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

Dubner Magid, name for Rabbi Jacob ben wolf Krantz

The honor-seeker does not study wisdom to become wiser. Rather his goal is to show off how wise he is. This is an attribute of a fool.

Character | Honor | Study | Wisdom | Wise |

Euripedes NULL

Many are the natures of men, various their manners of living, yet a straight path is always the right one; and lessons deeply taught lead man to paths of righteousness; reverence, I say, is wisdom and by its grace transfigures - so that we seek virtue with a right judgment. From all of this springs honor bringing ageless glory into Man’s life. Oh, a mighty quest is the hunting out of virtue.

Character | Glory | Grace | Honor | Judgment | Life | Life | Man | Manners | Men | Reverence | Right | Righteousness | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom |

Daniel Defoe, born Daniel Foe

The height of human wisdom is to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm without.

Character | Circumstances | Wisdom |

Euripedes NULL

A tongue without reins, definance, unwisdom - their end is disaster. But the life of quiet gfood, the wisdom that accepts - these abaide unshaken, preserving, sustaining the houses of men.

Character | Life | Life | Men | Quiet | Wisdom |

Owen Feltham

Knowledge is the treasure of the mind, but discretion is the key to it, without which it is useless. The practical part of wisdom is the best.

Character | Discretion | Knowledge | Mind | Wisdom |

Madame Émile de Girardin, Delphine de Girardin, née Gay

Grief is the culture of the soul, it is the true fertilizer.

Character | Culture | Grief | Soul |

Josiah Gilbert Holland, also Joshua Gilbert Holland

Gossip is always a personal confession either of malice or imbecility, and the young should not only shun it, but by the most thorough culture relieve themselves from all temptation to indulge in it.

Character | Culture | Malice | Temptation | Temptation |

Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

"A Farewell To Arms"; that is the great fallacy; the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.

Character | Fallacy | Men | Wisdom | Wise | Old |

Stephan Jay Gould

We cannot read the meaning of life passively in the facts of nature. We must construct these answers ourselves - from our own wisdom and ethical sense. There is no other way.

Character | Life | Life | Meaning | Nature | Sense | Wisdom |

Robert A. Heinlein, fully Robert Anson Heinlein, pen name for Anson MacDonald

Ninety percent of all human wisdom is the ability to mind your own business.

Ability | Business | Character | Mind | Wisdom |

Rollo C. Hester

In building a firm foundation for Success, here are a few stones to remember: The wisdom of preparation. The value of confidence. The worth of honesty. The privilege of working. The discipline of struggle. The magnetism of character. The radiance of health. The forcefulness of simplicity. The winsomeness of courtesy. The attractiveness of modesty. The inspiration of cleanliness. The satisfaction of serving. The power of suggestion. The buoyancy of enthusiasm. The advantage of initiative. The virtue of patience. The rewards of co-operation. The fruitfulness of perseverance. The sportsmanship of losing. The joy of winning.

Character | Cleanliness | Confidence | Courtesy | Discipline | Enthusiasm | Health | Honesty | Initiative | Inspiration | Joy | Modesty | Patience | Perseverance | Power | Simplicity | Struggle | Success | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom | Worth | Privilege | Value |

Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) and his brother Augustus William Hare

Much of this world’s wisdom is still acquired by necromancy, by consulting the oracular dead.

Character | Wisdom | World |

Arianna Huffington, born Arianna Stassinopoulos

A dimension is missing from ourselves and our culture which is reflected in our inability to reconcile the competing demands of our inner and outer lives. As a result, most of us make use of a very small portion of our possible consciousness and of our soul’s resources... The destiny of mankind depends on something as personal and intimate as the way each one of us chooses to live, think and behave.

Character | Consciousness | Culture | Destiny | Mankind | Soul | Think |

Horace, full name Quintus Horatius Flaccus NULL

It is virtue, to fly vice; and the highest wisdom to have lived free from folly.

Character | Folly | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom |

David Hume

Among the other excellencies of man, this is one, that he can form the image of perfection much beyond what he has experience of in himself, and is not limited in his conception of wisdom and virtue.

Character | Experience | Man | Perfection | Virtue | Virtue | Wisdom |

Edward Porter Humphrey

True wisdom is to know what is best worth knowing, and to do what is best worth doing.

Character | Knowing | Wisdom | Worth |

John-Roger & Peter McWilliams NULL

Courage, contrary to popular belief, is not the absence of fear. Courage is the wisdom to act in spite of fear.

Absence | Belief | Character | Courage | Fear | Wisdom |

Robert Hutchins, fully Robert Maynard Hutchins

Nature will not forgive those who fail to fulfill the law of their being. The law of human beings is wisdom and goodness, not limited acquisition.

Character | Law | Nature | Will | Wisdom | Forgive |

Hubert Humphrey, fully Hubert Horatio Humphrey

True wisdom is to know what is best worth knowing, and to do what is best worth doing.

Character | Knowing | Wisdom | Worth |