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

Daniel Boorstin, fully Daniel Joseph Boorstin

Formerly, a public man needed a private secretary for a barrier between himself and the public. Nowadays he has a press secretary, to keep him properly in the public eye.

Man | Public |

Dale Carnegie, originally spelled Dale Carnegey

One of the most appalling comments on our present way of life is that half of all the beds in our hospitals are reserved for patients with nervous and mental troubles, patients who have collapsed under the crushing burden of accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows. Yet a vast majority of those people would be walking the streets today, leading happy, useful lives, if they had only heeded the words of Jesus: "Have no anxiety about the morrow"; or the words of Sir William Osler; "Live in day-tight compartments.

Anxiety | Anxiety | Day | Happy | Life | Life | Majority | People | Present | Troubles | Words |

David Ben-Gurion, born David Grün

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.

Criticism | Democracy | Freedom |

Dwight Eisenhower, fully Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower

Human dignity, economic freedom, individual responsibility, these are the characteristics that distinguish democracy from all other forms devised by man.

Democracy | Dignity | Distinguish | Freedom | Individual | Man | Responsibility |

Edmund Burke

Never expect to find perfection in men, in my commerce with my contemporaries I have found much human virtue. I have seen not a little public spirit; a real subordination of interest to duty; and a decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and reputation. The age unquestionably produces daring profligates and insidious hypocrites. What then? Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found in the world because of the mixture of evil that will always be in it? The smallness of the quantity in currency only heightens the value. They who raise suspicions on the good, on account of the behavior of ill men, are of the party of the latter.

Age | Behavior | Commerce | Daring | Duty | Evil | Fame | Good | Little | Men | Perfection | Public | Reputation | Sensibility | Spirit | Virtue | Virtue | Will | World | Commerce |

Edward Gibbon

In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws, which it was their interest, as well as duty, to maintain. But in proportion as the public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade.

Art | Conquest | Duty | Freedom | Love | Property | Public | War |

Edward Gibbon

The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant.

Consideration | Desire | Doctrine | Humanity | Justice | Law | Public |

Dwight Eisenhower, fully Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower

In spite of the publicity given to disorders, riots, and criminal violence, the vast majority of our people are law-abiding and proud of their country and ready to sacrifice on her behalf.

Law | Majority | People | Sacrifice |

Earl Warren

In the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Doctrine | Education | Public |

Edmund Burke

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Democracy | Majority |

Eric Hoffer

The majority of people prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life.

Life | Life | Majority | People | Worth |

Elbert Green Hubbard

Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced.

Opinion | Public |

Edwin Way Teale

The long fight to save wild beauty represents democracy at its best. It requires citizens to practice the hardest of virtues - self-restraint.

Beauty | Democracy | Practice | Restraint | Self | Beauty |

Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aka FDR

Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.

Conscience | Democracy | Education | Freedom of conscience | Freedom | Speech |

Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aka FDR

The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics.

Future | Government | Politics | Public | Wise | Government |

Francis Bacon

There is some good in public envy, whereas in private there is none; for public envy is as an ostracism that eclipseth men when they grow too great; and therefore it is a bridle also to great ones to keep within bounds.

Envy | Good | Men | Ostracism | Public |