order that future generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.

Haile Selassie

Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and to appeal for relief from the destruction which had been unleashed against my defenseless nation, by the Fascist invader.

Husband | Love |