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

George B. Cortelyou, fully George Bruce Cortelyou

The greatest asset of any nation is the spirit of its people, and the greatest danger that can menace any nation is the breakdown of that spirit - the will to win and the courage to work.

Courage | Danger | People | Spirit | Will | Wisdom | Work | Danger |

Theodore Cuyler, fully Theodore Ledyard Cuyler

Conversation by the Holy Spirit is a spiritual illumination of the soul. God’s grace lights up the dark heart.

Conversation | God | Grace | Heart | Soul | Spirit | Wisdom |

Jeremy Collier

Despair is the offspring of fear; of laziness, and impatience; it argues a defect of spirit and resolution, and often of honesty too. I would not despair unless I saw my misfortune recorded in the book of fate; and signed and sealed by necessity.

Despair | Fate | Fear | Honesty | Impatience | Laziness | Misfortune | Necessity | Resolution | Spirit | Wisdom | Misfortune |

Bartley Crum, fully Bartley Cavanaugh Crum

I believe, with all my heart, that the Spirit of God is within every man, however mean, ugly, or diseased; and that when we visit indignities upon other men, we are affronting our Creator, and we are also harming ourselves.

God | Heart | Man | Men | Spirit | Ugly | Wisdom | God |

William Cowper

I must think forever: would an eternal train of my usual thoughts be either worthy of me or useful to me? I must feel forever: would an eternal reign of my present spirit and desires please or satisfy me? I must act forever: would an eternal course of my habitual conduct bring happiness, or even bear reflection?... Habits are soon assumed; but when we endeavor to strip them off, it is being flayed alive.

Conduct | Eternal | Present | Reflection | Spirit | Wisdom | Think |

Albert Einstein

Do not pride yourself on the few great men who, over the centuries, have been born on your earth through no merit of yours. Reflect, rather, on how you have treated them at the time, and how you have followed their teachings.

Earth | Men | Merit | Pride | Time | Wisdom |

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans

He whose ruling passion is the love of praise is a slave to everyone who has a tongue for flattery and calumny.

Calumny | Flattery | Love | Passion | Praise | Wisdom |

Tyron Edwards

Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.

Censure | Falsehood | Praise | Self | Self-praise | Superiority | Wisdom |

Francis Alexander "F.A." Durivage, wrote under pen name "Old Un"

Real merit requires as much labor, to be placed in a true light, a humbug to be elevated to an unworthy eminence; only the success of the false is temporary that of the true, immortal.

Labor | Light | Merit | Success | Wisdom |

François Fénelon, fully Francois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all your daily occupations. Speak, move, work, in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. Do everything with excitement, by the spirit of grace.

Excitement | Grace | Peace | Prayer | Spirit | Wisdom | Work |

John Fischer

The essence of our effort to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each an equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different - to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit he or she possesses.

Body | Chance | Effort | Mind | Opportunity | Spirit | Unique | Wisdom | Child |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is delightful to transport one’s self into the spirit of the past, to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last reached.

Man | Past | Self | Spirit | Thought | Wisdom | Wise | Thought |

Benjamin Franklin

Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.

Man | Poverty | Spirit | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words... Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonplace; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead. It is only because they are not used to taste of what is excellent that take generality of people take delight in silly and insipid things, provided they are new.

Day | Good | Little | Men | People | Spirit | Taste | Wisdom | Words |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Words are good, but they are not the best. The best is not to be explained by words; the spirit in which we act is the great matter.

Good | Spirit | Wisdom | Words |

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When you praise someone you call yourself his equal.

Praise | Wisdom |